Can chickens eat walnuts??

[Kerilou]

Just curious...

 

[hessjero]

we have 3 large walnut trees in the yard and in the late summer we collect them and pile them in the barnyard so vehicles will run over them and remove the outer blackish staining shells, many of them get cracked and our chickens spend much time there, I only guess, eating walnut meat

 

[Kerilou]

That is so cool! Makes me wish we had walnut trees! Thanks for the .02!

 

[Akane]

The actual nut would be fine. The outside of a black walnut and most of the rest of the tree though is potentially toxic. It's unlikely chickens would eat enough of anything that's harmful off a black walnut tree to make themselves ill.

 

[tammyd57]

We used to have a huge walnut tree in our back yard (it got some kind of fungal infection and finally had to be removed) and the chickens loved the walnut meats. We had a mallard duck who used to collect the walnuts and come running with one every time someone went outside, want us to step on it to crack it for him. It was hard to do though without squashing his bill because he didn't want to let go of it!

 

[Kerilou]

That is such a great story about your duck!!

 

[Akane]

Those obviously weren't black walnuts... You better have on your steel reinforced work boots to try to stomp on a black walnut and then you'll probably just sprain your ankle.

We don't have the other kind of walnut up here so if you want to enjoy walnuts without buying them you have to throw them on the driveway, run them over for awhile, soak the rest of the staining gunk off, and then put them in your homemade spring loaded nut cracker.

 

[kcsunshine]

We used to live in S. Ga. and had 12 pecan trees in our yard. At the time we had a gazillion bantys running around. I would sit under the pecan tree shelling out pecans for the birds, dogs, and cats. They would follow me around in a straight line waiting for me to sit down.

 

[TipsyDog]

My chickens LOVE nuts. Chopped almonds, peanuts, walnuts, anything. Strange little creatures....

 

[CityClucks]

I have a black walnut tree in my yard and the chickens haven't been adversely affected by picking at the fruit. I haven't seen them really go after a covered nut, though - I don't think they like them very much.