My babies ate and killed a mouse?

[chickencoop57]

It's very much possible they did it. I've seen a baby chick, that wasn't doing so well, that got pecked to death and practically eaten by the other chicks. Hungry lil fellars! My wife says they're natural-born 'Piranha's'. Lol

 

[Rosebud25]

Chickens and ducks eat mice. Anything that falls into their pen is going to be attacked by all your baby ducks and chickens. I'd say your mice don't have a chance

 

[lisacraig]

The skull doesnt look fresh. Maybe it was in the pine shavings packaging and they just uncovered it. ?

 

[Double Yolked]

I keep a mixed flock, mostly Orpington with a few E,Eggers, plus what ever random pretty peeper catches our eyes at the feed store once in a while.
Breed doesn't seem to matter much as to how ready to hunt the chicks are.
I've had a flock of 3 week old chicks once try very hard to kill a bumbling sparrow that got into their baby coop hunting grain, with momma hen cheering them on. (I opened the wire mesh top so the Sparrow could escape) I've had pullets murder a frog then play keep-away with it's corpse until someone swallowed it whole and I once had the same pullet flock kill a garter snake that was unlucky enough to find it's way into the run.
Don't let their young age and fuzzy cuteness fool you, they're born fully equipped with the same killer instincts their furthest ancestors had. That they will accept and love one of us funny proto-monkeys as a flock member and provider is one of the magical things that keeps me a chicken keeper.

 

[Suzzyq]

My girls have killed a couple of rats!

 

[OffGridChook]

Those skulls dont look very fresh. Look like theyve neen there for a little bit

Agreed. Were they accidentally in the bedding? Dried out? And that looks like a huge skull compared to the chicks. We have a lot of field mice and kangaroo rats here and they’ve not gone up against my girls that I know of. The field mice come out at night As l have caught them on camera. The skull doesn’t look fresh. They could not get inside for the brain so check at the hole in the back to see. If there’s nothing in there and it feels light, someone may have taken one they found from the yard cleaning and toss it in as a joke.

 

[Pickychicks]

Aaaand, we found another skull this morning, so that decides. The room they are in must be the mouse entry point, so now we can figure out how to keep them out.

Hi, just don't poison your mice it'll kill your chicks if they get one.

 

[Karen Glatz]

My chickens occasionally find a mouse or rat nest in the logs or in the pile of used bricks. They love eating the pinkies. And we really don't have a mouse or rat problem any more. They apparently know not to breed again on our property..

 

[bkjerabek1]

We have 10 baby chicks in a bin inside right now, along with 2 ducks.

We spent all day outside yesterday working on the yard, and the kids (older teens and young adults) kept using the babies as an excuse to take breaks.

I went in with them about 2-3 hours after the last "check " and there was a mouse skull, and a couple of bones in with the birds.

We know we have mice in the yard,and that they occasionally get into the unfinished basement. I was a little worried about it, but I've seen chickens and ducks decimate mice and snakes plenty, so my hope was that if one got in, they'd gang up on it and kill it. I did not think they would eat the whole thing.

I posted about it on FB, and once of my friends, who honestly seems to think I know nothing about what I'm doing, said someone is pranking me. Several other chicken owning friends were not the least bit surprised.

What is your experience? Wr don't know exactly how old they are. At least 1 week. About half of the chick were 2-3 days older than the other half when we got them a week ago, and the ducks looked about 5 days old, but they are HUGE now, compared to the chicks.

Max, I think some of them could be 3 weeks old, but most are about 1.5 weeks old.

What do you think? Could my flock have done this damage if they were threatened by a rogue mouse?

My old flock from years ago ate mice on a regular basis... basically treated them like big fat worms!

 

[Okydoky]

We have 10 baby chicks in a bin inside right now, along with 2 ducks.

We spent all day outside yesterday working on the yard, and the kids (older teens and young adults) kept using the babies as an excuse to take breaks.

I went in with them about 2-3 hours after the last "check " and there was a mouse skull, and a couple of bones in with the birds.

We know we have mice in the yard,and that they occasionally get into the unfinished basement. I was a little worried about it, but I've seen chickens and ducks decimate mice and snakes plenty, so my hope was that if one got in, they'd gang up on it and kill it. I did not think they would eat the whole thing.

I posted about it on FB, and once of my friends, who honestly seems to think I know nothing about what I'm doing, said someone is pranking me. Several other chicken owning friends were not the least bit surprised.

What is your experience? Wr don't know exactly how old they are. At least 1 week. About half of the chick were 2-3 days older than the other half when we got them a week ago, and the ducks looked about 5 days old, but they are HUGE now, compared to the chicks.

Max, I think some of them could be 3 weeks old, but most are about 1.5 weeks old.

What do you think? Could my flock have done this damage if they were threatened by a rogue mouse?

i learned they are carnivores, i saw a mouse which we didnt know existed in our yard, but we have hay bales for Hens so thats proby what attracted, but oh my gosh the chase was on for the 1 Hen who had the Mouse! Surprised at Chicks tho, yes they go crazy over fresh meat