Feeding Acorns to Chickens

chickensfinally said:

There was also a leaf pic that for some reason went away after I uploaded the full tree pic. Here it is.

Click to expand...

Yes that does help. It is in the white oak family - perhaps even a white oak. Can't tell from that angle but I know enough to make a decision. I do have a place where I can harvest bucket-loads of white oak acorns, perhaps in a week or two's time. They have not quite fallen here yet. Thanks again!

chickensfinally said:

Lots of things are fans of acorns. I read a book where the characters had pigs fattening up for winter in the oak forest on acorns so I brought acorns to my friend who had pot bellies. Also that year ( had so many acorns and no chickens) I brought a huge bagful to this sort of wildlife/zoo place that had black bears that I volunteered at. Those bears loved them!

Click to expand...

Just the other day I asked hubby what acorns were used for. I don't think ever saw any in a bag of nuts. I didn't grow up where there were oak trees or acorns so it is a miracle to me. Thanks for your post.

Dom'sHEns said:

I remember reading here that acorns have been known to turn egg yolks green and opaque, similar to that of cottonseed meal.

Maybe your soaking process will help prevent that?

I don't think it harmful to eat the green yolks, just aesthetically its not for me.

Good luck with your project.

Dom

Click to expand...

Cool! I'll have to feed that to my Easter Eggers.

Now all I need is to find out how to turn pigs green...

Dom'sHEns said:

I remember reading here that acorns have been known to turn egg yolks green and opaque, similar to that of cottonseed meal.

Maybe your soaking process will help prevent that?

I don't think it harmful to eat the green yolks, just aesthetically its not for me.

Good luck with your project.

Dom

Click to expand...

Cool! I'll have to feed that to my Easter Eggers.

Now all I need is to find out how to turn pigs green...

I tried some acorns this year and chickens will eat them. I do not know the nutritional value of them so I was hesitant to substitute too much of their diet with them. I used acorns from white oak trees. They are big so you have to crack them open and crunch them up a little bit. You can try to pick the shells out, but I didn't. The chickens knew not the eat them.
Next I want to try beechnuts. I know where there are several trees and they drop nuts constantly in the fall also and the owners do not want them there.

coltssuperbowl83 said:

ok. I tried it. I just finished reading my daughter My Side of the Mountain and it talks about acorn pancakes, so we were already curious about what we could do with acorns.
I'm sure there is a better way to do it though...I smashed them with that rock twice each, once to get the acorns' hat off, once to crack the shells open.... rinsed them like ten times. The water was dark brown each time I rinsed them... Will change the water tomorrow and the next day I guess.

Click to expand...

Hi, All!
Just saw this thread and immediately thought of My Side of the Mountain. He described the acorn pancakes as having a bitter flavor, and I don`t remember him soaking them or anything to remove tannins, but maybe they`d have tasted better if he had. Even though it`s fiction the author put practical info in it, so wondering why she didn`t mention that. Maybe she did and I just forgot that bit?

Re. fattening hogs on acorns, I had heard of that, and the quality of the acorn crop (called mast) in a given year has great influence on the survival and future reproduction rates for the wildlife that depend on them. Never thought of them as chicken feed, but if it works it makes a lot of sense to incorporate them into the diet. The closest I ever came to acorns as feed was when we were kids we would gather the acorns with holes in them and use a piece of brick to crack them to fish out the worm for a pet hen we had and also her chicks when she had a batch.

This thread makes me wish I had access to acorns again to join the experiment. (Neighbors chopped down most of theirs.) Will have to watch this thread to see what results people have.

Thanks for an interesting topic!

I have heard of geese eating acorns as well as pigs...this is done traditionally in a region of Spain.

The acorns help create a beautiful fat on the animals...I'm not sure if this is desired for laying hens as my understanding is that they can lay less when gaining too much weight.
For meat birds, I bet this would create a delicious tasty morsel.

Perhaps we'll try this in the coming years for our own meat birds, how exciting!

I have my acorns cracked and rinsed in the bucket. I am wondering if I should just give the whole bucket and let them eat their leisure, no need to dry, or, figure out some way to dry and store. Drying seems like even more energy going into this, supposed to be cheap, feed.