Ruthless bird brains
Chickens are indeed ruthless killers, in the days when I kept horses, I also had a fair few chickens wandering around, On the odd occasion when opening a feed bin and finding a mouse, if I was able to catch the little bugger and splat it the chickens would go mental with each other trying to get the most meat.Also if a mouse was daft enough to show up in their pen they would fight each other enough to the point the mouse could escape,
Their beaks are quite wicked and designed for cutting meat although they are omnivores. On the other hand genius is not a requirement for elevated status in the pecking order and like Jake I have mowed the odd chicken, I borrowed a Kubota out front mower , it had a 60" wide cutting deck with three large cutters, while I was topping the field my wife decided to let the chucks free range for a bit. One of the larger birds came ambling up the field then suddenly made a bee(chicken)line for the front of the machine and disappeared into it, I swear about three times as much gore and feathers came out the side chute compared to the amount of bird that went into it.
I also managed to strim a hen with a heavy duty strimmer, it took all the feathers off one wing but the bird survived and didn't seem too bothered by the experience.
For anyone who fancies keeping a couple of chickens I can recommend Wyandottes, the eggs are usually large, brown and often double yolkers. You can easily get 200 eggs a year from one of these hens.
Road sense is poor though.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
