Releasing snake to eat mice

[Tesumph]

FYI, insects are considered meat. They have muscles in order to move just like we do.. muscles that are made of meat.

I’ve had an elderly hen die in a nest box before. When I found her the next day, she was half eaten by her flock mates.
I’ve also seen dead chickens from predator attacks being eaten by other chickens.

Gross? Sure. Unnatural? Not at all.
Lots of birds eat meat. Chickens are at the bottom of the food chain—they need to grab what they can if they want to survive.
Go toss a can of sardines or tuna into your run, I guarantee your birds will go insane for it.

Fun fact, chickens cannot taste “sweet” things. Given a choice, they will always pick savory.

 

[so lucky]

I don't feed my chickens raw meat; don't want to give them any ideas. But small amounts of meat that isn't highly seasoned, I don't have a problem with.

 

[Quackter]

I had all my chicken food sitting in front in my porch,mice found it and started eating it,I moved it to a shack in the back of the property,guessing that I moved the food and had no more food I thought they would leave,they didn't and moved into my house,I tried glue traps and more traps that instantly kill them,A bird,A lizard and even my poor dog managed to stick to the glue traps so they cause more harm than good,I finally got rid of them by removing all the things they could eat,this was over a year ago,a few days ago I started finding feed everywhere in the floor,today I moved some feed bags and found small poops,I do not know if mice can carry diseases to chickens but I'm not risking it,poison is not an option since I got the goat and chicken feed back there,I dislike traps so I was thinking of putting a rat snake in there to hunt the mice.good or bad idea?

I've been in a lot of old timers' barns where a "pet" snake was welcomed, and a lost egg and an occasional chick was considered worth it. I think copperheads was another reason they wanted the rat/black snakes around, maybe the main one. It was always funny seeing them hanging from the rafter waiting to grab a swallow, and almost bumping my head into them because they were so used to people. I know the one had been "hangin" around for about ten years according to the one farmer I helped bail hay.

I agree with everybody, securing your feed is the best way. Metal trash cans are awesome for it.

For cleaning up the residuals, these traps below have really impressed me, they don't have a brand on them. Easy to set, and I just put a piece of dog food in the pocket, most important they work. A guy threw them in on some "horse trading", so I don't even know who sells them. I have had some bad luck recently with the good old type, the staples want to come out of the wood after a couple snaps. Maybe someone knows a good brand that is still made well?

 

[Willowspirit]

Lol, as long as you know if they ever get a chance they'll eat anything they can catch be it bug, bird, lizard they seriously don't care.
I don't hesitate to dole out a left over sausage now seeing the things iv'e seen.

My hubby once saw two of the Orpingtons chasing the third one that had a small garter snake dangling from her beak. I don’t deliberately feed meat but I’ve been thinking about getting some sardines for me and them.

 

[Folly's place]

I haven't seen that trap, and the plastic ones I have tried were junk.
Mary

 

[Mimi13]

Chickens are opportunistic feeders, this is what the crop is for. It is the holding pouch for all the good stuff they find in one place.

Let a chicken come up on a mouse nest. Oh my lawd. No worries, none get away.

I give my chickens frogs that I find in my yard. One particular frog was eaten by 5 different hens as they picked it apart. When they were done I asked them if it tasted like chicken.

A chicken will shake and beat whatever the meal is about to be on the ground until it is dead. I would love to know the power they exercise it with their blunt force trauma. I’ll bet it would be quite a lot, even given their small size.

Let your girls eat some meat. They aren’t vegetarians. They will thank you. Oh yeah, several of mine made off with the remaining third of my ham sandwich at lunch today. They loved it.

 

[Ebony Rose]

...but I’ve been thinking about getting some sardines for me and them.

I buy the larger cans of sardines that are packed in sunflower oil, the 270g size. It comes in a nice round tin that I wash and use as chick feeders in the brooder. I eat some, and then set the rest out for the chickens; the adults will polish it off very quickly but brooding chicks (kept apart from the adults) usually need to revisit the sardines for two or three days to finish it off, so I offer it for 15 minutes, then refrigerate the leftovers for the next day. My chicks, especially, have benefited from this; they seem stronger and much healthier than offering only game bird feed (21% protein, but far superior to the 9% chick starter or 7% all flock that's available in the country where I live). Long story short about feed in this country, they want to sell chicks, the feed they offer will only sustain your chicken for about a year, the outright refuse to offer protein supplements or custom grinds. After that year or so of living on substandard feed, their malnutrition makes itself painfully evident with various diseases and chicks that hatch (or don't hatch) with their own grocery-list of disease brought on by the malnourishment of their parents. Supplementation with things I can get at the grocer is my only recourse.

 

[Chickassan]

Lol, my biggest hen Lulu likes to mug kids for food and beat it to death in front of them.
It is usually right after iv'e said what nice chickens they are.
Iv'e seen her disintegrate a normal rock hard cheeto killing it so I imagine the force is crazy.

Chickens are opportunistic feeders, this is what the crop is for. It is the holding pouch for all the good stuff they find in one place.

Let a chicken come up on a mouse nest. Oh my lawd. No worries, none get away.

I give my chickens frogs that I find in my yard. One particular frog was eaten by 5 different hens as they picked it apart. When they were done I asked them if it tasted like chicken.

A chicken will shake and beat whatever the meal is about to be on the ground until it is dead. I would love to know the power they exercise it with their blunt force trauma. I’ll bet it would be quite a lot, even given their small size.

Let your girls eat some meat. They aren’t vegetarians. They will thank you. Oh yeah, several of mine made off with the remaining third of my ham sandwich at lunch today. They loved it.

 

[Mimi13]

, my biggest hen Lulu likes to mug kids for food and beat it to death in front of them.

Oh lord, that just reminded me. A couple of days my 3 yo grandson insisted on taking his orange cracker out when we went to collect eggs, even though I told him he needed to leave it inside if he wasn’t gonna hurry and eat it. Nope, sometimes you just can’t reckon with a three year old!
ETA: I meant to say how horrifying it must be to a little one when they see a chicken thrashing anything around. My GS has seen me feed them frogs before.

The herd (not flock at this point) came running down the hill. He barely got two feet into the yard when my RIR, Ruby, jumped up and, with the darn near precision of a surgeon, removed the last bite of cracker from that boy’s mouth. He just stood there dumbfounded.

 

[Chickassan]

Must be something in orange food!

Oh lord, that just reminded me. A couple of days my 3 yo grandson insisted on taking his orange cracker out when we went to collect eggs, even though I told him he needed to leave it inside if he wasn’t gonna hurry and eat it. Nope, sometimes you just can’t reckon with a three year old!
ETA: I meant to say how horrifying it must be to a little one when they see a chicken thrashing anything around. My GS has seen me feed them frogs before.

The herd (not flock at this point) came running down the hill. He barely got two feet into the yard when my RIR, Ruby, jumped up and, with the darn near precision of a surgeon, removed the last bite of cracker from that boy’s mouth. He just stood there dumbfounded.