Acorn uses

Hey, I’m looking for suggestions on what to do with acorns.  We have a bumper crop this year under about a dozen large oak trees, and we usually remove them and haul them off in order to save the grass.  I’m wondering if I could compost them instead, or use them on paths between my raised beds.  I’ve heard they might attract rodents or make the soul too acidic.  Some expert guidance would be greatly appreciated!!

what kind of oak trees are we talking about?

in general, they are likely to attract rodents. i doubt if they’re used as mulch that they would significantly acidify the soil. they may also sprout, possibly in places you don’t want them to.

acorns are a food source for lot of animals (including people! though on a home scale some species are too fiddly to deal with). i use the shells and ‘hats’ from acorns as mulch pretty frequently, but that’s after the kernel is mostly gone to make food from. even then, i’ll get squirrels and mice digging through to find the little bits of kernel that are left. not a real big deal though. rodents are everywhere.

Hi Tracy,
If you were to post on facebook/nextdoor/craigslist etc about the acorns, I can almost guarantee someone would come get them for pig food or something.

Some people might be willing to come pick them up off your lawn, but then you have to deal with them being on your property for a while, and whether they do it as good as you want it done. That might be annoying, or you might make a new friend. But if you had them already sitting in paper bags and just said "free bagged acorns". I bet you would have them gone the same day. If you lived near me, and I had pigs, I would come pick them up in a heart beat.

Thanks for the suggestions!  The easiest thing to do would be to use them as mulch once the squirrels have picked through them pretty good, but I wasn’t sure how my garden would feel about all those acorns.  

The pig farmer idea is one I hadn’t thought of, but I don’t know any pig farmers, off the top of my head.  Do chickens like acorns?

depending on oak species, chickens can learn to enjoy acorns, but too much tannin is bad for them so it shouldn’t ever be a significant part of their diet, or for very long. my birds are happy to pick out pin oak kernels when they’re in the floor-sweepings i bring home from the nut processing facility, but i wouldn’t feed them much of it.

they also don’t know how to crack them themselves.

You could make a bunch of little oak trees and sell them as nursery stock.