can chickens eat pumpkins?

[Kuntry Klucker]

Ok, thanks everyone. The ladies will be getting a pumpkin feast after Halloween.

Usually I just throw the pumpkins in the woods after we are done with them. This
year the chickens get to devour them.

I look forward to the entertainment.

 

[southerndesert]

We cut a big pumpkin in half today and put one into each pen and they tear them up, a couple even spent much of their free range time in the pen eating it. Cheap this time of year so we get them one once in a while....

 

[kuntrygirl]

They will love it.

 

[gale65]

I've never noticed-do they sell pumpkins other times of the year? I'm hoping to buy a bunch on sale after halloween to give them throughout the fall.

Is other winter squash good for possible deworming too?

 

[patti'speeps]

I planted a pumpkin patch this year just for the chickens. We also raise pheasant, quail, guineas and peafowl. They all love the pumpkins. Whatever I can't get fed before we get a hard freeze I have been cutting up in chunks and cooking it to freeze for treats for the birds this winter. Just bake in the oven until soft and scoop out and freeze, instant winter treats. I cut holes in a pumpkin and for the next hour all I see is bird behinds , lol. Gotta make the holes big enough they don't get there heads stuck, lol.

 

[chickmashnoon]

I think it's actually the seeds that are good for deworming, but yes, they will devour any of the winter squash, like butternut, acorn, hubbard, and spaghetti. I have a summer squash plant that hid some of its fruits and now have big yellow hard skinned fruits that are way past the zuchinni like stage- and the chickens love them!

 

[NonnasBabies]

After Halloween I hit Wal-Mart and buy them for 25 - 50 cents a piece!!

 

[crazyhen]

I grow butternut squash and baby pumpkins for winter feeding my hens. When it is really cold I cut them open and bake them turned upside down in the oven. They love the warm soft pumpkins and it helps with the egg yolk color too.

Gloria Jean

 

[Kuntry Klucker]

Quote:
That is a good idea. I may try that. It will be so cute to see the eggs after a pumpkin feast.

 

[Martha80]

There is a farmer on my way to work who has chickens, geese, emus etc. Last year, after Halloween, they set out an old burning barrel with a sign that said "Pumpkin Dump" near the road. They left it out until well after Thanksgiving and fed their birds for over a month. I'm sure many people were glad to 'dump' their jack-o-lanterns and decorative pumpkins there rather than having to find some other way to dispose them.