When we carved our Halloween pumpkins, we waited until the day before, and did not treat the carvings with bleach or other preservatives, so after Halloween the hollowed out vegetables could go to the chickens. The chickens love it. We didn’t put all the pumpkins in the run at once, but are spacing them out and replacing hollowed out pumpkin with a carved pumpkin (after checking for mold).
This pumpkin didn’t get any special treatment or cute presentation, I just cut it in half and put it out for the chickens like an instant bowl. Chickens don’t care, they dived right in.
I’ve read that pumpkin is a natural dewormer for chickens, and although I am becoming more and more suspect of “internet knowledge”, my chickens do like pumpkin, and they seem to digest it better than watermelon or cucumber. Maybe I can freeze some for the large part of the year when fresh pumpkins are not available. Or do something to canned pumpkin to make it less of a mess. Hm.
Sophie the cat is checking out Taco the Faverolle hen. Our neighbor’s cats also come to watch the chickens, and the chickens watch them. Thank goodness for strong hardware cloth between the two.
My hens have started their molting time. The coop and run, from a distance, look like there has been a small snow flurry. The hens themselves look moth-eaten and disheveled. Egg production has slowed to a near stand still; I’m getting maybe one egg every other day. About this time last year the eggs stopped completely and they didn’t start laying again until the end of January. That was fours months without eggs. Hello powdered eggs, lets see how you do.
The bugs found the ripe melon. I’m not sure if the earwig dug the hole, or the caterpillars dug it and the earwig was hiding out, but the chickens really enjoyed both the insect and the fruit. I sprayed the remaining melons with diluted Neem oil and Castille soap. Maybe we will get another melon before the bugs do; there are currently two melon candidates for bug roulette.
Critters and Craft 