I hope y’all enjoy your Thanksgiving as much as my hens like tucking into a scattering of grain.

The annual pumpkin carve and hen feeding was another success. Rather than carve our pumpkins early and risk rot, we carve them on Halloween then take them out to the chickens the next day.

The chickens appreciate the gesture.

Rather than halve the pumpkin for the chickens like I usually do, I had a little fun carving a simple face. I was going for an appalled look. I ran a gimlet through the stem, then used a bamboo stick with the tip split to thread cotton twine through and make a loop to hang up the pumpkin.

During the extra hot heat wave I made my chicken some frozen treats by putting fruit and vegetable pieces in a bundt pan and freezing it. To give it to the chickens I turned the bundt pan over and ran hot water over the metal. The ice ring popped right out!

The bits of fruit left over from fruit salad went over the best. I made another ring with pumpkin, carrots and peas; the chickens ate around the peas. The ring made of banana and cranberry was a huge bust, they barely nibbled it.

I have a melon baller, but I don’t usually use it because it leaves quite a bit of waste. The balls of melon are pretty in the fruit salad, but all the left over bits bothered me.

I was thinking of it wrong. It isn’t waste, it is more left for the chickens! With that in mind, I scooped out the cantaloupe and watermelon happily knowing the hens would clean out the rinds later.