I don't think I have mice, but the one neighbor who was not so sure about us getting the chickens approached me this morning to voice a concern that my chickens are attracting mice.
He said that he noticed a ton more mice in his garage this year and that they didn't show up until we got the chickens. I assured him we were doing everything we could to keep the chickens from attracting mice. We pick up the feeders at night so the feed does not attract unwanted pests and it is stored on our back porch in sealed containers. I would think if the chickens were attracting mice that we would see signs of them on our porch (which is attached to our dining room and the door between the two is left wide open when the weather is nice) and I haven't seen so much as a single dropping. The coop is also located on the opposite side of our property from where his garage is, probably 60-70 feet away, and while I don't think it's "too far" for mice to travel it just seems unlikely that they would choose to take up residence in his garage when there is another, totally unused except for the occasional family of 'possums, not five feet from the coop. Not to mention the total lack of signs of mice anywhere on our own property.
Now I will admit that there is a possibility that we may be partially to blame for extra mice in his garage as our own garage is very close to his and we have not been using it except to store junk. I could see where the garage might be an attractive place for mice. And we do have three cats, two dogs, and the chickens that might like to kill and/or eat mice. But that has nothing to do with the chickens. I do not think my chickens are the reason for his mouse problem. Nor does my next door neighbor. When I asked her if she had seen more mice, she said she had only seen one mouse, which is one more than she normally sees, but that she felt it was the long winter rather than the chickens. Still, I'd rather avoid conflict if possible and I do understand his concern since by unfortunate coincidence it seems his mouse population has had a boom when the chickens moved into the neighborhood. But I'm not really sure what else I can do other than keeping food picked up and keeping it stored securely in closed containers. We did go buy some glue traps to put on the back porch and some snap traps for the garage and we'll see what we catch. But any other ideas on how to keep the mice at bay would be appreciated.
Now I will admit that there is a possibility that we may be partially to blame for extra mice in his garage as our own garage is very close to his and we have not been using it except to store junk. I could see where the garage might be an attractive place for mice. And we do have three cats, two dogs, and the chickens that might like to kill and/or eat mice. But that has nothing to do with the chickens. I do not think my chickens are the reason for his mouse problem. Nor does my next door neighbor. When I asked her if she had seen more mice, she said she had only seen one mouse, which is one more than she normally sees, but that she felt it was the long winter rather than the chickens. Still, I'd rather avoid conflict if possible and I do understand his concern since by unfortunate coincidence it seems his mouse population has had a boom when the chickens moved into the neighborhood. But I'm not really sure what else I can do other than keeping food picked up and keeping it stored securely in closed containers. We did go buy some glue traps to put on the back porch and some snap traps for the garage and we'll see what we catch. But any other ideas on how to keep the mice at bay would be appreciated.
