feeding your chickens...chicken??

[Kessel23]

It might bother some people but the chickens definitely don't think twice...
I do not feed my chickens chicken but a raccoon killed 3 birds this winter and I pulled them out of the coop and set them in the run so I could use them for bait. A few other chickens came out and pulled out the food in the dead bird's open crop and started picking through it. They pecked at the dead birds decapitated head and were playing with the bloody feathers.
One time when I was a little kid one of the hens went missing and a few days later I saw the chickens running around fighting over another bird's foot. It came from the dead hen, they found her out there somewhere.

 

[woodmort]

Lol. I guess I can safely say that I have a flock of cannibals in my backyard

Don't fall down in the chicken yard if you can't get up.

 

[Bamabexchicks]

Don't worry a bit about it! My indoor and outdoor pet chickens LOVE, and i mean LOVE chicken. Grant it I make sure it is cooked. We just tell them its Emu or better yet hawk. We started doing that originally with my dog since we didn't want her to ever make the connection to the tasty meat on her dinner plate and the critters mom is always introducing her to and cuddling with. Weirdly enough, my neighbors let their chicken flock eat any dead birds that were hit by cars or died similarly. Call me crazy but i don't think i want my birds to acquire the taste for cannibalism.

Your neighbor's chickens are at a substantial risk of getting botulism.

 

[CrazyChookChookLady]

My chickens get any and all scraps from my kitchen, minus of course the few things that can be toxic to them. They LOVE all animal proteins. It also helps cut my feed bill a bit and they are healthy, happy, and very productive hens.

 

[paneubert]

Your neighbor's chickens are at a substantial risk of getting botulism.

Based on what? It being roadkill? Botulism does not technically require, but does very strongly prefer a very low oxygen environment to grow and thrive. Don't see how what they described would increase the risk of botulism at all.

EDIT: So after looking into it a bit, there IS something to say about botulism and roadkill. I Googled around a bit and I do see where some veterinarians worry that cats and dogs get botulism from roadkill. Interesting. I can only assume that the dead body is a good host since oxygenated blood isn't flowing anymore and botulism could hypothetically start to favor the dead body.

 

[Bamabexchicks]

Based on what? It being roadkill? Botulism does not technically require, but does very strongly prefer a very low oxygen environment to grow and thrive. Don't see how what they described would increase the risk of botulism at all.

One of my hens just got really sick and had to go to Auburn University vet school clinic. When I asked if it might be botulism the vet asked me if they had access to carcasses or rotted food as that would be a likely source for that organism.

 

[Bamabexchicks]

https://m.petmd.com/dog/conditions/neurological/c_dg_botulism
@paneubert

 

[paneubert]

One of my hens just got really sick and had to go to Auburn University vet school clinic. When I asked if it might be botulism the vet asked me if they had access to carcasses or rotted food as that would be a likely source for that organism.

Yeah, I edited my post after I saw that some vets are of that opinion. Interesting.

 

[Bamabexchicks]

Yeah, I edited my post after I saw that some vets are of that opinion. Interesting.

Thanks for responding! I always welcome an open dialogue.

 

[woodmort]

I'd be leery of feeding any kind of dead animal to my birds where I wasn't sure why it died.