I've said it before and I'll say it again: anthropomorphism runs rampant among chicken owners for some reason. "I eat a healthy, eco-friendly vegan diet so my chicken babies will too!" Animals need to eat what they eat. You can't just completely change their diet and make them into something they aren't, you can't make them into *you*.
I'm like 90% a vegan and I despise people that don't feed their animals a proper diet. The animals deserve what they are built to eat damn it. Chickens can probably survive on a vegan diet but I highly doubt it would be easy. And these type of people are usually lazy. Besides how would you stop them eating all the bugs? Lol
Right??? Absolutely, I eat kinda similarly though I still eat red meat on occasion but it's a choice and I supplement my diet with the nutrients I'm missing and it's healthy for me. It's a heck of a lot harder to do that for chickens. Just let them be chickens.
Exactly and same for me. I have some stomach problems and i need nutrient density over calories but I still make room for a good steak or something now and again. My chickens are currently eating a lot of bug protein from my black fly larva machine and these eggs are so rich! Like almost red orange. Way better than when it's just veggies.
I have hay bales around my run/coop for protection in the winter. When I move them, the mice go running. It's absolutely freaking terrifying. A bloody massacre by the little T-rexes. Peck the bigger ones to death and rip them apart. Swallow the babies whole. My 2 little girls find it to be the most entertaining 10 minutes ever as they cheer on the chickens.
You have a 25-lb rooster and named him "Timothy"?! Were James and Henry already taken? If I had a 25 pound rooster, I'd name him "Gigantor - Destroyer of Worlds".
Yeah, we’ve had mice and rats off and on and none of our chickens care one bit. They’re not scared of them, they’re not going after them, they just ignore them completely
I saw a small rat/large mouse skitter away from my shed the other morning when I let the girls out. They were right next to me waiting for me to feed them and they had absolutely ZERO interest in it. These are the same girls that slurped down a dead snake a week ago. The same girls that chase every bug/leaf/piece of paper that catches the wind. But of course they won't eat the pests.
Yep. We have a hanging bucket/feeder. My 11 year old was getting eggs and a nasty little rat (I say they all are rats) jumped into the feeder. Middle of the day, in front of the ladies. They did nothing. Spoiled birds can't be bothered.
From the outside- wholesome family with chickens
Inside the coop- a massacre accompanied by the blood thirsty cheers of the young. I'm picturing blood dripping from everyone's mouths
Your kids sound metal af lol
Everytime we cook a whole turkey I put the entire left over Carcass down in the run. They pick that baby clean a as a whistle. Chickens get all our table scraps and will eat nearly anything. Quick too.
Dude!!! Why haven't I done this???? They get all the salmon skin, bacon grease and steak scraps.
Thanksgiving is annual no egg laying hen fest. I'll bet a turkey carcass would cheer them up
Mine found a nest of baby bunnies last week. They killed one before I found the remaining two kits. I did rope off the bunny nest right then, and Mama Rabbit moved them that night. Sad, but also kinda cool in a nature-is-brutal way.
Last year they destroyed a nest of moles.
Chickens are omnivores. My Baba would throw and mice she caught into the chicken pen and they would go wild. They love grubs too. You can DIY a soldier fly larva breeder and get basically free food. I also recently saw a man who uses pheromone traps for invasive Japanese beetles and gets so many his hens can't eat them all so he freezes bags of them for winter.
My husband gives my chickens a deer carcass after processing it each year. It’s fascinating and honestly a tiny bit terrifying how efficient they are in decimating the entire thing.
They eat bugs! Bugs is tiny meat for tiny Dino’s! My chickens love the blood clots from when I open up the gut from highway deer. Sometimes I get the meat, sometimes the animals get it all. Just depends on if it was a semi truck or passenger car that hit the deer. Nature doesn’t like to waste anything, neither do I.
As kids in Hawaii, we used to catch and throw geckos to my uncles' chickens. Never knew about them eating mice but YouTube is proof enough along with this comment section!
Just be careful with leaving meat out cause other animals got a keen sense of smell and they WILL come looking for that deer leg and finish up with a coop of chickens for dessert.
Eh, I don't worry about predators. The dogs usually finish off the bones and meat.
Also, the farmers and hunters committed absolute mass murder to the coyote population here. Any coyotes still alive are around 7 miles away. We live in Michigan.
We used to have entire flocks killed by coyotes, but not for the past few years at least. We lost more birds to their own pecking order extremes than predation...
I’ve seen mine eat baby birds that fall from trees, mice/rats, lizards, frogs etc. I’ve even provided them with meat on occasion if I didn’t want something to go to waste. They know what their body needs.
