My chickens are addicted......

[chickengeorgeto]

Addiction. It's hard to talk about. It's an ugly thing. My chickens have become.....how do I put it......mice eaters. It started slowly, and when you see a chicken gulp down a mouse, right then you know they are the direct descendants of dinosaurs. Mean ones. Now, these chickens actually hunt the mice. Searching the woodpile, around the feed buckets, they are obsessed with mice meat. What's next? Squirrels? Rabbit's?

Mice and related small mammals are what the dinosaurs cut their teeth on some 65,000,000 years ago so I doubt that our short relationship with Gallus Gallus Domesticus has yet to make much of an impact on the dining habits of chickens who BubbaLiksIt correctly points out are only small dinosaurs. In fact I use to shoot rabbets I caught raiding my garden and fed these furry pirates to the hens running lose on the yard and it also seems that skunks are a chicken epicures' favorite snack, stink and all. I don't want to get into the hens following my tractor around in the Spring when I turn my garden hoping for a nest full of tender delectable baby mice to be uncovered. The bad part of all of this is the bean counters at the feed mills who don't want to include meat in their chicken feeds because it may upset some of the humans who purchase this so-called "Chicken Food" If the chickens could chose I know what kind of protein would be in that sack of Purina or Scratch & Peck.

 

[chuckachucka]

I would LOVE it if my chickens ate mice! I currently have a mouse problem in my property and my chickens have done zilch to solve it. They would run away from the hamster i used to have so I think they are scared of rodents!

 

[RodNTN]

My chickens eat frogs, mice, snakes, voles, moles, lizards, etc.
There is nothing wrong with your chickens eating mice, I would only be concerned if they were eating mice that had had access to some kind of poison. Besides, they're good protein

 

[chickencheeper]

The sweetest chickens can turn into devils when they see a mouse. Take for example my dearly departed hen Blossom- she was terrified of humans and at the bottom of the pecking order but one day a mouse ran through the run…and she was the first to pounce…it kept happening.

 

[Abriana]

Chickens are omnivores, they’ll eat plants, bugs, and any type of meat. Even mice. Mind love them and hunt for them. Once, my hen hope caught one, flung it into the air, it almost hit me in the face, then it landed and ran away. It was funny and scary at the same time! I just let mine eat them.

 

[Trux]

Every so often I get lucky enough to see one get in the run, and it is game on...I call it chicken rugby. One will grab the live mouse and sling it and the others are on it like flys on you know what. Needless to say the mouse usually ends up getting flung through the air several times before it is picked apart by 13 hens

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Every so often I get lucky enough to see one get in the run, and it is game on...I call it chicken rugby. One will grab the live mouse and sling it and the others are on it like flys on you know what. Needless to say the mouse usually ends up getting flung through the air several times before it is picked apart by 13 hens

The children's' game "Keep Away" was likely invented by a group of kids after watching a flock of chickens catch and eat a mouse. My chickens evidently exhibit better table manners than some of the people posting here chickens do, because my birds almost universally refuse to pick a mouse apart, preferring instead to swallow their rodents whole. Of course this usually involves a lot of preparatory pecking and slinging of the mouse and tenderizing it against the ground to ensure that the mouse is fully into the program before it takes the long plunge down a chickens' throat.

 

[Chickens 4Ever]

My chickens loved mice once, now if I find one and give it to em they play with it till it’s dead and leave it there

 

[Cayuga momma]

This is the best thread!!!!!

 

[aart]

My chickens evidently exhibit better table manners than some of the people posting here chickens do, because my birds almost universally refuse to pick a mouse apart, preferring instead to swallow their rodents whole. Of course this usually involves a lot of preparatory pecking and slinging of the mouse and tenderizing it against the ground to ensure that the mouse is fully into the program before it takes the long plunge down a chickens' throat.

It never ceases to amaze me that they don't hold it down with their feet and tear it up...SMH. I know, I know, they just don't do that...but they should, haha!!