Full disclosure, I bought pumpkins before Halloween, but we didn’t get round to carving them until after. I think this might be the second year this has happened, maybe the third. Hm. I specifically bought pie pumpkins so they could nourish the chickens after carving. The large carving pumpkins are stringy and the hens don’t care for them as much. Since at least one pumpkin was going straight to the chickens, I had to give it a horrified look.

I hung the pumpkin up for the chickens using a carabiner clip. Last year I remembered to cut the bottom out to scoop out the seeds so the pumpkin could hang from its stem. I forgot this year, but it looks a little like the pumpkin is horrified that it lost it’s lid, or that a hen is coming.

Fun with pumpkins and chickens.

We get our pumpkins to carve jack-o-lanterns the day before Halloween, then the day after, put them out for the chickens. This is to limit mold growth and decay. I will leave the pumpkins in the runs until the chickens have pecked away what they want, then they go to the compost bin.

I saw another chicken tender helping her hens carve Halloween pumpkins and loved it, so followed suit. This time, rather than poking holes, I just skimmed off the pumpkin skin in eye and mouth positions using a sharp knife.

To hang the pumpkin, I used a gimlet to drill a hole through the stem, then split the end of a bamboo stick to push cotton twine through the hole.

I then hung up the pumpkin in the chicken run. By the afternoon, the pumpkin had a decidedly gory countenance.

The result is definitely creepy.

One of my neighbors brought my chickens a pumpkin! The surprise in this is that it is a fall pumpkin. It sat on a hearth inside all winter and was in perfect condition, without bleaching or other chemical coatings.

I broke it open for the chickens and they tucked in (once they were done begging for grubs).