I’ll fully admit there have been times when I haven’t made it to the feed store before closing and have had to get creative with what the animals eat for dinner.
During spring and summer months there’s so much natural browse and insects the animals often don’t need anything more to eat. Fall and winter are completely different stories.
Over several years, each fall, I’ve watched the animals hang out under the oak trees eating acorns. When I’ve researched acorns as animal food, more often than not people advise against it citing concerns about the toxicity of the tannin in the shells. Evidently the animals didn’t care about this. And each fall I’ve observed the goats coats become shiny and soft.
Last year, when I was too ill to get to the feed store I discovered I was totally out of feed. I have a few types of oaks on my property, all white oaks, which apparently have lesser amounts of tannins than red oaks. So in my feverish brain I reasoned I could simply soak the tannins out to make the goats food. So I did. The acorns on one of my trees are large so I collected those for easy cracking and soaked them in a glass bowl.
It didn’t take long to soak the acorns and the tannins bled out quickly. Then I cracked each one and removed any worms to a container to feed to the chickens. I’m not even sure if soaking is necessary if the shells are removed. Either way, the goats loved it. It may have too much protein ultimately for their hooves but it worked great in a pinch and since they eat acorns like candy anyway I figured it wouldn’t hurt in the short term.
For the chickens, geese and turkeys I simply collected a large bag of acorns and took a hammer to them pulverizing the nuts and removing their shells. I threw it all out to the birds. You’d think I gave them crack. They went nuts. The fats, oils and protein of the acorns out of their shells turned out to be a much better food source than the processed feed I buy at the store for convenience. And with many of my birds still in molt the extra protein and nutrients ended up being a bonus.
Another great option during hunting season is leftover carcasses. Deer hunting season makes my dog and birds very happy animals. It’s organic and zero waste. Literally zero. I discovered this early on when Luca carried home a bloodied carcass left in the woods. I noticed not only does Luca love the deer remnants but the birds always try to steal it from him. So now, whenever a neighbor or hunter drops a carcass by my house (which I’m very grateful to the hunters) I use an ax or hack saw to carve up sections so all the meat eating animals get to share. It’s not the most pleasant thing I’ve ever done but knowing how healthy it is for my animals makes it worth it. There’s one caveat to this method – the stench. For days, especially warm days, it smells terrible when the wind blows a whiff towards you. But nasty smells are an occasional part of farm life so I can deal with it. And none of it goes to waste which means a lot to me. Eventually Luca will even eat the fur, bones and skull. There’s nothing left and my animals have healthy, natural food.
There are many things people feed their livestock in a pinch. If it comes from nature it’s probably healthier than anything you can buy at the store. Please message me if you have other ideas, I’d love to hear about them!
xo
