Things That Chicken Eat That Surprised You

[ECBW]

Angry chickens! It is no joke.

Grew up in the old country with most classmates from farming households. The chickens truly free ranged and god only knew what they ate. Not unusual to see chickens scratching in cow pies for tasty morsels.

 

[Reyvaughn]

Quote:
This made me think... It just dawned on me that my pony had a poop line right along his fence line that is no longer there. Wow, I was wondering how I was going to clean all of that up! Hahaha! 70+ chickens did it for me! They exposed the grass for the pony, too! A win/win situation!

 

[kareninthesun]

chickens are great for hiding evidence of a meal forgotten in an oven until the burnt remains interject quick action and opened windows. Although no one is fooled, without proof, I've pulled off an Alfred Hitchcock.

Note to self: set an extra timer where I can actually hear it...

 

[kareninthesun]

oh, and they'll now eat pretty much anything except carrots. Odd, they actually drop them from their beaks. Doesn't matter if they are uncooked or barely cooked, steamed or whatever. And they actually gave me the stink eye when I gave them raw green beans the other day. They were cut in half. I know they aren't color blind, but think they thought they were their favorite green grapes. I garnered no chicken points from them.

 

[Rachy]

Daddy long legs. How can they eat one of those??!

 

[Chinchilla2]

Mine are under the impression that cardinal feathers are a great source of extra food. The other day my dog startled a grass snake that goofed up and, in trying to get away, stuck its head inside the run. He made it back out alive but with a massive headache and missing a bit between the eyes. My youngest son thinks it's a hoot to toss in bits and pieces of whatever we have handy to see the chicken rugby game. Starts off with everyone in a circle staring at the new item. Someone will eventually get brave enough to peck at it. When that happens, everyone else goes "AHA! They ate it, it must be good" and the chase is on.

Even for the short amount of time I've had these birds I have reached the conclusion that the logic that says they will eventually learn what is and isn't a food item is bogus. The darn things eat everything that winds up in their area and I mean EVERYTHING. Leaves, grass, ants, mice, frogs, toads, if they can get it positioned right, down it goes. June bugs are especially tasty.

 

[gryeyes]

BIG moths. So big the dust from the wings lingers on their beaks for a while. They always wipe their beaks on the ground after eating a big moth, but sometimes the wing dust is still there when they're done.

Stupid moths, out before it's dark!!! That should larn 'em!

 

[cassidy22]

Not a chicken but a turkey..

We were building a greenhouse, and some of the nuts for the bolts kept coming up short. our turks were with us in the area, eating bugs in the garden.

Come Thanksgiving, we butcher the turkeys, and we found 4 nuts in one tom's gullet. Couldn't believe it!!!

 

[gryeyes]

And what is it about styrofoam that draws ALL chickens? Everybody I know has learned not to leave any styrofoam out. They love the bits for packing..... chase each other for those just as much as any other goodie.

I've been moving and have a lot of the solid styrofoam stuff; as much as I cover it in black garbage bags, SOMEBODY in the flock still gets to some, and then others come join.... I come home from work to find styrofoam sculptures all over the yard.

 

[Frost Homestead]

we were watchin' two of the younger cockerels we used to have and they were diggin' in the leaves and brush. one of em pulled out of 6-7 inch worm snake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carphophis They promptly ripped it in two peices and each one of them ate their respective half

they seemed to really like it. they also seem to have a hankerin' for tuna fish sandwiches, my DH was sitting out on the patio eating one and he was mobbed by hungry chickens, they took turns jumping up on his knee until he started ripping off little pieces and feeding them

edited for typo