My chicken ate a mouse..

[chickengeorgeto]

I watched my youngster flock peck, whip, and play keep-away with a snake, they finally reduced the snake to a condition of compliance. Once compliance was established it was down the hatch for old no-shoulders.

 

[ScotlandMassage]

I just saw one hen today with a frog. Was trying to get a photo and next thing I know it was gone so I guess she swallowed it whole. Not sure if it was dead or not. She wouldn't stay still with her prize. Wouldn't let me upload the short video.
I've tried to give them small mice the cat or dog killed but they have never eaten them.

 

[peeper89]

I watched my youngster flock peck, whip, and play keep-away with a snake, they finally reduced the snake to a condition of compliance. Once compliance was established it was down the hatch for old no-shoulders.

i not want to think bout that!

 

[Slike]

Chickens are like little omnivorous dinosaurs. If its' made of meat and it fits in their mouth, they'll try to eat it. Geckos, frogs, centipedes, mice, baby rats seems to make no difference to them - its all protein!

As long as you don't have poison laid out for the mice (in which case it didn't ingest poisons) there's not a problem. I'd commend her on her catch!

When I uncover nests of pinkies (baby rats before they get their hair) I place it in the yard and watch the piranha-like feeding frenzy that ensues, glad to know that many fewer rats won't be around to plague us.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Chickens are like little omnivorous dinosaurs. If its' made of meat and it fits in their mouth, they'll try to eat it.....

It doesn't really need to fit in their mouth. In cool weather I have collected road kill and tied it up by its hind legs on the fence and slit an opening in the road kills' body to sort of tell the flock to "Start Pecking here."

In my early 20s I shot a sitting hen killing skunk in a steel trap. However I delayed disposing of the body. I should not have worried. By the next AM about 250 free running hens had eaten everything, even the skunk stink.

 

[Slike]

Haha, valid point chickengeorgeto. We have god awful little introduced weasely vermin around here called the Mongoose. I have not my flock directly eat off the carcass (because they must have musk glands - BOY do they stink when they get afraid or killed) and I didn't want my breeders/pets who I handle all the time to smell that repulsive. So instead, I place the Mongoose carcass into a 5gal bucket with holes gouged in the bottom and just under the throat's rim to allow insects to come in. It turns from one form of free protein into another.

I have thrown whole roadkill pigs in my pens and just let them gorge themselves, and gorge they do. Whatever they miss becomes fertilizer for the future garden space that the pen occupies.

When I lived on the mainland as a kid, my chickens ate so many raccoons and rats, though I kept most of the raccoon meat for myself typically. =p

 

[twilightgecko]

i watched one of my girls rip a frog to shreds and eat it piece by piece..

 

[extrememainer]

One time my dog was with me and my chickens. Then a mouse came out and instead of the dog getting it the chicken killed it. If I didn't take the hen away she would've eaten it

 

[Newchickenwoman]

One of my girls was caught in the act of killing a mouse by my partner who called me to deal with it! He said he didn't want them eating mice in case it affected the eggs. After telling him to get a grip, he still insisted I retrieve the now limp mouse from the unrelenting jaws of Ada. She's usually very gentle but she was very proud of having killed this thing all by herself and didn't want to let it go. I managed to prise it from her eventually and thew it away. Himself has been told that next time, I'm letting them get on with it.