What some chickens will eat - GROSS

[Warthog]

Sorry no picture of this is all happend to quickly.

My girls free range all day. Today a tarantula came from under the car the chicken swooped pulled its legs off shook it and down it went, I am talking about a full grown tarantula.

Doesn't pay to think too much about what free range chickens eat.

 

[catfish/okie]

They will eat mice also.

 

[Knight Hawk Ranch]

Pretty much anything they can get thier beaks on that doesn't eat them first.

My girls scarfed down a couple of frogs before they even hit the growd.

 

[Warthog]

I have seen mine eat frog too. But a tarantual, uggh, maybe that just seems worse because they give me the shivers.

I believe they will also eat the scorpions, I am told the bite off the stinger first and then eat the rest, only what I am told, never seen it happen.

Nice to know they keep down the creepy crawlies, cos we get lots here.

Pity about the frogs, I think frogs are lovely.

 

[Shadowhills Farm]

Our Rouen duck that we had chased a lizard across the yard......I believe that the chickens also chased bugs that flew through the air

 

[Tala]

We've never had a rodent problem.

BUT

today I saw my top hen, Queenie out there with something big.....looked like a house mouse!!!!!!!!!!!

1 smallish mouse, 13 chickens.....it never had a chance! They had it reduced to shreds and were still fighting over the remnants the next time I looked

One day when MIL was complaining about cockroaches being brought in by frequently turning-over renters....I was saying how we never had a cockroach problem, that the birds even ate the giant water bugs! and she said "well if your new neighbors bring some roaches in with their stuff...." and I was like "well the chickens will pluck them from the yard before they reach our house!"

and she was kinda like.....eeeew, and we EAT their eggs......

BUT she still gobbles up eggs from us so I guess it's just one of those things she chooses not to think about!

 

[feathersnuggles]

Slugs. Sticky, slimey, viscous, disgusting slugs. After eating a slug, they wipe their beaks, over and over. Ugh.

 

[chickcribs]

Last summer, I took my family camping. My daughters, 9 and 6 caught a couple frogs, they wanted to bring home. My only condition was that they needed to let the frogs go after about a week, they agreed.

So at the end of the week, my 6 year old decided to let hers go. She went outside with the frog, sat on the swing to say her final good by's and the frog jumped out of her hand and into the grass. Well, our chickens were free that day, and they immediately swarmed over to her and grabbed the frog and two chickens ended up having a tug of war with the frog and ripped it in two right before my daughter’s eyes. It had shocked her so bad, I did everything I could to stay composed for her, but man, those chickens will eat just about anything.

I have also seen them eat mice, deer meet and just about anything else they can get their beaks into.

 

[Organics North]

Raw fish guts treat was on my birds menu last night....

Anything but chicken for our girls. (Just can not condone or encourage cannibalism in warm blooded creatures.)

ON

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
Not sure if all tarantulas are like this but... I read an article the other day about a guy that was having blurred vision and red eyes. Doctors could not figure out what was going on. Finally they used a very high powered magnifier on his eyes and found that micro-sized barbed hairs were sticking out of his eyeballs. Seems he had recently cleaned out his pet tarantulas aquarium and had his head over in it cleaning the glass. He turned his head to find his "pet" tarantula staring him in the face...close encounter. As it turned out tarantulas (I don't know if it's all breeds of them) in a defensive action can propel barbed hairs off of their backs when threatened.

My recommendation, simple....don't look eyeball-to-eyeball with a tarantula so if your chicken starts having the red-eye don't jump to the conclusion that it's been out partying all night.

FWIW,
Ed