Crabapples?

[farmerlor]

I guess this is a sort of general herd question. A lady just gave me five trees worth of crabapples. I put the seat down in my old suburban and it's FILLED with kitty litter buckets full of crabapples. Now I plan to make crabapple jelly and spiced crabapples (Mom's Christmas gift) but I'm wondering can the Alberti herd eat the leavings? I've got goats, cows, pigs, turkeys and chickens and I need to know if this stuff will hurt any of them, keeping in mind most if not all of it will be pre-cooked.

 

[redtailgal]

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[goodhors]

You need to consider the size of animals, then dole out crabapples accordingly. Probably a couple to a goat, handful to a calf, the pig, once a day.

I would put several out for the chickens, see how fast they disappear. If you have a lot of chickens, maybe a couple piles of several, to
spread them among the birds. Turkey I would give half or tiny crabapple if they are interested in it, and kept apart from the chickens.

I have a similar problem with my horses, with neighbor having an old apple orchard beside one field. Some of the old trees hang over the
fenceline, so horses LOVE to eat fallen apples. I go out before turning horses out, remove quite a few fallen apples to prevent overeating. Then
I dole out the apples on an individual basis. TWO apples for each horse a day. You can scoop a LOT of apples quickly, with the plastic sawdust
fork! I fill the plastic tubs for easy handling.

Just better to be safe feeding less crabapples at a time than sorry. Beyond them being SOUR, I don't think there is any food hazard if they are ripe.
Wild animals eat them, birds, off the trees. But if they are falling off the trees, they probably ARE mature. Horses like sour, green, unripe apples,
again just have to get fed LIMITED quantities. I would choose the prettiest of the crabapples for my projects, start feeding out the rest SLOWLY.

What a nice person to make a favorite canned food for your Mom!