Last weekend , my husband and I finally finish cleaning out the quondam shed for what we ’re dubbing a “ Barn Razing . ” It ’s been a class in the making , so the event of destroying the old structure deserve a quality name . Among matter that needed to be thrown away : a nearly empty pocketbook of old drinking straw have sex and some critters live inside it . I carefully ditch the contents of the dish into the compost bin .
Then , of course , in went the hen , nag and kick their way of life through the juiceless wheat . The Speckled Sussex hopped out of the bin with a hot baby mouse dangle by its after part from her beak . We watched in guarded revulsion as Snowball killed the mouse by banging it repeatedly on the concrete terrace . Then , we learn her drink it whole .
Chickens are very in effect at recognise what they should and should n’t eat — so swallowing a mouse whole should n’t be concerning at all , however distasteful it seems . I differentiate a protagonist this account , and she ’s since given up egg until she reclaim from the images . I strain to reason with her , defending the true nature of the crybaby , but it did n’t work . “ Chickens will eatanything ! ” I said .
But that ’s not completely honest .
Bananas ? The girl deform up their beaks .
Carrots ? Chickens like them neither naked as a jaybird , nor ready .
Meat from Subway ? They wo n’t touch it ( which is more frightening than the computer mouse ) .
Chickens also wo n’t eat ants ! Of all the pests we ’d like to see plucked from our yards , chickens wo n’t eat them . My girls will bolt down creatures like lizard and mice , and teeny tiny thing that I ca n’t see with my own eyes , but not emmet . peradventure ants are n’t tasty . Maybe they bite on the interior before they choke . Maybe they just do n’t hold back the nutrition that other pesterer do .
When the Barn Razing was near finished , I uncovered an ant colony living under the brick on the ground in front of where the shed had been . Undisturbed for at least a decade , the ants had built an enormous nest with burrow right up to the undersurface of those bricks . Hundreds of eggs were store immediately under the brick at ground level . 100 more ants scrambled from below to move the testicle safely underground .
Three of the fryer moseyed over to visit my workplace : the Speckled Sussex , the Buff Orpington and the Golden - Laced Wyandotte . Of course , the girls did n’t extend to the ants , but they were completely crazy for the ant testis . Every 10 seconds or so the girls would ply off , shaking off the emmet that were swarming their foot and cannon . The ant eggs must have been tasty , though , because the swarming ants could n’t keep the chicken off from the eggs . They come up back again and again to eat more nut before the pismire could move them to safety . As the eggs were dwindling in numbers , the Speckled Sussex in the end shooed the other young woman away so she could have the rest of the eggs to herself .
Has your mess surprised you by eat something you did n’t expect , or have your volaille decline to eat something you thought they ’d enjoy ? Most importantly , have you ever seen your wimp run through ants ?
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