Chickens are scavengers. They will eat anything they can find or catch. That includes each other.I'm a new chicken owner...but aren't you supposed to at least cook chicken bits thoroughly before giving them to chickens to prevent diseases? Do you cook the lungs? Eggs I can understand..they basically consume an egg as they develop inside it..but feeding chickens actual chickens seems different.
I think that is true to an extent. But chickens are domesticated now so "dying off" would be pretty difficult. And I doubt that chickens have an innate sense of whether something has eaten poisons, in a "kill every thing plant or animal we do not like" society. Obviously free-ranging is a bit different. I doubt anyone follows their free-rangers around all day. But if something is noticed, they likely deal with it as necessary. IF necessary. Mine do not free range, way too many predators here. They cannot be expected not to play with or sample living morsels. In our area I might as well have their coop and run in the dead center of a 10k acre corn field dotted with homes people don't want mice and moles in so they aim to rid them...hence needing to be observant and not allow possible poisons into my girls' diet. We do have people who free-range around here also. And I'm sure not all mice are tainted! But I do think it is fair and sound advice, at least in heavy crop farm regions, to suggest removing a mouse from a flock when they are known to be targettex by poisons on the property.
the chickens that I processed had no signs of disease or parasites so....
so feeding them from your own stock you should feel comfortable cooked or raw.
I had a cat that caught a mouse in the chicken coop once. The chickens chased her down and took it away from her!
