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
