Does anyone feed their chickens...

[little_grey_bantam]

Mice pinkies up to hoppers? (they're frozen lol or dead, not live!)
I do from time to time, since I raise mice.
But was wondering if anyone else fed them.

I can get them for rather cheap and they LOVE them!
They just gulp them right down!

It seems to give them a boost!

I know people feed mealworms, but I have a friend who has 6000 pinkies (

) and I may want to just purchase or split/purchase them from him <3
It's kinda yucky, but really, they LOVE them to death! They look like little worms I suppose???

What's the weirdest thing you've ever fed your birds?

 

[jerseygirl1]

I never have,but that is a great idea!!

 

[Katy]

Mine love them.....alive tho not dead. Gross I know, but all's fair in war with the rodents.

 

[little_grey_bantam]

Quote:
I feel bad for them being alive.... pinkies it's alright, but anything bigger has to be dead. I haven't for awhile...
LOL, to be pecked to death by a bird... >_< hahahahahaha

I know I use to have three hens who would hang out while I cleaned mice (I don't have enough to just give them live ones as treats, hence why i have to purchase them LOL) and they'd eat all the litlte pinkies that were born dead or died due to being a runt.
LOL

I had a little hen who would STEAL them!! Little butt!!!
Hahahahaha!

I don't think it's gross, I think of all the nutrition it goes into the birdies!! YUMMY!!

I wouldn't eat them myself, but the chickens love them! LOL

 

[BekahBear]

i give frozen/thawed mouse and rat pinkies etc to my girls as a treat all the time. they go crazy for them!!! its so funny to watch them play keep away and tug-o-war with them. i breed mice and rats for my reptiles so i always have extras. i figure its good protien for them.


(i saved my girls(hens) from someone who bought them as snake food as chicks then didn't treat them well when the snake wouldn't eat them. they were living in horrible conditions. i hate it when people don't treat animals as living things just because they're "feeders". all of my "breeders" are pets and i believe in giving all my "feeders" a good life in comfortable living conditions untill it is their time to go. i also use a co2 gas chamber to put them down before freezing them for later use. so all of my feeders that i use for my reptiles, aswell as the ones i give my chickens, are pre-killed or frozen/thawed. i would feel bad giving the chickens live pinkies etc. getting pecked to death would be a painful way to go.)

 

[curly_kate]

I had an issue early this winter with field mice who decided to make a nest in the coop. In the process of clearing them out, a couple made a run for it & the chickens went crazy, running after them! I was kind of disturbed since I'd never thought of chickens as meat-eaters, but I have now learned otherwise. It was quite entertaining, watching them chase after them.

 

[exmnred]

One day this winter the girls were out in the pen on a cold sunny day. They'll go out if it isn't windy. They were in and on their "summer house," a construction of dog crate, shrub protectors and a slice of plywood situated in the middle of their pen. All of a sudden the noise level got so loud even I could hear it. When I looked out one of the hens had a mouse in her beak and was playing keep-away with the others. The coop seems to be rodent free, but the summer house had some nesting in the straw of the dog coop. They were eaten.

Last summer they killed several snakes and a frog. All that remained was some snake skin.

They're really just little dinosaurs.

 

[FortWorthChicks]

They're really just little dinosaurs.

Yep!​

 

[RedfogsFlock]

Quote:
we say chickens are whats left of the velassa raptors!

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

I have a waterer in one of my hen houses that sits on the ground, and from time to time in the summer the mice will go under there and make a nest..every couple of days I will over turn it see if the mice have had babies, and when they do I lift it off quickly and the mice scurry away, mostly a hen will spot it and grab her...Yayyy hen, the pinkies lay there crawling and then it's like a buffet for the other chickens...