jack o lantern pumpkin

[hensandchickscolorado]

I know that pumpkin is apparently good for chickens, but what about the jack-o-lantern kind? I know I wouldn't eat it! Can they eat those huge seeds?

If so, my girls will be very happy over the next week as we just did some serious pumpkin carving!

Happy Halloween!

 

[rosegal]

They will eat the seeds, but they really like them after you grind them in the blender. Add some sour milk or yogurt and they will be very happy.

 

[Rosaleen]

One year the kids were gutting and carving jack o lanterns on the front porch. They kept most of the seeds but threw all the guts and attached seeds off the porch into my garden and hedges. The next year I had this pumpkin patch growing out onto the lawn. We decided to let it grow and we'd have a few pumpkins in the fall. Our chickens always foraged out in the back and occasionally would come out front. We enjoyed watching the pumpkins growing and planned to pick them the next day or so, they were so full and ready...well the chickens beat us to it. Apparently they were watching them too.....

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Chickens know what they like!

 

[grandmaof5]

Quote:
erm.. why wouldn't you eat it?

 

[hensandchickscolorado]

Well I get sugar and kabocha (sp?) pumpkins from the farm for baking and soups, but the jack o lantern type is stringy and tastes pretty bad. I know they aren't grown for the purpose of us eating them.

Am I being a chicken snob by only giving my chicks sugar pumpkins!?

I will give them the jack o lantern guts...I just wanted to check and see. The seeds seem so large for them to eat. Guess the worse that can happen is a pumpkin patch in the chicken run next year

.

 

[grandmaof5]

I make jack-o-lanterns from any type of pumpkin I can get, and I eat any as well. The kind grown for making Jacks may not have the sugar content and be a bit stringier, but a squash is a squash...*shrugs. Try it in your run and see if your chooks like them...

I wouldn't eat salamanders, either, but my chickens love them...

 

[SteveBaz]

We bought about a dozen extra out at the pumpkin patch and I break them open and let them go to town. They love it!!

 

[dragonlair]

I eat any type of pumpkin, as do my chickens. They don't care if they were bred for carving or pies, they love 'em all!

 

[BlazeJester]

My BRs have eaten 3 different kinds of pumpkin innards today and loved them all!!!