Can Chickens Eat Blackberries

Chickens absolutely love fruits. However, we are not here to answer whether chickens love fruit. We are here to determine can chickens eat blackberries and, perhaps more importantly, how many they should be consuming.

Can Chickens Eat Blackberries?

Yes, chickens can eat blackberries. They absolutely can. In fact, chickens absolutely love to eat blackberries.

The thing with blackberries is that they do not require that much effort for the chicken to eat. It is likely that they would encounter fruits like this ‘in the wild’ (if chickens were not domesticated), and they taste great too. it is pretty much a match made in heaven for chickens.

The problem is that blackberries taste good for a reason. This is all down to the fact that they are incredibly high in sugar. They do have nutrients, some good ones, but it is mostly going to be sugar-loaded up into that blackberry.

The blackberry is also not going to contain everything the chicken needs. This means that you will be running into the issue of the chickens getting a ‘sugar high’ while ignoring food that does offer them value. This means that you can give them blackberries, but you also need to ensure that you do not give them too many.

Preparing the Blackberries for your Chickens

Honestly, you do not need to be putting all that much effort into preparing the blackberries. Let’s be honest for a second, blackberries come pretty much ‘ready-prepared’. You just need to put a few blackberries into a bowl and you are good to go.

We can’t stress how important it is that you only use a few blackberries, though. Maybe 30-40 for a coop of chickens. These animals absolutely love them, and they are going to chow them down rather quickly.

You may want to monitor your chickens when they eat the blackberries. You do want to ensure that all of them get a few of them. This is why it may be wise to have a couple of bowls inside of the coop. You may want to have different berries in each of them (adjust the quantities accordingly if you are going to be doing this)

It is important that you do not mix the blackberries in with the rest of your chicken feed. This way you do not need to worry about pulling rotten blackberries out of the feed.

You will also want to ensure that you clean the coop the day after you have fed your chickens blackberries. This is because they do go rotten easily, and you do not want to run the risk of your chickens munching down on rotten fruit. This is going to make them sick.

Conclusion

The answer to the question ‘can chickens eat blackberries’ is yes. In fact, you probably are going to want to give them a few on occasion. Your chickens will love you because of it. You just want to ensure that you do not give them too many blackberries.

These animals love them so much, they are prone to overindulging. This is the last thing you want to happen. if your chickens are not getting a nutritionally-balanced diet, then they are going to become sick rather quickly.

See also:
– Can Chickens Eat Pineapple
– Can Chickens Eat Apples