I have had this discussion with many a person over the years. Many, including my wife, disagree with me but I am a firm believer in the de-worming qualities of veggies. Especially the gord like melons, pumpkins and cucumber/squash types.
I was a very young lad when I was first told that Pumpkins had de-worming properties. I was helping an old timer pick up a bunch of remains after a pumpkin chucking contest in South Dakota and he was telling me how he fed these pumpkin chunks to his cattle and other livestock, including chickens. I asked him how his dogs and cats liked em but got no answer. He told me at the time it was specifically the seeds that really had the de-worming qualities to them but I never questioned his statement and in fact remembered it and made it a habit of feeding the livestock around here with any surplus plus some of whatever I am growing.
Truth is I never actually cared if he was telling me a fact or an old wives tale to be honest. Bottom line I figured it was like giving someone a cup of tea . It can't hurt. As the years have gone by Gardening season has become the highlight of every goat, sheep or chicken that has come through this place especially once I started growing those old time yellow Lemon Cucumbers. A trellis of those cucumbers will produce a HUGE abundance and I actually taught one of the old Rams how to catch em in midair he liked em so much. Sometimes the neighbors would stop by just to see this ram chase the cucumbers around.
Not to mention you can almost get mono-cultured Honey off q couple of trellis' of those cucumbers. Those thing explode all over and with no end in blooms and fruit.
What has always surprised me though is the number and tenacity of the naysayers of this de-worming theory. I have seen people publish charts showing studies to prove there is no benefit to feeding the livestock such produce. Etc.
I just agree with em and throw a round cucumber at another goat. I have watched those goats get a hold of an unripe pear a few times so there ain't nothing going to stress those goats out. I believe they could swallow an entire Pineapple if they wanted to.
Anyway I happened across this video the other day and was kinda impressed with it and it reminded me it is almost that time again so I threw a link for it here. I have no clue who did it or whether they would even care that I am promoting it but I liked it so here is the link.
Pretty informative from a layman's point of view not that it matters. I would have a full blown animal farm rebellion if I stopped the vegetable feed around here. Complete with pigs from a few farms over sleeping in my bed probably. These critters come up to the fence now all Summer long demanding fresh produce and I always plant too much anyway.
I don't change the way I have been treating worms or what I use because I feed Pumpkins or whatever but if it helps good. They would rather eat the excess anyway.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
One boggles the mind thinking how those poor critters SURVIVED before Tractor Supply and Chewy.
ReplyDeleteYes, there is noted anti-worm benefits in squashes and such.
Not to the level perhaps of "Real De-Wormer" (tm) but if your critters are thriving well enough why bother?
If you want to avoid worm issues look to the fact that multi-species mob grazing is hard on parasites. The worms from a horse don't to well in a sheep's belly and so on.
Chickens and Geese are powerhouse worm destroyers as they love to clean up manure turning it into eggs and chickens :-)
Rotational pasture also protects your critters from worms as worms in manure have but a few weeks availability to infest the next host.
I'm on your side of the argument PP. Both about worms and garden goodies for critters. With pumpkins, I read it's the seeds that are especially helpful against worms. I read that chicory is a good one for that too, so I have lots of chicory growing. I feed those plus all sorts of garden veggies and herbs to our goats. Chickens have access to the compost, so that's where they get their scraps. I think they are all a lot healthier for it because they get fresh sources of vitamins and minerals too.
ReplyDeleteI just dealt with round worms in my own flock for the first time in years. I used to use a product Piperazine-17 and still have some. The problem is you must destroy all the eggs for like a month. Uh.... that's not happening. I switched to Backyard Chicken brand "Zyfend A" which is egg safe. They got it in their water for about 10 days (the instruction sheet says 7). I clean my coop daily and have not seen any evidence of worms. You add 6 drops per gallon, and the bottle treats 90 gallons. Easily available online, I got mine at Walmart.com
ReplyDeleteI grow comfrey for my poultry and it has always seemed to keep worms to a minimum.
ReplyDeleteYep yep yep... I've always heard pumpkin seeds are dewormers. You can also add DE to dry food to deworm as well - the food grade stuff, not the packs sold for pool filters. :) (Raw pumpkin puree also stops diarrhea in dogs... not that we were talking about that. Ha ha).
ReplyDeleteI agree with that sentiment as well. I rarely see worms in the poo but slaughter the older free loaders on occasion and once in a while find one with round worms.... Time to plant some Seminole pumpkins here. Thanks for the reminder!
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