Hickory tree next to run

[jray]

I've got a small 20' hickory tree right next to where my new run will be located. I thought it might provide a little shade for the birds, but wonder if they will try to eat the bittler nuts and make the eggs taste bad.

 

[countryboy]

i dont know the answer to that, and it brings a question to my mind about the elms in my yard. wonder if it would be an issue.

 

[1acrefarm]

I don't know if hickory nuts would be any different but my chickens eat acorns with no issues.

 

[rooster-red]

I have hickory trees in my yard and free range my flocks and have never had a chicken try to swallow a nut, they are too big for them to try.

 

[ivan3]

Same as Rooster-Red, the property is pretty well covered by shagbarks and White Oak (60ft. Shagbark in chook run), the turkeys eat the acorns but the chooks ignore them - and the hickory nuts can't be swallowed by a chook (though they'll hang around the deck waiting for us to crack them open). I'm more worried about one of the chooks getting `bonked' when the nuts start dropping.

 

[Krysstyllanthrox]

I'm not sure if the hickory nuts are different where you are from where I grew up. But where I grew up the nuts were huge and HARD, had to use a hammer to get into them. (Oddly enough, our dog could just chomp on them and get them open but he has jaws of steel.) If the chickens can swallow/open them, I'll be impressed.

 

[jray]

Thanks to all for the replies!