Chicken Ate Mouse?

[D'Angelo N Va.]

I was cleaning out my hen house today as well....when I raised the watering dish, it is up on bricks and each day I add fresh water to it..I had noticed it was getting built up around it so I moved it today to clean from under it also..and the mom ran off, leaving a nest of babies about 12 of them...well the chickens went crazy...you would have thought it was a 4th of July Picnic....LOL

 

[shesaredroan]

Oh I love the BYC forum!!!
This is something I witnessed about 10 years ago when I got my first chickens, but never talked to anyone else who's had it happen also.
When I first got into chicken raising we were going through a REAL grasshopper problem......I mean it was of Biblical proportions!!!! I was use to seeing the girls beating large grasshoppers on the ground before they ate them.........but one day I saw a hen beating this "thing" on the ground, but the "thing" was floppy. I thought what in the world does she have?!?!...........looked closer and realized it was a baby mouse........looked around and just a few feet away was a freshly uncovered mouse nest.
WOW!!! talk about mixed emotions!!!! Gross, yuck, poor baby mouse, poor Mother mouse who'd just lost her baby, didn't know chickens would do THAT, doesn't that chicken look happy, hey the girls can help keep down the field mouse/rat population, I'm witnessing nature.
My girls are my teachers. I keep learning about life from them. : )
Christine

 

[OregonChickenGal]

Yes, they love mice. But the parasites (worms) they have, are not good. Better put them on a regular worming schedule.

 

[darkmatter]

D'Angelo N Va. :

I was cleaning out my hen house today as well....when I raised the watering dish, it is up on bricks and each day I add fresh water to it..I had noticed it was getting built up around it so I moved it today to clean from under it also..and the mom ran off, leaving a nest of babies about 12 of them...well the chickens went crazy...you would have thought it was a 4th of July Picnic....LOL

A few years ago, I also witnessed an act that convinced me chickens are descended from Velociraptors. The Missus was with me when I lifted the waterer off some hollow blocks to refill it and revealed a nest of just furred baby mice---they ran everywhere with the chickens chasing them down rending them asunder---the worst part was the mice screaming----a lot like the scene in Jurassic Park with the raptors chasing down the men in the long grass.​

 

[matthewschickens]

Perfectly fine. Mine also try to catch and eat Lizards. They caught one once. They also eat snakes.

 

[vetgirl00us]

Haha! Great post!!! Chickens will pretty much eat anything that doesn't eat them first. Mine eat mice, lizards, frogs, bugs, etc. I gave them a roasted chicken out of the fridge that we didn't eat and they were like piranhas. Picked it completely clean in minutes.

 

[eggcited2]

Quote:
Every year after Thanksgiving and Christmas, my friend takes out the left over turkey carcass and gives it to her chickens. They pick it totally clean.

Oh, and not only do chickens eat mice, but she has seen her's eat full grown rats.

She lives on a farm and is farmer's wife, so they have plenty of land and crops that attract mice, rats, and all the normal country creatures.