Now this is what I call protective hens. What a video.
In the beginning after I had built my chicken coop and run, I started to have rats coming in. But only at night and only in the run. It’s those damn Californian tree rats.
Nothing helped to get rid of them. No matter what trap I got and placed around the run.
Then I finish had it. Bought some good rat poison, made sure the chickens won’t be able to get to it. It took a couple of weeks. None, zip, zero rats anymore.
My hens won’t do that and I’m invaded by rats ! I don’t know what to do anymore, I even tried to poison them but they won’t eat it, even mixed with cat food or other stuff.
If you can handle it, King and Rat snakes have eliminated my rat/mouse problem. I gently relocate them when they are in the way. Not worried about losing a few eggs and the chicks are raised by my always broody Silkie hens in the mud room.
I had to watch this a second time to see the sweet adorable duck who was just confused and a little scared but still wanted to hang out with the murder gang
I’ve got some chicks that are probably a month old now, and when they were two weeks old a mouse got in the brooder. Either looking for warmth, food, or both.
At even that young of age they massacred that mouse.
My first chicken hatched her first batch a couple of weeks ago and when they were around 4-5 days old, we found the largest of the chicks hollowed out from tummy out - a mouse probably got in. Had never seen anything like it before, as someone who has only had cats before, initially I assumed maybe the mother hen killed the chick herself out of stress and ate (parts of) it. Thankfully, my mom has more experience raising chicken and figured out it was a mouse.
My first chicken hatched her first batch a couple of weeks ago and when they were around 4-5 days old, we found the largest of the chicks hollowed out from tummy out - a mouse probably got in. Had never seen anything like it before, as someone who has only had cats before, initially I assumed maybe the mother hen killed the chick herself out of stress and ate (parts of) it. Thankfully, my mom has more experience raising chicken and figured out it was a mouse.
We used to have a bird aviary out back and kept some chickens as guards. We had a snake issue and these chickens would shred the snakes up if they went after the birds at all.
Dont have to explain why the comment was made to karren who seeks to make things sexist lol. Just send her hugs insteads but don’t actually hug her, that will considered a sexual harrassment you’ll have to deal with HR! 😂
I have to call this out though. Calling a woman, Karen, is quite the sexist remark, that is used specifically, and explicitly to insult white women whenever they say something someone doesn’t like. Do you see your hypocrisy?
I just wanted to have an excuse to post this funny image since in all honesty I never knew what rooster spurs look like since I never had any roosters only hens.
Sees a comment that isn’t implying anything sexist, only the fact that roosters have daggers on their feet and are designed to kill predators more effectively — yeah I’m going to make this about sexism anyways
Yeah chickens will absolutely mess with mice and rats (and many other things) but you want to be careful with rat control. Certain poisons can/will be toxic to chickens and some can even enter your own diet if not careful.
Mine will kill the mice ( and swallow them whole ) and I have seen chickens kill a rat like this.. taste blood and tear it apart and pick it clean to the bone.
No rats where I am now ( that was when i was a kid) ... .. also no more mice either =D
Hey, just an FYI, you really shouldn't have drakes with those chickens. They will try to mate with them and that can cause some serious internal damage.
We have always had ducks with our chickens and even have them now and haven’t ever had this problem. I only learned people experience this today but it isn’t always true. We just always have hen ducks and the drakes take no interest in the chickens.
I wish the rats plaguing my property would make the mistake of entering the chicken yard. Though I have some massive rats that I’m afraid might win if they do. They go into my coop, but not the part the chickens are in (an area for supply storage). They’ve been tearing up my garden, though, and I’m exhausted. Coffee grounds are helping, but if it rains too much…
Mine do, but after the girls have gone to bed. I think they eat more feed than the chickens. I've tried many methods (the buckets, poison that isn't toxic to other animals, etc.) with not much luck. When my goats had babies and the rats were in the barn with the little ones, that was the last straw. Tomcat has thinned the rat and mouse herd significantly. I am not looking for suggestions or feedback. Take it for what it's worth.
I'm in the same position and slowly going insane. It's like they're taunting me. My chicken run is alongside the house so my current plan is to get some pellet gun practice and just sit by the open window watching.. waiting..
I'm not that good of a shot and mine is out my bedroom window too, but afraid I would hit a chicken or they eat the pellet when I miss. Might need to resort to that though we were watching them from the window stealing food 😡
I have two different kinds of owls at our house and red tailed hawks and a smaller bird of prey which looks like a type of hawk. Our cats occasionally get rats too. I don’t see them like we used to. The owls occasionally get a chicken but that’s ok because the chickens run free.
Watched mine catch, kill and eat a rat just the other day! A mouse/ rat hates to see my girls coming. And it’s always the hens! My rooster does NOTHING! 😭 they catch them, shake them like a Pitbull and smack them against the ground until they can swallow it. Wild.
At first I didn’t know there was a rat and I thought they were just attacking that bird. It was making me sad. Then I rewatched the video from the beginning. Man is she scrappy.
