When it comes to kitchen waste, nothing beats chicken These voracious omnivores will gobble up any leftover food on your refrigerator, table or counter. I set a covered clay pot on the kitchen counter and quickly filled it with vegetable peelings, corn on the cob, unwanted rice, and other chicken raising odds and ends.
        Judging by my family’s picky tastes, I have to admit that my flock’s taste buds are more adventurous, even with all our summer barbecues and celebrations. However, just because chickens can eat anything doesn’t mean they should. These four summer favorites are poisonous and can be fatal to chickens.

        Fresh spinach salad is a summer staple and can be paired with everything from chopped eggs and chopped walnuts to crisp jalapeños and juicy strawberries. While these ingredients are completely safe for chicken, spinach itself is not.
        Spinach leaves contain oxalic acid, which binds calcium and prevents its absorption into the body. This can be disastrous for laying hens as eggs become soft or shellless, stick together and cause bone problems. Oxalic acid, also known as oxalates, can also cause kidney stones and kidney failure.
        How much spinach is too much? Answers vary because no two birds are alike and chicken owners have different definitions of “moderate.” Proponents of feeding spinach to chickens point out that small amounts of spinach are good for birds because of all the nutritional benefits this leafy green vegetable provides…Chicken feed already provides ample amounts of nutrients and vitamins.
        The safest option for your flock is to not offer spinach at all, but instead offer safer green vegetables such as dandelion greens and beet greens, which are plentiful in the summer. In my opinion, toxic foods are best kept away from chickens altogether!
        When I was a kid, every family picnic included whole potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil and grilled over charcoal. For some reason, my boys don’t like baked potatoes, but they do love potato salad and hand-cut fries, which are a big part of our summer menu.
       The amount of potatoes I peeled for a family of six would surprise you… and perhaps earn me honorary Idaho citizenship.

        While cooking, I made sure to carefully collect all the potato skins and carefully throw them in the trash. While I don’t like throwing biomass into local landfills, I also know that potato skins are rich in the alkaloid solanine, a common toxin in nightshades.
        Effects of solanine ingestion in chickens include diarrhea, dizziness, cardiac arrhythmia, paralysis and death. Even the flesh of green potatoes contains enough solanine to put your chickens at risk. Because my birds are free-range and to avoid possible poisoning of wildlife, my raw potato peelings are never composted. However, fully cooked potatoes and their skins are safe for chickens to eat.
       So remember, cooked potatoes are fine, but raw potatoes are one of the poisonous foods that should not be given to chickens.
        Avocados and summer go hand in hand. I fondly remember picking ripe avocados from my grandmother’s tree as a child. Uncle George and I sat on the low walls surrounding the garden and eagerly ate these delicious homemade treats.
        Sometimes the avocado I pick is far from ripe. My uncle would throw these things in the trash for fun. Grandma scolded him from time to time, saying that we can put the unripe fruit on the wall and let it ripen for a few days. My uncle’s face would become serious and he would reply, “You know we can’t.”
        I could not understand his cryptic words and serious expression until I learned years later that even half an ounce of avocado pulp was not enough to poison a parrot. It’s not just the flesh of the avocado: the skin, pit and even the leaves contain toxins that can cause breathing difficulties, myocardial necrosis (death of heart tissue) and death within hours of ingestion.
        I love adding avocados to summer salads and tacos, but throw the leftovers, skins, pits and leaves in the trash. When it comes to foods that are toxic to chickens, this is one of the really important ones!
        Peaches, nectarines and cherries grow in abundance in the summer. My husband Jae and I love going to our local farmers market to buy these fresh summer fruits that we use as toppings for appetizers, desserts, and easy, healthy meals.
       Our birds love this fresh fruit too, and when our enthusiasm leads us to buy more fruit than we actually eat, we share it with our chickens… but not before removing the pits.
        All Prunus species, including cherries, almonds, apricots, cherries, nectarines and peaches, contain high amounts of amygdalin. When digested, amygdalin turns into cyanide toxin. Chickens poisoned with cyanide typically die within 15 to 30 minutes of ingesting the poison, which prevents cells from taking in and using oxygen, causing permanent cell damage and death.
       Share your summer fruits with your flock, as long as you put the seeds back in place first: throw them safely in the trash.

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