Chickens Eating Wild Birds?!

[drumstick diva]

Ugh OH, kinda making me loose my taste for chicken. Does eating strange things like lizards and toads etc. make the chicken taste icky??

 

[Aquatic_blue]

We currently have two chicken coops on our lot. One they sleep in (since it is the right size for all of them) and since we have the other (that was too small), they like it as a nesting box so we have left it there. We put their food in the small run so we can lock it up at night. Birds are going in the run to steal chicken feed from what I have seen. They trapped a wild baby bunny in their run and were trying to kill it when my husband was out there. Thinking the dove may have gotten cornered or a neighborhood cat came in and got it...

Yes, I am hoping the dove wasn't ill.

Thank you everyone for sharing =)

 

[cassie]

We currently have two chicken coops on our lot. One they sleep in (since it is the right size for all of them) and since we have the other (that was too small), they like it as a nesting box so we have left it there. We put their food in the small run so we can lock it up at night. Birds are going in the run to steal chicken feed from what I have seen. They trapped a wild baby bunny in their run and were trying to kill it when my husband was out there. Thinking the dove may have gotten cornered or a neighborhood cat came in and got it...

Yes, I am hoping the dove wasn't ill.

Thank you everyone for sharing =)

Ugh OH, kinda making me loose my taste for chicken. Does eating strange things like lizards and toads etc. make the chicken taste icky??

 

[cassie]

It probably wouldn't have made any difference if the dove was sick or not. Chickens are scavengers.

 

[cassie]

Ugh OH, kinda making me loose my taste for chicken. Does eating strange things like lizards and toads etc. make the chicken taste icky??

No.

 

[Featheredwonderment]

If they catch it and manage to kill it yes they will eat it. Snakes, frogs, toads, lizards, birds, and so on. They aint gonna waste the energy killing something just because.

I was just going to ask about frogs as I'm sitting out with my chickens now and I was alarmed at seeing frogs arms and legs sticking out of chicken beak

 

[centrarchid]

Mine will consume Indigo Buntings and similar sized warblers based on direct observation. I have also seen them go after fledgling pigeons.

Last year they partook in deer carcasses brought home for dogs. They consumed a lot of meat and fat once dogs opened up carcass. The chickens excluded crows that wanted to do same.

 

[Orpingtons Mom]

A close friend of my sister’s—who was a chicken keeper—dragged herself into work one day, after a somewhat brutal morning with her cluckeroos, stating “ I’m surprised they haven’t made a horror film about chickens.”

 

[raeanne]

I literally pulled a dead baby chickadee bird out of my leghorns mouth like a bad dog who ate my lunch! “Drop it!” And pried his beak open. Neck broken . Ugh