Pumpkin Feast

The pumpkins that had been sitting in the front of my front steps had started rot and become soft and squishy. It would be a waste to just throw away the 2 pumpkins (one big,the other tiny), so over the weekend I decided to give the flock a taste, my old rangers liked squash so I figured that the new girls would like pumpkin as well. I set the heavy carrot-orange round pumpkins in the chick's enclosure before letting them out.

When I finally opened the coop door, the pullets hastily pushed each other aside, trying to get out first. First to hop out was Lime, who made a hysterical performance of flying out of the coop, spastically flapping about, then circling about a full 360 degree turn, and ending with a run at full throttle towards the enclosure door. This was probably Lime's idea of fun; all that replied to her actions were my held in giggling, and the consistent and impatient moaning and groanings of the chickens, who were waiting in the doorway. Next was Lemon, who also made an interesting contribution to prove the excellence in the performance of flight in chickens. Charcoal was the loudest of all. Squawking like a pigeon that had had it's tail feathers stepped on, she landed too far and quickly corrected the direction in her flying and followed the rest of the flock, who were already making their way to their chicken enclosure.

Then a bit farther past the doorway stood. . . the pumpkins!

They sat there. . . waiting for them. . .just waiting. . . . .
And as their eyes laid upon them, the chickens gasped, "they're back! . . ."

- Exert from The Ones Who Watched, Stalked, and Haunt Us (In the view of the chickens)

*Note:* The title above is not a real document

Peering at the strange twisted inside of the pumpkin, Lemon fights between temptation and reason.

Soon, more of the flock comes to help. With long stretched out suspicious eyes, wary of the unmoving orange irregular sphere and the flattened sidekick on the left laying in an unwise position, the chickens march onward..

They find it wise to keep an extra eye on the big on especially.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In approximately 30 minutes. . .

The entire flock catches on to the purpose of the pumpkins and begin their feast.

Before:

After (the next day):

You can see that there is a great difference in the pumpkin in the next day it was left out, the pullets apparently love eating pumpkin. 

On the second day, the pumpkin was frozen and when hit,was as hard as a rock. Here in this picture you can see the  moisture in the squash has turned into ice crystals embedded in the long strands of fiber.