Fleash eating chickens

QuakerBear · Wed May 07, 2008 3:36 pm

Mummy darling, what do chickens eat?

Darling child, chickens hunt in large packs, they swoop through the sky then down onto large mamals such as pink piggie wiggies who they cruely devour.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/ ... dtech.food

What are we coming to?

It's an article from the farming on proposed new farming practices.

Martin · Post: # 101218Post **Martin** » Wed May 07, 2008 3:45 pm

20 years ago they regularly included "DPM" in poultry food (dried poultry manure)

(they may still do so for all I know!)

The Riff-Raff Element · Wed May 07, 2008 8:05 pm

I used to have a Marans hen that activiely hunted mice and (more usefully, in my view) moles. I jest not. She had three moles that I saw her take. How she detected them I cannot say: I didn't think chickens had senses that sharp.

I tried to breed from her - I had visions of selling flocks of chickens genetically pre-disposed to mole hunting to a grateful gardening public and making my fortune - but to no avail.

red · Post: # 101313Post **red** » Wed May 07, 2008 10:30 pm

chickens are omnivores.. not sure they would hunt down many mammals though!

ina · Post: # 101320Post **ina** » Thu May 08, 2008 12:22 am

They do - I've heard of somebody killing a cockerel for the pot and finding an entire mouse inside...

Stuffed chicken!

Sky · Post: # 101322Post **Sky** » Thu May 08, 2008 5:16 am

It's not a great idea is it to feed chucks pig remains, I think some disease can cross over species can't it?

The Riff-Raff Element · Thu May 08, 2008 7:28 am

Sky wrote:It's not a great idea is it to feed chucks pig remains, I think some disease can cross over species can't it?

Probably not a huge risk given chickens will naturally eat flesh, but I agree with you in any case. A few worms, insects and the occasional incautious small rodent is one thing, but remains of large animals just, well, feels wrong.

I realise that that is possibly irrational - chickens are not so far removed physiologically from vultures, after all.

Sky · Post: # 101397Post **Sky** » Thu May 08, 2008 10:14 am

The Riff-Raff Element wrote:
Sky wrote:It's not a great idea is it to feed chucks pig remains, I think some disease can cross over species can't it?
Probably not a huge risk given chickens will naturally eat flesh, but I agree with you in any case. A few worms, insects and the occasional incautious small rodent is one thing, but remains of large animals just, well, feels wrong.

I realise that that is possibly irrational - chickens are not so far removed physiologically from vultures, after all.

They eat everything and each other given half a chance, I reckon they are mini dinasaurs or just little machines a bit like insects except they do provide us with lots of useful things.

But it's not a smart move to start feeding them commercially farmed pig remains from what I know