acorns

[cdbutler70]

hello guys:

has anyone every had problems after their chickens ate acorns? i am guessing chickens will not eat enough to case damage. i read once that it would take over 7% of their diet before it would cause damage to their liver.

i don't have any oak trees by my coop but i was thinking about raking some leaves and putting in their run and it might would have acorns or oak leaves in the mix.

please let me know what your thoughts are on this please.

 

[azygous]

Oak leaves as well as acorns are toxic to chickens. They are especially heavy in tannins, and those are toxic. Chances are your chickens would show little interest in the leaves and acorns, but I wouldn't take the chance one might decide to pig out and then you'd have a sick chicken(s) on your hands.

 

[Soy Milano]

Acorns are toxic....http://www.chickendvm.com/poisonous/oak-tree

 

[Gray Farms]

I have huge old red oaks overhanging all my pens. My birds have never showed much interest in the acorns.

 

[Fairview01]

I find it interesting that all manner of wild poultry and birds are able to eat acorns yet chickens somehow took a separate evolutionary path and can not. Turkeys rely on them as major food source through late fall and winter. Ducks eat them and crows will put them on the road to have vehicles crush them but chickens will die if they eat them.

Fascinating!!!

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I dump all my fall leaves in my run, 75% or more of which are oak. Plenty of acorns get mixed in.

Never had a chicken eat leaves or acorns, but they’re a good carbon source and get turned to compost from the constant turning and scratching.

The chickens do come running when I come over with barrels of leaves, though...they love to spread them out looking for little bits of grass or weeds and any creapy crawlers in the pile!

 

[FlyWheel]

I think once they are composted they are OK, at least the leaves are. At my old house I had a 400 SqFt run, built up completely of old oak leaves which had been mulched and accumulating for almost three years, and I would add more to it every fall. I'm sure more than a few acorns got sucked up by the lawn-vac along with the leaves. My birds scratched and dust bathed in the oak-dirt for the entire four years I had them and they were healthy the whole time.