What Weeds Can Chickens Eat? Are Weeds Healthy to Eat?

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White Rooster eating grass

Commonly growing where they are not welcomed, weeds with this property can be useful for you if you raise poultry. Because chickens love to eat them. There are several varieties of weeds around the world. But what weeds can chickens eat? Let’s explore it.

Not only this feed is free of cost for your chickens but the weeds are healthy as well to chickens. But the weeds including Nettles, Purslane, Bee Balm, Wood Sorrel, Clover, Plantain, Dandelion, and Chickweed, are some weeds that chickens prefer to eat.

What Weeds Can Chickens Eat?

No needs to be worry if there are overgrown weeds without your permission in your yard. Because now you can present these weeds to your flocks and they would like to eat them.

Not only do they like to eat weeds but weeds are also nutritious to chickens. As weeds are a good source of dietary fiber, proteins, vitamin A and K, sodium, calcium, iron, etc.

Dietary fiber help chickens to maintain bowel movements. Proteins, minerals, and nutrients are necessary for the proper functioning of a chicken’s body.

That’s why feeding weeds to chickens is always a good idea. But which weed? Following is the list and detail of all the weed kinds that you can feed chickens and they would like this treat.

Nettles:

You may also name it stinging nettle due to its stinging ability as the small hairs on its surface cause numbing sensation.

Due to which it is possible that your flocks don’t eat it on their own if you place nettles in front of them. But there are certain ways which you can use to feed these nettles to chickens.

For example, you can cook them like spinach or you can feed them in dried form to chickens. Now let’s have a look that in which way these weeds are beneficial to chickens?

These weeds can act as a natural detoxifier, anti-parasitic, and aids in respiratory health. If you feed these weeds to your chickens, then they will also help to prevent internal parasites.

And being rich in iron and calcium this weed is beneficial for the good health of bones.

Read Also: What Foods Can Chickens Not Eat?

Purslane:

Feeding purslane to chickens is not healthy for their body but it also increases the Omega-3 level in their eggs.

Like nettles, you can also feed this to your chickens in dry form. For it, you have to dry its leaves and stems separately because both will take different times to dry.

After that, you can feed them alone or you can add this dried scrunched purslane into the chicken’s feed.

Feeding this weed to chickens helps to improve the quality of meat for broiler chickens.

Wood Sorrel:

Probably you don’t like to have this weed in your yard but your flocks would love to eat it.

That’s why to feed this weed to your backyard chickens instead of throwing it.

Chickens love to eat this weed but avoid feeding this weed too much. Because, it is enriching in oxalic acid, which is no harm to them at lower concentration but would be bad if you feed its too much amount.

Chickweed:

This weed is a favorite to chickens as from its name you can get an idea. This weed is not able to survive in the summer season because of heat but it can survive in cold weather.

For chickens, it is healthy to eat this weed because it has both nutritional and medicinal properties.

This weed is enriching in potassium, vitamins A, C, and B complex. Moreover, chickweed is also a good source of Omega-3 and Omega-6, which can provide essential fatty acids to your flocks.

One more good thing about chickweed is that you don’t have to dry them or cook them to feed chickens.

Because, if you put these weeds as it is in front of chickens they will eat them without any issue.

Clover:

This weed is also packed with nutrients like vitamins A, B, potassium, iron, and proteins. Moreover, this weed also strengthens the digestive, respiratory, and circulatory systems of your flocks.

That’s why it is one of the best weeds to feed your chickens but you may find it difficult to get this weed because it is not grown by its self. So you have to plant it if you want it for your chickens.

Dandelion Weed:

As a good source of calcium, vitamins A, B, C, E, K, and other minerals like iron and potassium, this weed is also a healthy treat for chickens.

Moreover, the whole dandelion plant is edible for chickens like its stem, flowers, and roots. That’s why you can toss the whole plant into the chicken’s coop.

A Final Thought:

Weeds are small plants that can grow on their own wherever they get a suitable environment. But an interesting fact is that these not welcomed plants are loved by your flocks.

So if you raise chickens then you can use weeds to offer them a nutritious treat. But to solve the issue that what weeds can chicken eat, I present this article.

However, there are several weeds including, clover, dandelion, chickweed, nettles, wood sorrel, and purslane, which are such weeds that your flocks will love to eat them and these weeds have good nutritional value.

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