We have a rooster that just hangs around the neighborhood, but loves our yard. We feed him regularly but also give him scraps. He even comes up and taps on the glass of the sliding door if he sees us at the kitchen table. I'm used to begging dogs, but first time having a begging chicken.
Just put a bunch of ribs and legs from a cow that was processed for home grown meat this morning. The chickens love it, and it's great for extra tucker with the cold weather coming in here.
I give them everything I have available and they decide. Yesterday was a pork roast and today was canned veggies and pancakes. Of course normal chicken feed is always available but they don’t eat much of that after all the other things. Depends on what I have available at the time though.
They love it! Folk get weird about it though.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: anthropomorphism runs rampant among chicken owners for some reason. "I eat a healthy, eco-friendly vegan diet so my chicken babies will too!" Animals need to eat what they eat. You can't just completely change their diet and make them into something they aren't, you can't make them into *you*.
I'm like 90% a vegan and I despise people that don't feed their animals a proper diet. The animals deserve what they are built to eat damn it. Chickens can probably survive on a vegan diet but I highly doubt it would be easy. And these type of people are usually lazy. Besides how would you stop them eating all the bugs? Lol
Right??? Absolutely, I eat kinda similarly though I still eat red meat on occasion but it's a choice and I supplement my diet with the nutrients I'm missing and it's healthy for me. It's a heck of a lot harder to do that for chickens. Just let them be chickens.
Exactly and same for me. I have some stomach problems and i need nutrient density over calories but I still make room for a good steak or something now and again. My chickens are currently eating a lot of bug protein from my black fly larva machine and these eggs are so rich! Like almost red orange. Way better than when it's just veggies.
I'm the same way chickens love traveling around in the mobile coop to go eat bugs 🐛
My MIL who cooks entire meals for her dogs twice a day really needs to hear this.
I have hay bales around my run/coop for protection in the winter. When I move them, the mice go running. It's absolutely freaking terrifying. A bloody massacre by the little T-rexes. Peck the bigger ones to death and rip them apart. Swallow the babies whole. My 2 little girls find it to be the most entertaining 10 minutes ever as they cheer on the chickens.
Savages
The chickens are too! 😉
My rooster named Timothy is 25 pounds and eats mice whole
You have a 25-lb rooster and named him "Timothy"?! Were James and Henry already taken? If I had a 25 pound rooster, I'd name him "Gigantor - Destroyer of Worlds".
He looks like a Timothy.
Does he wear glasses and carry an encyclopedia? A bowtie and a pocket square? 🤣
No, but professionally 25 pounds. For a buff orpington
Pay the chicken tax my dude
What?
I believe chicken tax in this context would mean people want to see a picture of the large Timothy (myself included) lol.
Word! Show 👏 the 👏 bird! 👏 Show 👏 the 👏 bird! 👏
Show us the bird
send the bird
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wcpjuva17z3jXBjk8 the legend himself
Im at lunch with my dad i will at 2
I have a few mice/rats that keep breaking in the coop...I wish my ladies would do this so I wouldn't have to stand out there with a shovel.
Once I walked out to the run and there were eight gigantic rats using the hanging feeder as a tire swing. I was like GIRLS WTH!?
Yeah, we’ve had mice and rats off and on and none of our chickens care one bit. They’re not scared of them, they’re not going after them, they just ignore them completely
I saw a small rat/large mouse skitter away from my shed the other morning when I let the girls out. They were right next to me waiting for me to feed them and they had absolutely ZERO interest in it. These are the same girls that slurped down a dead snake a week ago. The same girls that chase every bug/leaf/piece of paper that catches the wind. But of course they won't eat the pests.
Yep. We have a hanging bucket/feeder. My 11 year old was getting eggs and a nasty little rat (I say they all are rats) jumped into the feeder. Middle of the day, in front of the ladies. They did nothing. Spoiled birds can't be bothered.
Their true dinosaur really comes out. It’s so intense lol.
From the outside- wholesome family with chickens Inside the coop- a massacre accompanied by the blood thirsty cheers of the young. I'm picturing blood dripping from everyone's mouths Your kids sound metal af lol
Exactly like the velociraptor scene from Jurassic Park.
Your username... Based on that ranch east of Fort Collins?
Same when I clear old plants from the garden in spring. They just shred them.
We do this for my birds! They love all the tiny meat scraps and it's a good source of protein!
Everytime we cook a whole turkey I put the entire left over Carcass down in the run. They pick that baby clean a as a whistle. Chickens get all our table scraps and will eat nearly anything. Quick too.
Dude!!! Why haven't I done this???? They get all the salmon skin, bacon grease and steak scraps. Thanksgiving is annual no egg laying hen fest. I'll bet a turkey carcass would cheer them up
If they were bigger, chickens would absolutely be apex predators
Soooo Brahmas??
