mouse eating chickens!!

[Animalian]

I've found mice with chunks missing out of them in the coop before, the hens kill it but becqause they're bantams can't swallow it whole so they just pick at it.

I remember sitting next to the coop one day and seeing one climb through the bars, grab a seed and start munching. So I went (scaring the mouse away) and caught my RIR who was free ranging at the time and sat back where I was at the doorway with her on my lap. After a little while the mouse came back and my RIR got SO EXCITED in my arms!!!Her pupils were going crazy she started struggling to get away but stayed completely quiet! I let her go and she charge at the mouse and got it by the leg. This is when the other hens saw and ran over and by the end of it the mouse was a stump and everybody had had a piece... eww

The only worry with them eating mice is if the mouse has ingested poison as the hens can get secondary poisoning from eating it.

 

[poseygrace]

I have a Buckeye that is a great mouser. She stalks them under my shed and goes CRAZY on them! Fun to watch, and a little scary. And wayyy gross!

 

[m_shuman]

My son fed ours a tree frog when they were about 4 weeks old. I never realized a tree frog would strech like a rubber but when chickens had hold of all four legs they do! It was gross and funny at the same time.

 

[sherylreno]

@FendiChick :

It was so dry here in So. FL - a couple of weeks ago I noticed a few mice getting into my coop at dusk- so I put traps out but haven't caught anything. I don't want mice in the coop! I am sure this happens in nature but I just don't want to think about them eating my chickens' food and drinking their water. I wish they were mice-eating hens!

The easiest way to control critters from eating your chicken food is to add crushed red peppers to the feed, rodents won't eat it because it's too hot for them but poultry can't tell at all if it's spicy or not. I learned about this from watching a show about a bird sanctuary that was being over run by mice eating the bird seed, once they put the crushed red pepper seeds with the feed and then mixed it all up they were rodent free. I do this to my feed now and all is great.​

 

[poseygrace]

Great tip about the red pepper! Thanks!

 

[Firework]

Once I saw my birds eating a gopher. I don't think they caught it, but still kinda cool. I feel sorry for frogs who get eaten.

 

[Pele]

Lol they are little dinosaurs arn't they? Mine have been catching and eating sparrows recently. It's really creepy to find a stripped sparrow skeleton next to the run. Everything perfectly intact except everything edible gone.

I call my flock Tyrannosaurus Chix

 

[Chickens rock!mysocks]

oh wow! i certainly wish my chickens eat mice, because my family currently has a huge mouse/squirrel problems. if they could just gobble them up, it would be amazing. But no...I've actually seen a chicken and a squirrel eating together at the feeder before.

 

[debducttape]

We live out in the woods, and usually see several copperheads around our house every summer. Since we got chickens, I have seen none! However, my nieghbor, who usually only sees one or two a year, has seen numerous snakes. My theory is that the chickens are keeping them out of the yard. Another great reason to keep a few happy chickies free ranging.

 

[ninabeast]

Okay, full disclosure: I'm a punctuation nerd. When I saw "mouse eating chicken" (as opposed to "mouse-eating chicken"), I clicked on this thread thinking I was going to find out I had to add mice to my list of predators. Whew!!!