It has been a wetter year than normal here in New Mexico. I think this has helped lead to a bumper crop of mice. When I sit out in my gazebo at dusk I have seen a fair amount of mice scurry along the top of the cinder-block fence/wall and also scurrying through the bushes and shrubs around me.
I recently noticed mice droppings in the coop and really don't want them in the coop, crapping everywhere, crawling all over any eggs that didn't get collected before nightfall, eating the chicken feed, spreading diseases. I know the best thing to do is to put the feed in at night but the chickens are messy so there would still be pellets on the floor of the coop even if I put the feed pail up. I decided to start trapping them with standard Victor snap traps. I had caught one a few nights ago with a trap that broke after it got one. Today I bought 4 new traps, baited them with peanut butter and then set in an area the chickens can't get to. 3 hours after sunset I checked them and there was a mouse in each one, plus two more mice that were just hanging out and not trapped when I shined a light on them. I feel a little bad about killing them but I really don't want mice in my coop. One of the trapped mice wasn't completely dead. Not only did I feel bad about him not dying quickly from the snap trap but also because I had to take a shovel to him. There are lots of things I never expected I'd have to deal with before I got chickens. This is pretty near the top of unpleasant things I didn't expect to have to deal with.
I recently noticed mice droppings in the coop and really don't want them in the coop, crapping everywhere, crawling all over any eggs that didn't get collected before nightfall, eating the chicken feed, spreading diseases. I know the best thing to do is to put the feed in at night but the chickens are messy so there would still be pellets on the floor of the coop even if I put the feed pail up. I decided to start trapping them with standard Victor snap traps. I had caught one a few nights ago with a trap that broke after it got one. Today I bought 4 new traps, baited them with peanut butter and then set in an area the chickens can't get to. 3 hours after sunset I checked them and there was a mouse in each one, plus two more mice that were just hanging out and not trapped when I shined a light on them. I feel a little bad about killing them but I really don't want mice in my coop. One of the trapped mice wasn't completely dead. Not only did I feel bad about him not dying quickly from the snap trap but also because I had to take a shovel to him. There are lots of things I never expected I'd have to deal with before I got chickens. This is pretty near the top of unpleasant things I didn't expect to have to deal with.