Chickens eat Mice!!!

[PineBurrowPeeps]

As much as I know mice are a nuisance to grain and things and spreaders of disease, I used to raised and show fancy mice for over 12 years, specializing in Siamese and Chocolate foxes... The thought of my hens chowing down on a litter of pinkies is tough to swallow, so to speak. Not that I'm against it, I guess it's just lingering "awwww" feelings.

 

[seminolewind]

I threw my chickens pinkies twice and a month or two later, one of my chickens pooped worms. I read that rats do carry round worms. I wonder about mice.

 

[CityChook]

Um, okay, this post makes me feel a little queasy...

 

[The Chicken Lady]

I used to find dead mice in the coop with little beak-sized "peck holes" all over their bodies from time to time. At first, I didn't really know how the mice were dying like that, until I saw my big fat rooster wander over to one and give it an exploratory stab.

Chickens are opportunists, I think, when it comes to food. I fed mine part of a turkey sandwich once just to see what would happen. I think you can guess.

 

[Salt and Light]

Chickens are cannibals. They literally will eat eat each other. When I butcher, I throw "scraps" to the hens and they love it.

 

[swampwander]

I've seen my hens eat snakes, lizards, frogs, toads (then I chase them around to get them out), crayfish, fish and literally tear apart a dead mole left in the yard. Not much surprises me any more. When the try to eat my St Bernard, we may have a real problem.

 

[kristenm1975]

Well I wish my 20 hens would get the idea eat up some of the rats and mice I have running all over our back yard around the coop. Some of the rats are huge though. The girls would have to team up to take them down. It would be fun to watch.

I've noticed that some of my hens will freak out and start chasing any of the little birds that fly into the run to eat the dropped food, while others will peacefully munch away right next to the same sparrow. I wonder if its a breed thing or merely a personality issue.

This question is sort of off topic, but has anybody noticed an increase in aggressive behavior (fighting and pecking) when you give your chickens more raw meat? I fed them a pretty generous helping of raw steak and prawns that were beyond human consumption and the next day, chickens I'd never seen peck anything beyond the occassional piece of grass were literally pecking feathers out of their coop-mates. Is this normal?