This week Elaine at Sunny Simple Life brought up an interesting fact... raw pumpkin seeds can be used as a natural wormer in chickens. I had never heard this, but always looking for a good holistic remedy, I looked into this a bit and seems a lot of people put stock in this tasty treatment. According to the posts I read, pumpkin seeds are coated in a naturally occurring chemical that paralyzes the worms so the chicken can then expel them (some feel you need to follow up with buttermilk to help with the elimination). You can read more about how this works at The Backyard Chicken Coop. At the very least, your hens will get a real tasty treat without nasty side effects!
Thanks for sharing Elaine! Hope your flock continues to flourish!
Join The Barn Hop!
Jill @ The Prairie Homestead
Kendra @ New Life on a Homestead
1. Write a blog post about what's going on at your homestead or a post on something you're learning or an item of interest that will benefit the homesteading community. Be sure to add the red barn button and link back here so others can join in the fun.
2. Come back here and enter your information in the Linky. Please be sure to link to your actual post (click your title and then copy the URL above) and not your home page so those participating later in the week can find your post easily.
3. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment and tell us what's going on at your homestead!
Please Note: As hostesses of the Homestead Barn Hop, please understand that we reserve the right to remove any links that are not family friendly. While this may be subjective, we will err on the side of caution in order to keep our blogs appropriate for all readers. Thank you for your understanding!
Occasionally there is a problem posting due to glitches in the internet or the Linky Tools. If you have difficulties or see that your post is removed and it follows all "family friendly" guidelines above, please wait a little while and try re-posting. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, be we do not have absolute control over the internet. Thank you for your patience and understanding!
Occasionally there is a problem posting due to glitches in the internet or the Linky Tools. If you have difficulties or see that your post is removed and it follows all "family friendly" guidelines above, please wait a little while and try re-posting. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, be we do not have absolute control over the internet. Thank you for your patience and understanding!






Our chickens love raw pumpkins when they can get them. A pumpkin will keep them busy for almost a week. Good to know it is a wormer too.
ReplyDeleteI blend the pulp and seeds with fresh garlic, carrot, oatmeal molasses, etc. and make a pumpkin 'soup' wormer for my chickens. Its good stuff! So glad the word is getting out that commercial wormers aren't necessary. http://fresh-eggs-daily.blogspot.com/2012/04/pumpkin-soup-nasturtiums-natural.html
DeleteAmy,
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely going to be giving this a try--I don't think my chickens have any worm problem--but this can't hurt as a preventative either. Thanks for sharing!
Very interesting about pumpkin seeds. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh thank you for the lovely feature. So unexpected but a nice surprise. I try to keep the chickens organic. I hate that the other de-wormers prevent you from eating the eggs. We will see how it goes but they sure loved what I prepared.
ReplyDeleteHere is some more information. I don't like to use commercial meds either. I make my chicken 'pumpkin soup' to combat worms.http://fresh-eggs-daily.blogspot.com/2012/04/pumpkin-soup-nasturtiums-natural.html
DeleteWorks well on people too apparently :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting again this week. Love your parties. ;o) Smiles, Paula
ReplyDelete