Mouser Hens?

[Ohhhdear]

This fall my son cleaned out a shed and killed three mice who'd taken up residence in his snowmobile. I remembered that chickens will eat mice, so I offered them to the girls who were cleaning up my garden.
At first they were merely curious... just pecking a bit at the mice, some chickens losing interest and wandering back to maul the bean plants. Then one hen stabbed a still warm mouse and got a beakful of mouse guts, and the chase was on! Bits and pieces of torn apart mouse were in everyone's beaks, and them that had 'em got chased by them that didn't! My son and I laughed for the 20 minutes it took for the fur to stop flying!

I remember seeing a few small chipmunks in the yard, but not since late summer. Toads and frogs are not in abundance, either!

 

[akcharlie1960]

Where do you think their eggs get all that protien?

 

[Gypsy07]

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I could do with a hen like that. It's so hard to eradicate rats and keep them away, especially on a farm with all kinds of feed being put out for different animals all the time. I'd love a ratting hen!

 

[LeezyBeezy]

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[kelidei]

I remember the first time I saw one of my BA hens with a mouse... she had all the others chasing her around the yard... craziest game of keep away I ever saw.... finally she ducked into a corner and gulped it down and emerged strutting in triumph

 

[dianneS]

I have seen my hens carrying mice around. I'm not sure if the cat killed the mouse and the hens snatched it or what? I've never actually seen the hens eat any mice, but perhaps they do? I've also seen my hens carrying small toads around. I'm pretty sure that the hens killed the toads, but not sure once again if they eat them or not.

When I moved to my farm the henhouse came with a flock of cochin bantams. The henhouse was also heavily infested with rats since the chickens were fed continuously from a tube feeder. The cochins did nothing about the rats and the rats didn't bother the birds either. We erradicated most of the rats and then got EE's a brahma and some other breeds. It seems as though the EE's and Brahma's are the ones I see carrying mice around. I haven't seen a rat in over two years.

 

[Cheep]

I have a phobia about rats, & had never seen one in my yard for the 25 years I've lived here.
2 days ago, I saw something white in the yard that didn't belong there, & it was a dead rat. It's paws were red with blood, but was otherwise intact. Yay for my hens!!