a hen and her mouse: chickens are not vegetarians

http://www.permies.com

A hen has a mouse and doesn't wanna share.




I think this is an excellent example of how chickens are not vegetarians. As part of my article on raising chickens, I talk about how I am uncomfortable with the idea of eggs being labeled with "vegetarian diet." About half of a chicken's natural diet is bugs! And sometimes mice and snakes.

That's Rick Valley of Lost Valley Educational Center talking about a scene from Jurassic Park. He says this sort of thing happens often. He calls it "rodent rugby time".

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• chickens
• eggs
• vegetarian
• mouse
• eco
• green
• permaculture
• organic
• sustainability
• garden
• food

[TheGenuineChristian]

This is a no brainer. My chickens eat bugs, worms, chicken, beef, pork, all kinds of meat.

[jeusername]

Have we already forgotten that the mutated prion responsible for mad cow disease resulted directly from the practice of cow cannibalism?This video misses the point of the veg fed label. I don't care if my chickens are vegetarian fed, but I sure as hell don't want to eat cannibal chickens or the eggs they produce. It just so happens that the only reliable way to do that is with the veg fed label.

[AFreak2005]

T-rexes must have tasted delicious.

[MoodyMooMoo1]

Lol weird my cat killed a mouse in my garden and I found my hens eating it, i managed to fight of the hens and put poor little mouse in a bag and buried it :(

[kellydjelly]

haha she didnt want to share

[shannondangc]

I still don't see why eggs are vegetarian. They came from an animal.

[rivier4]

chickens eat meat. pure genius.

[galanie]

Mine eat toads and small snakes all the time. I just wish they'd develop a taste for squirrels!

[gelflingfaysuzanne]

There was a black snake under our lawn mower one morning when we started it up and so we ended up having snack chunks all over the yard. So we called the chickens over since they ate most of the bugs in that part of the yard, and they ate that bad boy up! IT took them a while to realize it was dead since they could smell snake are generally afaid of them. But after that day snakes never came in the yard, the chickens kept going after them for food. lol.

[UPGardenr]

Great vid thanks for posting it.

[AOZXRAY]

I would guess that "vegetarian" in this case is intended to convey they are not fed a bunch of old dead meat by-processing products.

[Watsamadoing]

My chooks caught a mouse the other day but I didn't think they should have it for fear of getting the taste of blood and wanting to then kill and eat my cats ... so I took it off them.. perhaps that was a bit mean!