Mice in, or around the coop..?!

[ll]

you cooked those mice in your house? in your cooking pot? that you cook other food in? I think it would be better to put them in tin foil and cook them outside on a grill or something. I wouldn't mind the chickens eating cooked mice, but I don't think I could cook them in the house.

^ yes this, my eyes bulged @ the thought

 

[joan1708]

good article ChickenJerk! So there you have it - mice are not a good thing. Thank you for posting it!

 

[Peter1975]

*Everyone has a different threshold of 'gross'. I've seen my dogs eat disgusting things, puke up even worse and I still kiss their little faces. No different IMO. Chickens are what chickens are. They all eat disgusting things that you don't see and you still eat the eggs! Don't think about it too much or you will end up a vegetarian-as someone else posted! While I wouldn't cook up mice, to each their own!*



I hope your not comsuming what comes out of your dogs arse.

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

You need a few of these...Meet George, he and his girlfriends have been hanging around here for the last few years.

 

[jk216]

OMG!!!!

Their are times when i think thank god i live in Britain and after looking at that picture this is one of those time. x

 

[DrJerryrigger]

yeah, I'm happy to have a friendly cat rather than black rat snakes, but to each there own.

 

[paulandashia]

Wow, well this turned into somewhat of an argument. lol I didn't intend for it to go that way.
I just posted it for the "fun" and "silliness" of it.
But I did want to make a short note though.
I live in Alaska...
We do NOT have snakes here to kill mice. Bears and moose are not much for eating mice... LoL
The snow gets waist deep, and most cats (not all) but most will NOT go out into the snow.
I will not poison mice to get rid of them and risk my chickens getting a hold of one.
I have had chickens for years, and never fed them cooked mice until now. It is NOT something I feed "Rregularly", this was the first time I did that.
The Cooking 'liver' smell didn't bother me either, because I absolutely LOVE liver. lol That said, I can see how some people can be grosed out by the smell alone.

Salmonella.... Maybe in the States, but we do NOT have to worry about that stuff here. Or Mareck's, etc. We don't have those here.... (not yet at least) BUT, as I mentioned before, I decided to BOIL the mice to PREVENT any potential pathogens! (believe me when I tell you I am as paranoid about getting nasties into my babies as anyone else!) I would rather have them eat cooked, than raw.

Honestly, feeding cooked mice is, in my personal opinion, no different than for example, if hubby went rabbit hunting, and brought home a wild rabbit for the birds and I stuck that in a pot..?
I don't see the difference, honestly. Meat is meat. An Animal is an Animal.
Again, I live in Alaska, and we do NOT have Mice here like in the lower 48.. We have shrews, and these were NOT shrews...
As I said before, these mice didn't come from the "wild", we do not have them here (although that would make no difference to me). These were mice originated at the pet store (a few generations ago), I have some mice here at home as pets for my kids. I know the difference. I caught some black mice, tan, as well as whites, and a couple multi-colored! So I KNOW they escaped from someone's care, or were released, and bred like crazy!

But to each their own. I am not squeamish about that stuff. I am perfectly aware what Chickens will eat in the wild, and believe me, Cooked / Boiled mice do not hold a candle. lol
And, they absolutely loved it
I thought it was a good idea for my birds, and considered it fair game, since the mice lived happy and sassy under the coop and gorged on the chickens food all winter.

We don't have mouse problems here normally, so finding them was a bit of a shock, but it was remedied, and the little carcasses were used. Their little furry souls passed quickly, and their little bodies were used to nourish another animal... Every little part was eaten and used....
My Beliefs state that NO PART of an animal should be wasted. Regardless of WHY you kill it. And that means mice too!
I am NOT allowed to kill an animal unless it will be used in some way. To me, that was a GREAT way. I was grateful that I had a way to be able to use their little bodies, instead of tossing them away into the trash...

Anyhow, I was not trying to start an argument, I just wanted to share something I did for my girls that they seemed to absolutely ADORE.
If I have another mouse infestation next year, I will do the same. As I said, I am not squeamish about that stuff.
Believe it or not, eating mice is accepted in many cultures, as is eating guinea pigs, cats, dogs, horses, and other animals that are considered "pets" here in America, To us, it's unimaginable.... To them, it's daily life.... (Some people can not believe we eat cows every day!)

But as someone once mentioned, it's our "way" that makes us squeamish about feeding certain things....
When looked at logically, it makes perfect sense.

Again, I did not mean for this to turn into something ugly. Just posted for fun.

 

[Auscal]

To the OP, I think what you did was a very creative solution, and a win-win all round.

But, I do wonder why you added salt? Seriously, not being critical - just curious.

 

[paulandashia]

Auscal.
I apologize for taking so long to answer...
I added Iodized Table Salt, because where I live, there is no Iodine in the soil, and iodine is a nutrient necessary for an animal's health and overall survival....
I have a smaller bowl with salty water available in the run at all times, along with 2 other, larger bowls with fresh, clean, salt-free water. So they can come and get it when they want.

I was also told that Chickens can sometimes "crave" salt, and that it can sometimes assist with cannibalism prevention (blood is salty).
I read online that you can help to "break" a cannibalistic flock sometimes by using "salt water".

 

[alscatS]

I am have an explosion of little critters and I think a rat also - this is now a priority - I found the bucket idea, but like the idea of feeding them back to the chickens, they really need to take care of this themselves, there is difference in eating droppings and eating the animal itself......i have to figure out how to keep the food away - and there is just too much habitat... limiting that is hard. AND if you have an extra black rat snake I would love one.....