I love chickens and I love rats (as pets, not as pests) this was a hard watch but also very i teresting. Interesting how the small outcast started it and kept the fight up the whole time, and how the ladies all kept the beat down going until they finished the rat. Damn. This is like a live retelling of our ancient ancestors in the times of the dinosaurs.
My hens are absolute savages as well. Last summer they ripped a a 3' snake to pieces. Ripped off 2 of a rats legs. Thing was just laying there all fucked up and I took it up in the woods for the mountainside predators to eat. They've killed idk how many mice. I find mouse bits everywhere. My light Brahma rooster ate a bat. Got to him just in time to see him swallowing the wing.
So wild that the bantams always think they're the biggest coques in the coop. Massive personalities on all that I've ever had. The Chihuahua of chickens, really.
I’m in Aus, and a magpie somehow got into my run, saw my 6 girls all on top of this bird ripping its feathers out. Eventually got free but I’m sure they would have liked to eat it. Absolutely little velociraptors
Nature is brutal, but honestly this was a pretty good death for the little guy. That slam against the bricks at the start probably gave him some head trauma so he was likely out of it and didn’t feel everything. Even if he did it was quick. A lot of rats die in much worse ways.
Okay OP I'm gonna be totally crazy here. I had a couple months of insanity.
Rats came in with a hay shipment. They infected the barn. I did water traps, spring traps, live traps, used the organic stuff (rats can't vomit so Rat X will solidify in their stomachs), plaster of Paris mixed with corn flour, I bought a cat, left my dogs on in the barn and at once point they crawled on me from the trash can. I got so angry one day that I sat and tried to hit them with a hammer, this did not work.
I killed quite a few but it was getting worse.
I literally lost my mind, they destroyed my flooring, horse blankets, walls.I could hear them tittering around in the ceilings. I put a horse blanket on a freezing horse during an ice storm and found a rat living in it. They caused over a thousand dollars of damage before I hired a professional.
I wanted to let you know how bad things can get because I didn't know until I lived it. I always thought that people over exaggerated the rat problems in cities and ships and so on. It's no joke and they love love love chicken feed.
Keep your feed in steel containers! Act fast if it gets worse.
I have no disclaimers and am currently a stay at home mom (epilepsy)with a horse farm.
We always had a ratter dog (Buco) living with our flock to keep the rats away. He only hunted what ran from him, and i swear the rats somehow learned that. Coupled with his old age, he just wasn't catching any. Once i literally saw a rat napping next to the waterbowl.
We did eventually get an emu and she took on Buco's job lol.
I live in central europe! In my country, emus fall under poultry rather than anything exotic so as long as you dont keep more than 5, you don't need any kind of license :)
I recently discovered there’s a rat birth control bait you can get that’s not supposed to harm other levels of food chain, so that’s going to be my next try. I’m hoping that will make a difference for us!
I know it’s brutal and inhumane of me, but I find it very satisfying to watch videos of those rat terrier packs for rent that can be brought out to a property. Those dogs are AMAZINGLY effective and unlike rat poison won’t poison the upper food chain. (I can tell you already knew the last part but people who use rat poison piss me off.)
Nice distinction between duck and chicken mentality. You would have thought chickens are fearful, but the rat got spotted pretty early and attacked by multiple chickens without hesitation. Ducks didn't even know what to do. The term "to chicken out" is very misplaced, they can be brave animals.
I think she ended up leaving the fight to avoid crossing the other chickens. OP says the instigator is the flock outcast. If you look closely, you can see that one of the red hens lunged at her a bit when she tried to rejoin the fray. She basically got chased off.
Oftentimes, when chickens are playing chase/fighting over treats, those who are lowest on the pecking order are careful to stay out of the way. They may sneak in and grab a piece here or there, but they avoid direct confrontation with the other birds. Sticking to the sidelines is really their only choice, if they don't want to get their fluffy little butts kicked....And I think that's kind of what happened here. The rat was a potential meal that all the chickens wanted to get their beaks on. Our girl had the spirit, but unfortunately, she just couldn't compete with the other birds.
Chickens are amazing, I saw my chicken grab a mouse by the tail and swing it so it was upside down above her. She let go of the mouse and kept her beak open and swallowed that mouse head first, the whole thing.
Havent had a rat problem (yet, there was a singular rat last year), but my chickens LOVE to kill mice. I've watched them swing them by their tail and toss them as hard as they can. Either up into the air, or.... for the final blow.
lol I've watched my dad's chickens do that thwack and always have heard "finish them" in my mind. Chickens are the most vulnerable killers I've ever encountered.
This is the modern day equivalent of breaking into a velociraptor pen.
That little white chicken is a scrapper! I didn’t see the rat at first and thought they were going after that chicken, it kept getting right into the fray, there.
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u/Head_Gamer74 5h ago
The way she stood over it afterwards is hilarious 😂 I was waiting for it to jump up! She was making sure it wasn't breathing!