Scotch broom seeds and chickens

Anyone have any good info on feeding scotch broom seeds to chickens? I've found one write up from the Invasive Species Council of BC that recommends chickens as a biological control, but can't find anything else to substantiate that. I know that uncooked/unsprouted legumes are generally not recommended for chickens, and that scotch broom has some pretty potent toxic alkaloids. We have a bunch on the property that needs to be cleaned up, and if I can get some chicken food out of the deal I'd certainly love to.

It's hard to find any info on chickens grazing scotch broom. I read the BC council write up and yeah, it's annoying when there are no references given for each statement in a publication.

I did find this tidbit from : https://wiki.bugwood.org/Cytisus_scoparius#BIOLOGICAL_CONTROL

Chickens, surprisingly enough, are known to effectively digest (and destroy) all weed seeds passing through their crops and they can thoroughly graze back vegetation in areas up to one acre in size. Releasing chickens into an area after the mature plants are removed allows them to scratch and peck out weed seeds and potentially reduce the weed seed bank in the soil (Andres 1979).

which references this 1979 paper : Andres, L.A. 1979. Biological control will it solve the broom problem? Fremontia 7(3):9-11.
I couldn't find the 1979 article online, but you may be able to have a librarian at your public library or nearby university library find it for you.

So it sounds like the biological control the chickens would provide is more from scratching seedlings than actually eating the seeds. The above quote specifically says "weed seeds" which leads me to believe the 1979 paper is about general control of all weeds using chickens.

Scotch broom seems to be toxic to chickens in large amounts.

Poisoning from this shrub is usually of a mild type. Large amounts are required to
cause symptoms in animals. Alkaloids have been identified as being the toxic principle.

from page 19: https://ssl.acesag.auburn.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0975/ANR-0975-archive.pdf

So I would say it's not a good candidate for use as chicken feed, but chickens may be used to control scotch broom provided they have access to other food sources to prevent overdose.

Amy Arnett wrote:It's hard to find any info on chickens grazing scotch broom. I read the BC council write up and yeah, it's annoying when there are no references given for each statement in a publication...

Thanks! That was more info than I was able to find. Guess I'll just continue to use them as chop and drop until there's enough vegetation on the property to shade them out for good.

I've been reading the posts regarding chickens and scotch broom.  I too have a ton of scotch broom on my property here in western Washington.  I did some research last year and also found that most sites didn't give any resources.  But this site has a pretty thorough list, only including the section for scotch broom: