the sky is falling down - acorns!!

hi,

can chickens eat acorns?   

there are loads of oak trees near my plot and acorns are falling in the high winds, can i feed them to my chickens, i was worried that they may be poisonous or be too big and get stuck in their throat! There are quite a few small acorns dropping.

 

If you feed acorns you will find that your egg yolks turn green 

If you feed acorns you will find that your egg yolks turn green 

If you fed them lots of beetroot as well, it would make for a colourful breakfast! 

I read some interesting articles about acorns a while ago, as I have an oak tree in my front yard.  It's away from the chickens but in autumn I do rake up the leaves and put them in the chicken run for the girls to dig through and a lot of acorns get gathered up too.

Apparently acorns have been used as human and stock food for centuries.  In some cases this has resulted in no problem for the animals, but in some cases has caused poisoning.  It seems that the key ingredient is tannin, which in large amounts is an anti-nutrient and stops th animal from absorbing other nutrients.

Some varieties of acorn contain more tannin than others.  If you have a high-tannin tree this can be solved by grinding and either cooking or soaking the acorns. 

You can tell when the acorns are suitable to be fed, simply by the taste.  The high-tannin nuts have a distinct bitter taste that disappears after cooking or soaking.

As a result of my reading I have chosen not to deliberately feed acorns to my chickens.  But I do continue to rake up the leaves and use them in the coop and pen, and if some acorns go along with the leaves I don't worry as I think it is unlikely the chickens would overdose on them.