elderberries as a forage crop for chickens

Hi John!

Quick question for you...

Do you think elderberries are okay as a forage crop for chickens? They seem to love them but I'm afraid that the raw berries could be mildly toxic if they aren't fully ripe.

So, Uof Mo has been sitting on some research concerning the toxicity of Canadensis... basically, they found that candensis, when fully ripe, is basically cyanide free (unlike nigra).  

Elder was used extensively historically for animals.  A number of historical images I found while doing research for my next elderberry thing are from books written about animal care that mention elder.

In small quantities, I don't see any reason canadensis elderberry would pose any problem for chickens, even slightly underripe,though you want to exercise care if they are getting a lot of underripe berries.  

We feed larger quantities of elderberry waste to our chickens and pigs from our elderberry syrup business (www.abbyselderberry.com)  but that is all thoroughly cooked.

Thank you!

They seem to know instinctively not to eat the under rip ones. I'll throw them down by the bunch and they'll leave the underripe. They just love them so much I was afraid they could over do it.

Thanks for the info!