Whats the weirdest thing your chickens have eaten or tried to eat??

[Kim95037]

It never ceases to amaze me what chickens will try to eat. Molly ate a small brass washer, Annie ate a screw, which has me pretty worried actually. So far shes fine. Shes my buff orp and also has an affinity for the stickers that come on the watermelon or any other piece of fruit for that matter. Molly stole a whole bagel right out of my hand one day. I heard a tapping sound from inside my house and I went outside and they were all picking and eating the ugly grey poupon colored paint off of the side of my house. The one that takes the cake tho, is when I busted all five of them picking off and eating pieces of some VINYL VENETIAN BLINDS that I had taken down and layed down in the corner of my yard for a weekend dump run because my cat from hell destroyed them.

They were going to TOWN on these things. Even with all of the treats and goodies they get they never stop looking for new things to try. Needless to say I have to be super careful now what I leave laying around the yard.

 

[stoopid]

Big slimy gooey slugs. Gag.

Everyone be careful with the metals that your birds eat.
It may stay in the crop, and puncture it, or will make it down to the gizzard, and tumbled smooth, but metal poisoning is hard to treat.
It may be a good idea to get a big construction clean up magnet, and go thru their area with it.

 

[duckinnut]

A couple of toads( one rather large) a tree frog, a cigarette filter and just the other day they were taking turns with a freshly killed vole.

Never found a trace of it. These are just things I have seen, can only imagine what has gone by the wayside when I am not around. That's another reason I don't drink, afraid to pass out in the coop and will be nothing but a pile of bones.

 

[Kim95037]

I had to chase down my 4 month old rooster Apricot who was running around with a dead bird. I hope my neighbors are enjoying chicken tv. Here I am chasing my rooster, my other 4 chickens are chasing me, and my dog is chasing all of us.

 

[7L Farm]

Sounds normal to me. I sit there & watch these crazy birds all the time. They will pick up a tiny morsel of god No's what ten times & then finally swallow it. Its crazy. Then they swipe their beak a few times & off they go.

 

[Den in Penn]

I was out watching the chickens ranging about and saw a shard of glass on the ground. thought that can't be good for chickens. Started to bend over to pick it up and one darted in from nowhere beat me to it and swallowed it. But the chicken still lives.

 

[Kim95037]

Big slimy gooey slugs. Gag.

Everyone be careful with the metals that your birds eat.
It may stay in the crop, and puncture it, or will make it down to the gizzard, and tumbled smooth, but metal poisoning is hard to treat.
It may be a good idea to get a big construction clean up magnet, and go thru their area with it.

Thats exactly what I need to do, Ive been thinking about that one for a while. I wonder if Home Depot has a big magnet.

 

[cadeschicks]

Home Depot does have them. They're big magnets on poles (like a broom handle) usually near the roofing materials. They're made for cleaning up dropped nails and screws from a construction site, so they're perfect for this.

 

[urbanolive]

My americauna died from eating a roofing nail. She acted hunched up and sick for weeks, I treated the whole flock for cochi to no avail. Had to discard the eggs for weeks,ect,ect. I had no idea what did her in until a necropsy was done. Roofing nail imbedded in the gizzard- must have been there a very long time because it was cysted over and half way corroded to nothing...

 

[castillofa]

Since chickens are omnivores, I have not been surprised by the endless array of "foods" they take to eating. I have seen a frog, all sorts of bugs, basically, if it moves, it gets eaten.

I make sure that I go through the run with a magnet to make sure that no metal objects are out there.

My girls make me laugh when they attack a food item. My kids call them feathered piranahs.

There is nothing more entertaining than watching them go at it.