# feeding mice to chickens



## Red_Hen (Sep 20, 2011)

Around this time of year we catch quite a few mice in the basement storage room... they are snap-trapped, not poisoned at all... can I feed them to the chooks?


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## Awnry Abe (Mar 21, 2012)

Yes. My girls catch live mice all the time. Even if they don't eat them, they will make some fly larva and other bugaboos.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

yes, as long as they are not too big they will go down whole, if they are too big the chickens will fight over them untill hopefully the mouse rips appart and they can handle it, baby mice are easyer and safer to swallow, a nest full of baby mice is like a bowl of candy


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## Cliff (Jun 30, 2007)

Yes!! Mice are chicken treats


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## mommathea (May 27, 2009)

Yep. we have mouse traps under and upside down box in the chicken coop. The chickens wait each morning while we check the traps so they can get their morning snack.


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## Soupmaker (Apr 28, 2012)

Red_Hen said:


> Around this time of year we catch quite a few mice in the basement storage room... they are snap-trapped, not poisoned at all... can I feed them to the chooks?


Yes. It's rather entertaining too.


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## PD-Riverman (May 24, 2007)

Yea---My chickens have been picking the left over meat off the deer bones from the deer we processed 2 days ago---They Love it.


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## Red_Hen (Sep 20, 2011)

nooo way could they get a mouse down whole?!?!?!

I know chooks love protein, I was just concerned about possible mouse diseases. I supposed chickens and mice carry different diseases and they're probably not communicable.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

large mice are harder to swallow but a determined flock of chickens can rip them appart given enough time and persistance, larger birds can obviously swallow larger mice, to speed up the process on a fresh dead mouse you can cut the skin with a knife if its a large animal. other wise a flock of normal chickens will carry one dead mouse around for hours with no one getting anything out of it if its too large to swallow and they cant break in, 

now some birds with more hooked beaks and especially flocks that are KNOW about mice, make quicker work of the larger animals, 

and no there isnt really anything chickens can get from mice unless the mice have had access to poison,


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## edcopp (Oct 9, 2004)

A couple of swats with a hatchet solves the too big problem.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

yep a hatchet would work, lol, chop mouse suie lol,


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## Red_Hen (Sep 20, 2011)

Bleh. I'll let them figure it out for themselves.


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

I have a little silkie hen that will stalk mice.


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## Red_Hen (Sep 20, 2011)

I threw it out to them and they were even more squeamish about it than I was.


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## Cliff (Jun 30, 2007)

Red_Hen said:


> I threw it out to them and they were even more squeamish about it than I was.


If you at least chop it in half then they will recognize it as food. Mouse stalking chickens are a good thing as chicken houses with chicken feed tend to attract mice


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## Red_Hen (Sep 20, 2011)

It's gone now... I think they figured it out. There are a ton of mice out there but I haven't figured out a good place to set traps.


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## bluetick (May 11, 2002)

I've noticed that my chickens will beat the dead mouse by repeatedly slamming it on the ground. After a while it appears very limp, as if bones have been broken. Then it seems to go down the throat better.


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