How much pumpkin?

[kraftykrow]

We were carving and gave the 4 girls we have the left overs. They wouldn't touch it til I hand fed them. Now they're losing their minds over it. So, can there be too much of it at once? Can I store it and give them a bit daily? There is rine, guts, and some seeds that we didn't pick out for roasting.

One is about 9 months old, the others 4 months.

P.s. it is fall here, temps in the 50s,40s and dropping to 30s at night.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I just put it out there. They'll eat what they want. However I always have way more than 4 chickens. Perhaps you may want to refrigerate some and ration it over days.
If they are laying eggs, the yolks will be much darker for a bit.
They won't eat the rind. I'd scrape out the meat and offer that as well as the seeds.
Chickens are very wary of unknown foods.

 

[kraftykrow]

Well, not the rind part itself but the "meat" attached to it. I held it and they went nuts eating it. I have a certain pair of gloves I feed them with sometimes to bond with them. Once they see them they dont question the new food as much. Lol

 

[kraftykrow]

I was also HOPING this would get their lazy butts out of the coop. Its 55 degrees and they're lazing in the coop like it is 30. Thinking of temporarily taking the food out of their coop during the day so they aren't just chowing down and sitting. The outside food is not far from the run so they'd just have to shuffle their butts outside for a bit, but at least get a little exercise.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

They'll get acclimated to the weather eventually. What breeds do you have?
Hopefully you aren't heating the coop.

 

[pintail_drake2004]

I feed mine as much as they can eat. I put between 250-300lbs pumpkins out a year for my chickens in their run. The go nuts over them. My 30-40 birds make short work of them every year.

 

[Alaskan]

Pumpkin freezes great.

If you have a bunch you can freeze it, it will keep all winter that way.

 

[AquaDuck]

I've fed mine quite a lot of pumpkin lately, and found that their poops got a bit runny. But eventually they got fed up and stopped eating it so that solved itself.

I'd freeze some of it if I were you. Great vitamin boost in winter when fresh grass etc are in short supply.

 

[kraftykrow]

They'll get acclimated to the weather eventually. What breeds do you have?
Hopefully you aren't heating the coop.

Apologize for the late response. The new birds are starting to go in at night occationally, but if the temp is bearable at all to them (last night was in the mid 20s) they just huddle up outside the coop. When they do go in the coop, they don't sleep on the roost, rather in the corner. My other older girl just sleeps alone on the roost, which ideally I wanted them to be with her so she can benefit from the warmth too.

No, I was admit that we didn't use any heat source. I have one barred rock and three australorps, which are suppose to be winter hardy breeds. I am concerned about the ventilation in the coop though so plan to do some minor construction this weekend.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It isn't unusual for birds as old as 4 months to want to sleep in a pile together at night regardless of temperature. I've had birds that waited longer than that to start roosting.
I had a building with just 4 birds in it, all mature roosters who barely tolerated each other's existence during the day. But every night they collectively slept in a pile together on a feed bin even on the hottest summer nights.