Can chickens eat celery and celeriac?
Can chickens eat celery and celeriac?
All parts of the celery plant are edible and suitable to feed to chickens, including celeriac or turnip rooted celery as it is sometimes known. Celery stalk is fibrous and needs chopping into small pieces before feeding it to your flock.
Below: My chickens eating celery.
You can sprout celery bases in a small pot of soil to provide greens for your hens in winter.
Is celery good for chickens?
Celery and celeriac are good for chickens in small amounts.
Celery is mostly water so should be fed in moderation, otherwise it could end up causing digestive issues, so no more than half a stalk per bird and not every day.
Below: Celery leaves make excellent winter greens for your chickens.
Celery contains vitamins A, C, K, and riboflavin (vitamin B) and depending on the soil in which it has been grown it can be an excellent source of calcium to help with strong shells on your eggs.
How to feed celery to chickens:
There is only one thing you need to do when feeding celery or celeriac to chickens and that is chop the stalks into short chunks. Both celery and celeriac have tough and long fibres running the length of the stalk that could cause crop problems in susceptible birds.
I grow a red heritage variety of celery that has very short stalk and plots of leaves and because it is so cold hardy I grow some specially to feed to my hens in winter when greens are scarce.
Below: This is celeriac or turnip rooted celery which is good for chickens.
Celeriac roots can be fed whole to chickens and a good way to do it is to hang the root up in the run for them to peck at over the course of a day or two.
You can feed soft, floppy celery to your chickens as long as it has not started to go mouldy or rotten. It will still need cutting up.
Can chickens have raw celery?
Chickens can have celery or celeriac raw or cooked. It will last them longer if served raw.
Is celery poisonous to chickens?
No, all parts of both the celery and celeriac plant are quite safe for chickens to eat both raw or cooked.