chicken food

[rio116]

Does anyone know if a chicken would eat a mouse? We found a dead mouse with its face missing in my chicken avairy yesterday and I just can't see my chicken being able to do that,she's not a bird of prey!! Very strange,any ideas?

[Clanad]

If the chickens were free range, that is not penned, you would see them eat a variety of things rather than just chicken feed. Worms, large bugs, etc. It would be unusual for a chicken to catch and eat a mouse.  However,  if a dead mouse was found by the chicken and the mouse had blood on its head then the chicken could be attracted to this area and peck at it.  In the process the chicken could destroy the mouses face.  It's more probable the mouse was killed by another predator though... (What kind of sports shoes does a chicken wear?  Reebok-bok's... sorry)

[cre]

We were eating sandwiches outside one day and some of the filling fell out (some kind of meat), and our chicken came over and gobbled it up. I often see my hen running after bugs and eating them, but like Clanad said, I can't imagine them attacking a mouse, but they would go for it once it's dead.

[Artful]

I was amazed once when I found the chickens eating a mouse that the cat had left lying around.
With our last hens they loved a bit of meat in with their feed. We'd give them any bones from a meal - and the first thing they would do when their feed arrived would be to sort through it to find any meat, bone or fat - they would grab it and make a dash to eat it away from the others.

Sadly we're chicken-less at the moment as a fox got hungry one morning during a very cold spell we had in April.