This is gross but...

[ARavenBeauty]

Very very very new chicken mom here. My 8 ladies and 1 roo are 10 weeks old today and have been doing great and I never realized how much fun having chickens would be. However, last week they did something that surprised me and just looking to see if this is normal or harmful.

So I have never seen mice in the coop or the run, or even droppings, but sometime last week I must have have had one because all of a sudden there were 3 very very tiny baby mice in the run. No fur, eyes closed, I would say less than a day old. As soon as the chicks saw them they ate them!!!!!!!!! And they LOVED IT. It was almost like they were playing tag. Anyway..a touch disturbing, but I was not going to reach in and try to take them out of their beaks.

Normal? Harmful..( I sure hope not) It's been a few days since they ate them and nothing seems out of the ordinary.

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

Very very very new chicken mom here. My 8 ladies and 1 roo are 10 weeks old today and have been doing great and I never realized how much fun having chickens would be. However, last week they did something that surprised me and just looking to see if this is normal or harmful.

So I have never seen mice in the coop or the run, or even droppings, but sometime last week I must have have had one because all of a sudden there were 3 very very tiny baby mice in the run. No fur, eyes closed, I would say less than a day old. As soon as the chicks saw them they ate them!!!!!!!!! And they LOVED IT. It was almost like they were playing tag. Anyway..a touch disturbing, but it was not going to reach in and try to take them out of their beaks.

Normal? Harmful..( I sure hope not) It's been a few days since they ate them and nothing seems out of the ordinary.

Yes, it’s normal for them to eat mice! We had a chicken in a nesting box and a mouse came up to her, and she grabbed that mouse and swallowed it hole!!

 

[RobertaD1]

It seems pretty normal around here...LOL... My girls dont let them get to adult stage before they will wipe them out. They are just like cats, leave them for me to throw out. As for them eating the babies.... They probably have, but I have never seen it. But then, Ive never seen any nest close by... that doesnt mean theyre not there. Everyone is fine to date.

 

[3KillerBs]

Perfectly normal for these little velociraptors.

Chickens eat anything that doesn't eat them first.

 

[Painted Calls]

Perfectly normal for these little velociraptors.

Chickens eat anything that doesn't eat them first.

This. Lol

Mine fight over mice.

 

[LaFleche]

Perfectly normal for these little velociraptors.

Chickens eat anything that doesn't eat them first.

One of several reasons why we do not use any kind of poison around our premises.

 

[ARavenBeauty]

Thanks everyone for all the great info and for easing my mind. I really appreciate it.

 

[Grace11]

Wait until you see a big hornworm in there. They play football with it till it's just a sorry skin sack, then somebody swallows it.. adult mice usually have the tail hanging out of their beak until they can hork it down. grasshoppers are immediately dismembered.

 

[HenneryTheEighth]

Do they eat chipmunks? We are having a glut of them.

 

[Kusanar]

Extra free protein!