I put out some canned pumpkin for the chickens to see if it helps with the digestive issues that start up when they start laying. (They’ve been laying again for awhile, but a couple still have dirty tail feathers.) They love fresh pumpkin, but when presented with canned, they all but accused me of attempted poison.

I’ve noticed in the fall, when they have a steady supply of raw pumpkin, there are more fluffy butts, and less need for me to rinse them clean. But fresh pumpkin is hard to obtain in the spring and summer. Butternut squash doesn’t seem to have the appeal, though it really seems like it should be a good substitute. After a few hours I went back to check on the status of the canned pumpkin, and they did brave the new preparation and devoured it all. They can’t lick the plate because they’re chickens, but they did a good job trying. See? I’m not trying to poison you!

My hens love scratch; some of them love it even more than grubblies (dried fly larva). They gobble it all up, except for one single type of grain (I believe it is the rye). I now have runs sown with a single seed. I’m hoping with all the scratching and pecking, some of the seed has enough soil contact that when the spring rains come they will sprout. Or the cardinals will steal it all. I guess we’ll see.

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.

I made blueberry ice cream the other day and was left a pile of cooked blueberry hulls. What to do? The chickens might like them. It is hot out, so freezing them might be good. I put the strained skins in a paper bowl and popped it into the freezer. When I put out the block of frozen blueberry mash for the chickens and they devoured it. I was hoping for purple stained beaks (frozen blueberries stain my hands something awful), but they were quite clean. It does go right through them, though, so for the sake of their fluffy bum and digestive tracts, blueberries will be a sometimes treat.