Raising an animal, whether it’s a bird, a fish, a cat, a dog, or a chicken, is a big responsibility. What they eat, their nutrition, and ultimately their health is in your hands. Feeding these birds foods that are good for them will ensure good health.

What happens when chickens eat flowers like irises? Can chickens eat irises? This article looks into it. 

Chickens cannot eat irises, this flower may be beautiful to humans, and may be attractive to chickens, but this flower is dangerous to chickens. A chicken that eats irises can develop diarrhea, high blood pressure, tremors, and the pollen can even kill the bird 

Can chickens eat irises?

Chickens will eat pretty much anything you put in front of them, these animals aren’t very picky about what they eat, but you should be.

These birds have voracious appetites, it can sometimes seem that there is nothing that a chicken will not eat, or at least try to eat, especially if the food looks tasty to the bird. While we don’t know if irises look tasty to these birds, they sure do look beautiful to humans.

These flowers are an indication that spring is on its way. The bright green leaves and pretty flowers may tempt the bird to eat the plant, but this may not be the best idea

Risks of chickens eating irises:

Irises are a type of bulb, other flowers that fall into this category include tulips, daffodils, and narcissists. The flowers may be pretty but they contain alkaloids. Alkaloids are toxic to both humans and chickens.

If your bird ingests an iris, the plant can cause the bird to develop diarrhea, tremors, and low blood pressure. The pollen, in particular, is very bad for chickens, in fact, iris pollen can kill a chicken.

Chickens will likely avoid irises:

Chickens are foraging animals, if your bird sees a food or plant that it has never seen before it will assess whether the plant is edible or not.

To do this, the bird will eat a small piece of the plant, conclude that the plant is not edible. and keep away from it. Younger chickens will learn this behavior from older chickens.

Thus, it is highly likely that your bird already knows what plants are good for it and which aren’t, thus the bird will likely stay away from your irises. If your bird becomes too curious about this flower you may have to take action 

How to protect your irises from chickens?

If your chickens are getting a little too curious about your irises then you may need to intervene. Removing the flowers is an option but it may not be an ideal solution, fortunately, there are ways to protect your irises from your chickens:

Essential oils:

Chickens and essential oils don’t mix, using an essential oil around the perimeter of your irises is a great way to keep chickens away from your flowers. Avoid applying the oils onto your plants, applying essential oils on flowers can cause flowers to ‘burn’ 

Citrus:

Chickens really don’t like the smell of citrus. Keep chickens away by scattering orange peels around your irises, using orange essential oil to create a barrier around your irises, or leaving pieces of orange fruit around your irises 

Fencing:

You can use chicken wire around the perimeter of your irises or design and build an esthetically pleasing fence around the flowers, if built well, it will add to your garden 

Conclusion

In conclusion, chickens cannot eat irises, this plant contains alkaloids that are toxic to chickens. Alkaloids cause diarrhea, tremors, and low blood pressure in birds.

If your chickens are getting a bit too curious about this plant you’ll need to protect your flowers from your chickens, do this by using essential oils around the perimeter of your flowers, using citrus around the plant’s perimeter, or by creating a fence around the plants.

If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other chicken related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Can chickens eat apple cores?, Can chickens eat persimmons?, Can chickens eat pumpkin skin?, Can chickens eat ivy?,