My chickens ate my baby rabbits!

I had a doe that had her babies on the wire a while back and they all died. My rabbit cages are in my chicken pen. By the time we found the babies, the chickens had already found them and had been jumping up and pulling the dead babies through the bottom of the cage.

Well apparently they acquired a taste for it because today, I had some 12 day old babies get out of their box and the chickens started eating them alive through the bottom of the cage! I am so upset about this. They killed 3 of the babies and left one bleeding and dying after removing its legs. It was so very awful!

I am so done with chickens!!! My husband through together a temporary cage for all the chickens and I am listing them on craigslist tomorrow. ALL OF THEM!!!

That is how all chickens are from my experience, if it seems like food and they can it it, they will. Doesn't matter if its dead already or a live...so even if you get more chickens, it'll probably be a repeat if you don't change the set up. Do not house chickens with young rabbits or any other kind of young animal, if it seems weak or sickly, one starts to pick at it and then they all go for it. Just how they are...

Very sorry to hear your loss and definitely don't want to see it happen, but take it as a learning experience.

Chickens can be brutal, but after all, they are only following their instinctive drive to survive. They don't see "baby bunnies", they see "food" and better yet "meat!" It's just the nature of the beast.

Why not just put some chicken wire across below the cages to keep them out... or separate them from the rabbits completely. You'll miss the eggs if you get rid of them... or at least, I would.

They are just being chickens which are opportunistic omnivorous critters. Mine ate mice and rats all the time. It should have been obvious baby bunnies would be in danger given the nature of a chicken. A simple gap of wire between the floor of the cage and the chickens should solve the problem and is a good idea for all predators. Even if you get rid of the chickens coons, cats, and other things have been known to do the same with cages not secured in a building.

um, most kinda like to separate fowl and rabbits since birds can carry coccodiosis.

Don't be mad at the chickens for behaving like chickens-- You have learned a painful lesson.

Chickens are cannibals, and will eat baby chickens, or will peck another chicken to death if it is wounded.

Jack":3bvwe51v said:

um, most kinda like to separate fowl and rabbits since birds can carry coccodiosis.

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I thought birds and rabbit each had their own kind of cocci, and they weren't affected be each other's. If I'm wrong, please tell me, because I let my rabbit on the grass where chickens have been and I don't want her sickened.

There is something in the chicken poop, not sure if it is cocci, but it can make them sick. I would not let the rabbit down in an area with chicken poop.

(((Hugs!)))

How horrifying for you, Legacy! I don't blame you for being angry with the chickens, but it is their nature. I have a running "joke" which is no joke at all, and that is "Don't fall unconscious in the chicken coop, because you will wake up dead." They will eat anything. I bet it started with food falling from the cage, and the chickens started jumping up for more, and began pecking the bunny feet.

I thank you for sharing this story, because I put a hospital cage in the chicken run, and have been considering putting more cages in there. I hadn't considered the possibility of them going after the rabbits from under the cages. Akane had a great suggestion to make a double wire floor to prevent predation. Even dropping boards would work.

Here is another thought, and I hope everyone with chickens will have some input. Certain breeds are better foragers, and some chickens are aggressive, while others seem very docile. I love the calm nature of my Black Australorps, while the Danish Brown Leghorns are "wild" and the Delaware/easter-eggers are absolutely insane. Perhaps a calm type of heavy dual purpose chicken would be best in shared housing with rabbits? I am thinking Brahmas or Orpingtons might be a good choice. Chickens are still chickens, but it might limit the issue somewhat.

I am very sorry for your loss, but once again, a shared tragedy is a lesson to us all. Thank you very much for sharing.

A discussion on a thread covered that the cocci birds get is different from the cocci rabbits get. However bird droppings still have plenty of bacteria and salmonella is a common illness for other livestock to get from birds. It's sometimes a problem in horse stables with large wild bird populations or even chickens roosting on the edge of stalls and pooping in feeders. So long as the birds can't sit on the cages and poop in them though there should be no danger from that. You also want to make sure you have good ventilation because birds are dusty. They are constantly giving off a coating from their feathers as they grow them, lose them, replace them and it can cause respiratory problems. A lot of parrot keepers have poor respiratory health.

my rabbits were in with my chickens also. I never had this happen, but when the chickens started pooping on top of the cages, it was time to change things. the chickens do chase and catch live mice, so that is good.

akane":3afwc3an said:

It should have been obvious baby bunnies would be in danger given the nature of a chicken.

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Well, it wasn't obvious to me since the rabbit cages have been in the chicken pen for over a year & nothing like this has happened before.

I'm not mad at the chickens, I just hate them. I already hated them before this. Chickens are nasty! We were planning to raise them to butcher. We butchered a batch about twice before we decided they were too hard and nasty for us to want to butcher them. Rabbits are so much easier. And more fun to take care of.

I wasn't concerns about the cocci because the chickens dig around in the rabbit poop not the other way around. The rabbits are above the chickens and the chicken poop.

I will be keeping my ducks, which I love.

I don't know those chickens would start looking pretty good for a couple chicken pot pies :chef:

Sorry for the lost of the little ones

My chickens are gone. I sold them on craigslist and someone was here to get them within the hour. I had 23 and sold them all for $80. I was happy with that and so was he.

I have noticed on youtube a lot of people are build rabbit cages with chickens under them. I didnt think it was a good idea

Well, I didn't think it was a bad idea till now. I still don't think it's a bad idea if people want chickens as long as they protect their rabbits. My chickens did a great job of keeping the area under my rabbit cages clean.

I've decided to get rid of mine as well, the last time I cleaned the coop did it. I've got some dumb ones who refuse to sleep on the roost and I have to keep knocking them out of the nest box. And now they are breaking the eggs. I don't eat eggs anyway, and they are not as clean as the rabbits. I'm selling them all, coop and creatures, and then I'll be able to afford some mini rexes or put the feed money towards rabbits.

My birds must be extremely picky then, they hate new things and they hate anything live or bigger than a 1cm.

You can try to feed the chickens a better and varied diet and free range them as long as possible.

Also, just put up a cheap roll of chicken wire under the pens and you won't have any issues. How low are your cages that the chickens can so easily attack them??