Chicken Has Eaten A Black Widow

[Chido]

Quote:
But whatever you eat goes in your blood stream too....

A quick google search shows that black widows produce a neurotoxin that is a protein venom, and the acid in the stomach breaks it down with no problem. Not all toxins can survive being digested, so unless the chicken got bitten, I wouldn't worry if she ate a spider.

 

[Orange Ribbon]

I don't think you have to worry about anything happening to your chicken. I have black widows on my property and I'm sure the birds run across them sometimes and eat them. But it does remind me of that old children's song:

"I knew an old woman
who swallowed a spider
It wriggled and wiggled
tickled inside her.
Perhaps she'll die."

 

[chkn]

Mine eat them and I haven't had any problems.

 

[Ohhhdear]

Quote:
We have ticks which carry Lyme Disease, and the girls gobble them!
And I can still hear my great aunt (who lived to be 100) sing that song to us on car rides when my sisters and I were little.
"She swallowed the spider to catch the fly... I don't know why she swallowed the fly. Perhaps she'll die!"

 

[six_eclectic_chickens]

Our chickens ate rhubarb leaves for weeks with no ill effects (rhubarb leaves are supposed to be poisonous). They seemed to like it alot, so I think you are probably fine.

 

[Kuntry Klucker]

I have heard that they will eat Black Widow spiders and other poisonous bugs without any problems.
We had a few Brown Widow spiders making homes in the corners of the chicken pen. The Spiders never
bother the chickens when they ate them.