Why are my chickens afraid of mice?!

[HenneryTheEighth]

I saw a mouse or vole today, strolling nonchalantly thru my chicken yard. The ladies picked up their “skirts” and made shocked noises. Am I going to have to teach them how to eat mice?

 

[The Happster]

Best way to teach them is to show by example.

 

[GC-Raptor]

I'm guessing your chickens are young.
I witnessed my Golden Comet hens attack and beat a mole to death that popped up inside their pen, but they didn't eat it.
I also witnessed one of them catch and swallow a small toad. Yeah, she didn't feel well for a day and a half, stood around by the waterer drinking constantly.

I saw my Barred Rock hens attack a garter snake that scurried half way through the fence. That snake quickly backed out.

Am I going to have to teach them how to eat mice?

I think they'll get brazen as they get older. GC

 

[HenneryTheEighth]

Wow. Beat a mole to death, GC Raptor? And yes, they are young.
Maybe I should go swallow a mole in front of them . . .

 

[3KillerBs]

I was startled this afternoon to see my brand-new, just-shipped chicks first eat a couple tiny ants then gang up on a little spider.

The velociraptor ancestry is showing!

 

[GC-Raptor]

Maybe I should go swallow a mole in front of them . . .

I wouldn't try. I think moles taste bad.
When I was a child my mom's outdoor cats would kill a mole and leave at the backdoor for my mom.
They would eat mice and songbirds though. GC

 

[HenneryTheEighth]

I would only swallow a mole after drinking heavily.