How do you keep mice and birds and out of your coop/run?

[waghmg]

Getting ready to treat one of my hens for mites/lice and worms. She's not acting herself/not laying and it was suggested this could be her problem.

I have noticed a lot of birds around her run/coop and have seen this could be spreading these issues to her. We also noticed some mice had made a nest up inside her coop in the bedding.

Question is...How do you keep the birds and mice out of your coop? Any suggestions are appreciated!! We are pretty new to chicken keeping.

 

[leonphelps]

I will put out about ten mouse traps in a short period of time. This will get most of the mice and then the problem will die down for a few weeks. The nitegard product seemed to help with mice too.

 

[dainerra]

Uncover the nest and let the birds have a snack. Not sure how to keep out wild nirds, you would need a roofed hardwire run and never let her out to range. That wont stop birds feom being on the fence.
I would say to let natural remedies do their work - a good dusting spot with some wood ashes mixed in. Worst caae, a couple spoons of sevin dust mixed into their favorite bath.
I've only found a mouse nest once and the birds made it disappear in 20 seconds. I do encourage the local black snake and he keeps away the mice and the copperheads.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

We constantly have to deal with hordes of wild birds passing through here in southern AZ, probably more than most folks. I have a section on "My Coop" page (see link under my avatar) that discusses how I dealt with them. We were able to rid all of the birds from the coop and most from the run. I wholeheartedly agree with dainerra on the dust bath with wood ashes to help with the external parasites. For mice, I put out live traps in the coop and run about once a month to keep them under control. With persistence, I have been able to keep the mice population in check. I rarely catch one now.

 

[kennedyscochins]

For the mice: make an upside down "T" out of PVC pipe. Drop mouse bait down the leg of the "T" to where it will sit in the middle of the bottom part. Then set this next to the wall of the coop. Chickens can't get the bait and the mice will run in the PVC pipe and eat away!

 

[MyHappyChicks]

I just got some Rat Zapped Ultra electric traps and love them. No poison is used with them and your birds can't get into the trap to get hurt. I just take a Ritz cracker and put peanut butter on it and slide it in. What's nice is you don't ever touch the inside of the trap or the mouse or rat ever. It uses batteries to creat an electric charge to fry them when they step on the metal floor of the trap. It is worth every penny. First day of use I got 19 mice with 2 traps. Haven't seen any for almost 2 weeks. But they are set just incase.

 

[7L Farm]

Hot wire!! Got two more last night.

 

[JenellYB]

7L Farm, what kind of hot wire charger are you using that will zap'm like that?

Hot wire!! Got two more last night.