Thursday, July 22, 2010

Baby Oak Trees

 This little Wyandotte hen is scratching up leaves next to baby oak trees. This year little oak trees have sprung up all over the property. I suppose that because we had such a wet Winter and Spring most of the acorns that the squirrels didn't eat have sprouted.

The three acres are covered with oak trees. There are acorns all over.

I really do have to get rid of the tiny trees. There are way too many and they are pretty much covering the ground. I hope most of them will die back in the Summer heat. But so far they are still green and growing.

I'm sure the chickens would like to have more ground cover to scratch around in and find bugs, but I need to keep the property cleared to cut down on fire danger.

I have no idea if my chickens are eating acorns. I never thought they would be able to add acorns to their diet because of the hard acorn shell. I did some searches and found a lot of articles that said that the tannins in the acorns would mess up the chickens digestion. And acorns are not supposed to have enough nutrients.

This site says that chickens can eat acorns. However, they don't state clearly whether the acorns are to be leached or not before feeding to chickens. I know the Ohlone Indians ate a lot of acorns in their diet, but they leached the acorns first to remove the tannins.

I'll have to research this question of chickens eating acorns. There doesn't seem to be any clearly stated opinions because there haven't been many studies done on feeding acorns to chickens.

Kitchen update: I spent the day making miter cuts. This is a slow process for me as I try my best to get all the corners to meet exactly. I did get all the kick boards cut that go around the island and still have a few to cut that go along some walls.

Tomorrow I will stain the boards again. This will not only add a coat of stain and shine to the boards, but will color the cut ends so they won't stand out because the natural color of the wood is light.

(July 22, 2009)
That jean top was too heavy for a quilt.
It was like a rug.
So, I made it into a rug.

[5 eggs today]

~:>
Smiles

11 comments:

diane b said...

A forest of little oak trees sounds exotic to me. We don't have oak trees in the tropics.I'm sure not all will survive the summer.

Vicki Lane said...

It hurts to exterminate baby trees -- we do it all the time though to hang on to some pasture space.

LindaG said...

Pigs are supposed to eat acorns. I imagine the chickens know if they can or not. At least I hope they do. :)

And if I got paid by the egg, they could advertise on mine. But the probably only do it on commercial eggs.

You are just going great with your kitchen work. If we lived closer, I'd hire you to teach me or something. :)

~Kim at Golden Pines~ said...

Hi Callie!! Interesting about the acorns. When we lived in a subdivision, we had oak trees that had really big ones, and the dogs would sometimes eat them--I didn't think it was a problem until my vet said it could turn into one, so I was careful after that. But people would gather them up (so would the squirrels) but I've no idea what they did with them.
Interesting about the eggs too--It made me remember my Mom who said that she and her room-mates used to put their phone number on them in hopes of getting a date! Sure can't do that anymore! :-))

Chicken Boys said...

We had a lot of acorns and baby oaks here, too. Maples, too. We got a lot more snow this year than a normal year for us. Plus, I don't have nearly the number of squirrels I had last year. But this also seems to be the year of the dog. Every time I turn around there's a new stray dog showing up. It's as if people think my little country side road is a dog drop off. Poor little things. Most of the Maples grew in the field and Farmer plowed them under. The Oaks were in our yard, though we don't have any big oaks in our yard. They are in both my neighbors. But they simply got mowed with the grass, save a few on the side of the shed. I might save one or two to transplant. Then again, maybe not.
~Randy

Gill - That British Woman said...

I clicked on you link to the jean quilt, I can imagine how heavy that would be. However in winter it might keep the warmth in, if you put it on top of other quilts.

Gill in Canada

Tanya said...

I haven't seen eggs like that yet. Why on eggs? Why not of oranges if it is Tropicana...? Very interesting.

Marie Anne said...

I never would have thought a chicken could eat something as large and with as hard a shell as an acorn, but I've got one silly hen then likes to peck my leg when I'm too slow with tossing scratch, so I can vouch for how hard their little beaks are!

Anonymous said...

I know there is concern with acorns and goats or cattle because they can be toxic if they get too many. Usually, with cattle it's only a problem with calves. My geese eat them, or at least chew on them, but I don't know about chickens.

Crosswinds Farm said...

I can never find definitive information about feeding acorns to chickens either...and I have a lot of chickens, and a lot of acorns :/

lisa said...

I like the new look of your blog, Callie! I didn't know that chickens would even eat acorns.