Black Widow for breakfast

My chickens eat any critter they can catch, they fight over spiders, and the other day I saw one of my Cornish Bantams running with a scorpion. I did not even know we had them here in NC. The only critter they will not touch are those nasty little yellow centipedes.
 
My neighbor's chicken ate a Brown Widow spider before she could kill it a few weeks ago. We were worried at first, but the pullet had no ill effects, and that's a good thing since we have lots of black widows and brown widows.

0_61_brown_widow_spider.jpg

They are related to Black Widows. They are more poisonous than Black widows but inject less venom. You know you have them if you find their prickly egg sacks like in the photo.

I leave most spiders alone since they are very beneficial, but when it comes to poisonous ones living near my children and pets, they will be killed on sight (if the chickens don't get them first!)
 
My friends have chickens and let them go in their huge greenhouse for the express purpose of eating all the black widows. I found two yesterday, but felt more comfortable just squishing them in situ than trying to transport them to the chicken run for consumption without getting bitten myself. I think your hen will be fine if she eats it.
 

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