Chickens and Oak Trees

[goldtopper]

I am nearly finished with my coop for getting chicks in the Spring. In another post, I read that chickens and oak leaves/acorns do not mix! On Noes!
Does anyone here have any experience with free ranging around oaks?
I thought I had researched every possible aspect of raising chickens and now... oh my, my wife's going to freak if I've spent all of this time (and money!) on getting into this and it's going to be detrimental to the health of my flock.
My oaks corn every other year, not too heavily and the squirrels and bluejays get most of the mast, but some do hit the ground.
Any advice much appreciated!

 

[jjthink]

I've never had a problem. Most beings, chickens included, know what is good for them and what is not and abide by that knowledge, generally way better than we do!
JJ

 

[Egg Crate]

We live in an oak forest. Our yard is literally covered in acorns several inches deep. The chickens don't bother with the acorns other than to scratch them aside looking for juicy bugs. They do enjoy chasing the squirrels and chipmunks around. I also see them eating mushrooms that I am pretty certain would kill me, but they seem to know what they can and can not eat.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

There are many, many oak species in this country so I suppose it could be there are some that produce acorns that chickens should not eat. I wouldn't know what those were though if that is the case. I can say that so far as any that I'm aware of there are none that are a problem for birds. Mine have lived under and scratched around oaks for many years. Once in a while I'll see a chicken eat uncrushed acorns, but never very many.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

My property is lined with oak trees and lots and lots of acorns fall. My chickens don't bother the acorns when they are free ranging and if they do none have ever shown ill effects if they have ever tried to eat them, I think they mainly scratch around in them to find creepy crawlies. They even blow into one of the runs on the main henhouse.

 

[robobvious]

Hi, This is my first post on this board. I have found a lot of conflicting info on chickens & oaks. Some sites say they are poisonous to chickens, while another had a woman crushing acorns to supplement her feed.

This is my first year with chickens, but my yard is full of oak trees. The chickens scratch in the leaves every day and I have even seen them poking around the crushed acorns in my driveway. I have seen no ill effects and actually just cleaned my coop and replaced the wood shavings with oak leaves. I do not expect any problems, but will update my post if any issues arise.

Love the site. Lots of great info and great people. Thank you,

Rob

 

[CarlyBeales]

Hi
I Have my coop under an oak tree and Just seen the articles regarsing oak tree being poisonous.
My tree is dropping fruit like berries guessing these are baby acorns or conkers.
Can anyone here advise me on if this is poisonous?
Thanks

 

[momo3boys]

I hadn't heard of this being a problem before. My chickens loved the open acorns I gave them in the fall. Wild Turkeys love them too. Maybe it's a different species that's poisonous?

 

[cluckcluckhens]

We've had our coop under our oak and cedar trees since 2012. Acorns are all over the place and chickens just move them away all the time. They just do the one two shuffle chicken dance and move stuff out of the way.