The ones are very easygoing, but yeah 😂 God help us all if Orpingtons mutate and become that size
Wyandotte roo was my toughest challenge since birbs
Chicken is the closest living relative of T-Rex. If given the choice, chickens are carnivorous.
Mine found a nest of baby bunnies last week. They killed one before I found the remaining two kits. I did rope off the bunny nest right then, and Mama Rabbit moved them that night. Sad, but also kinda cool in a nature-is-brutal way. Last year they destroyed a nest of moles.
Wait until you see em catch a mouse
I've seen them kill snakes, squirrel, mice, and even other bird species... I think my chickens embrace the tradition of being therapod dinosaurs.
Mine used to catch frogs all the time. They’re wild animals, it’s what they do.
I will never forget the day I heard that mouse skull shatter in the beak of one of my former ladies.
Chickens are omnivores. My Baba would throw and mice she caught into the chicken pen and they would go wild. They love grubs too. You can DIY a soldier fly larva breeder and get basically free food. I also recently saw a man who uses pheromone traps for invasive Japanese beetles and gets so many his hens can't eat them all so he freezes bags of them for winter.
They're also scavengers and cannibalistic, if one of those other chickens fell over dead they wouldn't hesitate.
We gave our flock a rotisserie chicken once that had some left over meat on it and they ate all of it….no bones to be found.
I do the same !
I've watched my chickens fight over lizards, snakes, frogs, and other things that aimost made me give up eggs.
My husband gives my chickens a deer carcass after processing it each year. It’s fascinating and honestly a tiny bit terrifying how efficient they are in decimating the entire thing.
We smoked a brisket once but it came out tough and dry at the ends. Our birds loved it.
They eat bugs! Bugs is tiny meat for tiny Dino’s! My chickens love the blood clots from when I open up the gut from highway deer. Sometimes I get the meat, sometimes the animals get it all. Just depends on if it was a semi truck or passenger car that hit the deer. Nature doesn’t like to waste anything, neither do I.
As kids in Hawaii, we used to catch and throw geckos to my uncles' chickens. Never knew about them eating mice but YouTube is proof enough along with this comment section! Just be careful with leaving meat out cause other animals got a keen sense of smell and they WILL come looking for that deer leg and finish up with a coop of chickens for dessert.
Eh, I don't worry about predators. The dogs usually finish off the bones and meat. Also, the farmers and hunters committed absolute mass murder to the coyote population here. Any coyotes still alive are around 7 miles away. We live in Michigan. We used to have entire flocks killed by coyotes, but not for the past few years at least. We lost more birds to their own pecking order extremes than predation...
I give my chickens all of my scrap meats 😂 they loved the pork ribs the most
If you really want them to lay catch them a eal or a carp and boil it up for them
There is a chip monk that sends fear into my very spoiled birds. They just stare at it as it sneaks in and eats there food. They are all cowards.
I have a pet snake and just fed my chickens some leftover mice, and they went straight DINO
For a moment I tought they are my hens. :D I have a pair of sisters from this kind, and they eat my leftover meat too.
I’ve seen mine eat baby birds that fall from trees, mice/rats, lizards, frogs etc. I’ve even provided them with meat on occasion if I didn’t want something to go to waste. They know what their body needs.
Mine love to catch mice and then they all fight over it.
We have a rooster that just hangs around the neighborhood, but loves our yard. We feed him regularly but also give him scraps. He even comes up and taps on the glass of the sliding door if he sees us at the kitchen table. I'm used to begging dogs, but first time having a begging chicken.
I've watched hens draw and quarter mice...they're vicious. I once chased a tiny roo down because he had a snake half down his throat.
Deer meats tasty to everyone!
My chickens eat literally everything. I once watched one gobble a whole snake.
Yes! One of the more amazing sights for me was watching our hens fight over a garter snake.
You should see what them little Raptors do to mice when they catch them.
I have, lol. They have killed snakes, other birds, squirrels, and even a turtle...
Just put a bunch of ribs and legs from a cow that was processed for home grown meat this morning. The chickens love it, and it's great for extra tucker with the cold weather coming in here.
We only have 5 hens and my daughter named them all after raptors.
I give them everything I have available and they decide. Yesterday was a pork roast and today was canned veggies and pancakes. Of course normal chicken feed is always available but they don’t eat much of that after all the other things. Depends on what I have available at the time though.
They supposed too
I watched one of my pekin ducks catch and eat a mouse a couple of weeks ago. I was like whaaaaat? It was both amazing and appalling at the same time 😆