Mice and chickens

[lizro]

My neighbour was telling me that hens are good at catching mice. Is this true?

[bikesandbirdsbob]

Hi not sure ,but they eat the ones the cat leaves in the garden . would not be surprised if a mouse got cauht in amongst the flock , it would have no chane . I have seen my girls pull a fledgeling to pieces before I could get to it.Mini raptors .
(It is the fouling of the food that kills chickens -bubble eyes etc.)
Bob

[KarenE]

I'm not sure about catching them but they will certainly eat them. I think they may catch them though, they are very quick. My husband tells me he rescued a mouse (alive) from our cat and before he could turn around, our top hen had whipped it out of his hand and ran up the garden with it (with the rest of the flock in hot pursuit). The cat was still wondering what had happened!

[chookmike]

They are very good at catching them - and very quick (T-Rex and all that) I have seen them go down in one too - kinda spoils the omelette next morning...

Mike

[scbk]

Mine will occasionally catch a young mouse, but I think the adult ones are too fast for them. By the time they notice the mouse and start running it's already gone!

[DaveEllon]

I'll be interested to see what happens this winter when the mice start coming into the garage again. I bought two traps last year after finding a hole gnawed in the base of a plastic gallon can of engine oil up in the mezzanine and a huge pool of oil soaking through the chipboard flooring. I caught a bunch of the little swines until they disappeared in the spring when there was plenty of food outside again. For a while it was one or two a day until I'd thinned the population out.

This year I'll give any I catch to the chucks. It's all good protein.

[KarenE]

Gross alert - anyone of a sensitive disposition please don't read!

I was in the garden one day when I heard this strange thumping sound coming from behind me from some bushes. It was Rembrandt, my top hen, who had caught herself a mouse and was busy bashing its brains out on a step. Once she'd finished, down it went.

I don't think you need to worry about mice BUT I don't think all chickens have a taste for mice. I've never seen any of my other chooks bother with them, so perhaps its only those that have more intact T Rex genes

[bikesandbirdsbob]

Hi , If rems actually shared her prize they soon would . My girls come from far and wide to have a piece of meat , no matter what it maybe .
Bob

[HedgeHugger]

Mine prefer frogs to mice. They shared their run with a mouse. It lived there for ages.
They shared the garden with a vole, haven't seen it recently though.
They hunt for the frogs. They circle the pond, looking. They ate most of the taddies.
I haven't managed to rescue a frog yet. By the time I realise, it's curtains for Freddy.

On my nightly garden checks I do still see adult frogs and toads, so still have some about, just less than I used to!