Aquatic_blue
Songster
I knew chickens weren't vegetarian, but I have suspicions that they are starting to eat wild birds. I went outside to check on them one day and near their feed bucket and there were dove feathers just everywhere...I'm talking piles of feathers....wonder if that bird was bald by the time it got away if it got away - I never found a dead bird even though I looked around for one. A few days later I went out to shut them in and there was a dead dove on the ground - wings to be exact...there was no recognizable head and the body was like...gone. There were bones in the middle of the wings that were picked clean. A little disturbing. I suspect the chickens must've eaten it and my husband and I go out to let them out in the morning, check on them in the noon, and let them back in at night and we didn't see the dead bird until we went to put them in that night. I'm assuming they are getting the birds that are going after their feed. We are working on getting a feeder they need to step on to open as the wild birds have been costing us too much on chicken feed. We do shut it up at night and it's caged around it, but the birds still get in and the chickens still have to get to it. A lot of feeders have been on back order or places are nearly out of them because of the chicken buying panic.
Does anyone else have this issue? I didn't know chickens would eat wild birds. Then again, I didn't think they'd try to kill baby bunnies, either, which we caught them doing once.
Does anyone else have this issue? I didn't know chickens would eat wild birds. Then again, I didn't think they'd try to kill baby bunnies, either, which we caught them doing once.
