A key question about the future of chook-keeping concerns their source of carbohydrates, usually imported as grains, pellets or mash grown far away and transported long distances with high energy inputs. Enter the oak tree and its acorns!  Here’s how to turn acorns into chook food in six easy steps.

First – find yourself an oak tree and get underneath it.  Having a permaculture co-originator sitting in the tree is optional but can’t hurt.

Second, look down and collect some acorns.

Third, pop them into one of daddy’s socks.

Three, bang them with a hammer.

Four, if you want, separate out the shells (this is optional, as the chooks will happily do it for you)

Five, take some acorn pieces.

Six, feed them to the chooks.

Which they love so much they will be eating out of your hand in no time!

Disclaimer: We are new to this and all we can say for sure so far is that our chooks have enjoyed the acorns we fed them.  There may be some issues with feeding chooks acorns that we not yet aware of, so please proceed with due diligence should you pursue this promising pathway into the future of sustainable chook husbandry.

ps. Of course this conversation implies the question of how humans get their carbohydrates in future, and many peoples have eaten acorns, either by leaching tannins or finding ‘sweet’ varieties.  More on this exciting topic here and here…