Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[galanie]

As a teenager, we had a post oak tree in our coop. Never seen any chickens eating any acorns.

Pretty much the same. I have a post oak and a white oak. They don't eat the acorns of either one. I even shelled and broke up a few to see. Nope. Won't touch them.

 

[neopolitancrazy]

gosh! a lot of things happened while I was away!

Therapydoglady, I pray that your remaining days are as comfortable, dignified and joyful as possible.


regarding acorns, some species produce bitter acorns (post, black and red oaks) some produce relatively sweet acorns (white and bur oaks). The bitter ones are higher in tannins. The sweeter ones were used for flour by the early pioneers. Also, my chickens are rather slow to warm up to new foods-for instance they are still skeptical of the Calf Manna I have offered in treat bowls (dog food bowls.)

Angela

 

[Nomibear]

DARKMATTER,
Thank you for sharing your coop. It is pretty much exactly what I'm wanting to build in the next couple months. I love the dirt floor, Frame raised on blocks, outside access to nest boxes, and the windows! All things I want my coop to include.
No one else had a dirt floor for me to take ideas from, so thank you!!
I am planning on useing old pallets to build the walls. That is also an idea I got from some of the other plans shared here on BYC!

 

[galanie]

gosh!  a lot of things  happened while I was away!

Therapydoglady, I pray that your remaining days are as comfortable, dignified and joyful as possible.


regarding acorns, some species produce bitter acorns (post, black and red oaks) some produce relatively sweet acorns (white and bur oaks). The bitter ones are higher in tannins. The sweeter ones were used for flour by the early pioneers. Also, my chickens are rather slow to warm up to new foods-for instance they are still skeptical of the Calf Manna I have offered in treat bowls (dog food bowls.)

Angela

Thank you! This makes perfect sense. I couldn't imagine using those large acorns for anything since I took a taste myself. WOW nasty.

 

[stonykill]

forgive me if this has been addressed before. In another thread the question of supplimenting crushed acorns came up. I know turkeys eat them and don't die. As usual the internet is full of yes and no answers. So I'm turning to the experts

. Have any of you purposely fed your flock acorns? And if so how did you go about it? Thanks!

thanks for the responses. Asking for someone else. Do any of the OT's have any thoughts or experience?

 

[qball53]

thanks for the responses. Asking for someone else. Do any of the OT's have any thoughts or experience?

Don't know about chickens but the acorns can make cattle sick even kill them.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Swine (hogs/pigs) will thrive on acorns!

 

[mississippifarmboy]

forgive me if this has been addressed before. In another thread the question of supplimenting crushed acorns came up. I know turkeys eat them and don't die. As usual the internet is full of yes and no answers. So I'm turning to the experts

. Have any of you purposely fed your flock acorns? And if so how did you go about it? Thanks!

Lets see... I'll try to address the original poster, along with some of the replies without quoting everything...

We have several mature (50+ year old) oaks in the rear pasture. Every year the ground is literally covered with acorns. The only thing I've ever seen eat any are squirrels and jaybirds. Our chickens, turkeys, guineas, ducks, geese, horses, cows and anything else we have on the farm free range all around those trees, spend most of the days there in the hot summer months. I'm sure they might eat some, but I've never seen them do so. Never had any die from eating acorns, but never seen them go out of their way to eat any either.

As for humans eating acorn meal; It's not so much what kind of oaks the acorns came from as a step in preparing them not many people remember. A large part of my family is of Native decent, so I've seen acorn mush prepared and even ate it a few times. The trick is, as another poster answered - the tannin. The early settlers and Native peoples ground the acorns then put the mash in fine woven baskets or cloth bags and tied them in a clear flowing stream to "leach" the tannin from the mash. It was then dried, ground fine and either used as a flour or cooked up with a little water to make a mush or gruel. Without leaching the tannin out, it's so bitter you can't eat it and would probably make you sick as a dog if you tried. I've heard you could boil the tannin out, but never tried it or saw it done personally.

As for feeding acorns to your chickens as a supplement, I think without leaching it, they'd eat very little and if it was prepared so they would eat it, you'd have more time and energy into preparing it that you would gain in saving a bit on feed.

JMH

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Swine (hogs/pigs) will thrive on acorns!

Yup, I remember my Pa talking about in the old days they fenced the gardens and let the stock run free in the woods. Every fall/early winter they would catch the hogs that had run wild and fattened up on acorns and pen them up for a month and feed them out on corn to "sweeten" the meat then butcher them.

Our hogs must be spoiled. I seldom ever see them eat a lot of acorns. They eat a few, but prefer the garden scraps and stuff.

 

[darkmatter]

DARKMATTER,
Thank you for sharing your coop. It is pretty much exactly what I'm wanting to build in the next couple months. I love the dirt floor, Frame raised on blocks, outside access to nest boxes, and the windows! All things I want my coop to include.
No one else had a dirt floor for me to take ideas from, so thank you!!
I am planning on useing old pallets to build the walls. That is also an idea I got from some of the other plans shared here on BYC!

You're welcome. If you check out my profile, there is a link to my facebook page where I have albums of my chicken and garden stuff. I'm happy to share my decades of experience, but sometimes my Curmudgeon viewpoint gets me chastised on this forum.