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Author Topic: chooks 3 mice 0  (Read 1787 times)

UPoneacre

  • Joined Nov 2013
  • Llanidloes, Powys
chooks 3 mice 0
« on: August 17, 2014, 01:49:36 pm »
As newbie hen owners we've always assumed hens just ate grain, seed, vege stuff, and small insects etc  ;Dso it came as a bit of a surprise yesterday afternoon to see all three of ours in turn catch and devour small mice from behind the poly tunnel. Is this common or are we breeding cannibal chooks? :)

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: chooks 3 mice 0
« Reply #1 on: August 17, 2014, 02:15:08 pm »

Yes they eat whatever they can catch including froglets, but mine won't touch slugs - can you blame them  :P
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JulieWall

  • Joined Aug 2013
  • Cornhill, Banff
    • The Roundhouse
Re: chooks 3 mice 0
« Reply #2 on: August 17, 2014, 02:24:07 pm »
We once found a mouse nest and my youngest daughter who was six at the time fed the baby mice to her bantams. They just swallowed them whole.
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HesterF

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Kent
  • HesterF
Re: chooks 3 mice 0
« Reply #3 on: August 17, 2014, 11:03:07 pm »
They are descended from dinosaurs, what more would you expect? Quite impressed though - I'm fairly sure mine would not eat a mouse, much as I would love them to. I gather they'll catch and eat small birds too - again I can't even begin to think how mine would go about catching a bird.

UPoneacre

  • Joined Nov 2013
  • Llanidloes, Powys
Re: chooks 3 mice 0
« Reply #4 on: August 18, 2014, 10:10:01 am »
Ours behave more as though they're descended from 'Roadrunner'  :)  Reassuring to know that being 'mousers' is fairly normal tho'.

Is there any way I can stop them continuously pecking my boots while I'm trying to paint the barn, or are they getting big ideas?

lord flynn

  • Joined Mar 2012
Re: chooks 3 mice 0
« Reply #5 on: August 18, 2014, 11:49:42 am »
what colour are your boots? Probably shouldn't wear red ones...

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: chooks 3 mice 0
« Reply #6 on: August 18, 2014, 12:00:11 pm »
Ours will chase and mug the cat if they see him coming across the yard with a tasty looking mouse  ;D .
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

Louise Gaunt

  • Joined May 2011
Re: chooks 3 mice 0
« Reply #7 on: August 19, 2014, 08:43:17 pm »
I wish my hens would catch mice, there is at least one mouse goes in their house at night, eats their corn and craps in the food trough!

Clarebelle

  • Joined Jan 2013
  • Orkney
Re: chooks 3 mice 0
« Reply #8 on: August 19, 2014, 08:53:54 pm »
I saw my chooks fighting over somethingunder my kids trampoline the other day. Went over to investigate and found them pulling a mouse apart between them. Can't complain, the more things that eat the mice round here the better!  :chook:

 

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