I see that now, as I read, thanks. The leaves reminded me so much of a crown of thorns house plant I used to have, but I know that house plant does not get berries.

It looks like Winterberry Holly, Ilex verticillata. That's not backed up by any evidence except that's what it looks like to me and I would expect it to be fairly common in NY state. They are largish, forest understory shrubs. WW Here is a link that might be useful: Winterberry holly

I think chickens know what not to eat but nightshade is very toxic to people. When this weed pops up in my yard, I send it and all it's berries right to the garbage. Min

Pokeweed: Phytolacca americana. Had one growing in my backyard a year ago. Cut it down. Now there's one outside my back fence. See "Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places" by Steve Brill & Evelyn Dean. Check out www.fcps.edu/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/poison_ivy.htm Try putting in pokeweed in place of poison_ivy. When I just did it the picture didn't come up, but it's a wonderful website to see "Relationships in Nature". If you type less than .../mpages/ and don't put anything after, you get the website, but "File not found."