Acorns?

[suki'smom]

Just wondering if ground acorns would be any good for my birds or not. I know they are toxic to horses but I have no clue on whether or not they'd be toxic to chickens. My property is full of oak trees so I've got plenty of them and anything to reduce the feed bill sure helps

Any input?

 

[cravenchx]

very interested for these answers!

 

[chi-rn]

According to the book "Raising Chickens for Dummies", acorns are fine to feed to chickens. There are several internet sites that say differently, but don't back up their claim with scientific citations. Acorns are poisonous to some animals (goats, for instance). Here's an article that may help with your decision: http://livingthefrugallife.blogspot.com/2010/10/acorns-as-chicken-feed-revisited.html.

 

[suki'smom]

Wow thanks so much for your post and that link! I am very excited about this

 

[A.T. Hagan]

There are a LOT of oak species in the United States. The acorns they produce can range from sweet and palatable to so bitter that virtually nothing will eat them. Whether your particular nuts are good or not you'll have to experiment to find out. I would not worry about them poisoning your birds because if they have that much tannic acid in them they'll be too bitter to eat.

All of that said though I seldom see my birds swallow an acorn unless they've been crushed first. Break open the shells and mine will often spend time picking out the bits of nutmeat.

 

[CluckyJay]

You can crush, soak and rinse bitter acorns to remove the tannins. Very healthy as a food. You can make a delicious flour out of it.

 

[Highlander]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that acorns will turn yolks green if fed in enough quantity.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Acorns are only toxic to goats if they gorge on them. I actually feed them to my goats as a natural dewormer.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

I have seen some of my chickens pecking at acorns that are cracked open, but they don't seem to seek them out. I have read somewhere that eating a lot of acorns can make the egg yolk greenish.

I supplement my chickens' diet with greens (or weeds to most people). My chickens love dandelions, clover, lambs quarter, violet greens, etc. Even mulched cut grass would be good, and greens make the yolks more yellow.

By the way I would love to see more pics of your foxes. I would love it if everyone put pics of their animals on their MY BYC PAGE!

 

[suki'smom]

Green yolks? How strange! Definitely something to consider. They won't be making up a whole lot of their diet but I would like to add them to my grain mix. My birds would still have a complete feed available at all times and I would store the acorns whole then grind them in a coffee grinder or something similar as needed. I know we at least have white oak, red oak and scrub oak, probably more kinds, I have no idea what the acorns of each taste like...maybe a taste test is in order

scratch'n'peck I will update my byc page soon