Organic Poppies and Chickens

CA Poppy - A Delicacy Among Chickens

We lived and worked on a certified organic farm in No CA for a short period of time. The gardens were constantly being overgrown with CA Poppies as they are very invasive and reseed themselves very quickly. We were constantly hand-weeding wheelbarrows of the plants from the gardens. They had several dozen chickens on the farm that were the healthiest, happiest chickens I have ever seen. They laid eggs that were gathered and sold to a local coop and the best eggs we have ever tasted (we have since gone mostly-vegan). The coops they sold to would be thrilled every time there was a delivery from this farm. We watched the eggs from this farm literally sell out before we even left the coop after delivering them. Coop customers were on a notify list for when this farm made a delivery they were so in demand. 

One of the organic farm's secrets to their chickens being so healthy (and they were VERY healthy, happy, free-range chickens) was they were never fed grain. The farm had flats in the barn where they sprouted grains and would feed the sprouts to the chickens. It was their "feed," in Winter and for when the chickens weren't eating what was just growing around the farm. But the real delicacy for the chickens were the Poppy plants and flowers we would weed from the garden. When we would come through the fence from the gardens with a bucket or wheel barrel of Poppy plants, the chickens would come from nowhere and literally run after us until we dumped the pile for them to eat. They LOVED them - root, plant, flower and all. If you grow a couple of packs of Poppy seeds and let some of them go to seed, pretty soon you will get more Poppies than you know what to do with. Well... your chickens will know exactly what to do with them! The only trick is growing them where the plants can mature and some can keep going to seed without the chickens eating them up as they sprout and grow. They were irresistibly good to the chickens! 

PS - We grew them in our gardens at our home and they continued to grow throughout most of the year as long as they had some water. When they looked dead in the heat of the Summer they reseed and grew like weeds as soon as they got any kind of water. After the dead of Winter, they reseed themselves as soon as they good some warmth, sunshine, and water.  If you raise chickens and don't have Poppies growing wild you might be interested in knowing about this delicacy for your Chicky little friends!