SO MANY MICE!

[Anna_MN]

Last night when I went to shut the doors on the coop I counted 8 mice crawling on the outside walls. I was able to kill 6 of them but the other two got away. Not counting those 6, I've killed 10 mice in the past week. Not to mention I have a family of Chipmunks living underneath the vacant meat bird coop. Any idea on what I can do to get rid of those little buggers? I refuse to put down poison. I was thinking an outside cat...

 

[RoosterAddict99]

A cat's a great idea but, you'd have to be careful with it and your chickens...

 

[greenmimama]

Do cats kill chickens? yikes

if you get them when they are kittens and raise them together, are they ok then?

I am getting my first chickens tonight and want to get an outdoor cat soon too.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Well and plus the fact that there's only so much a cat or even two can do. I have 6 cats, only one is a good hunter. He is a mouse and gopher killing machine, every single night, but if there's a mouse explosion he can't keep up. Mice are like roaches, for every one you see there's a bunch more you don't see. I don't like using poison either but I have had to a couple of times to take care of a problem.

You can also try a bucket trap, you fill a 5 gallon bucket about half full of water and float sunflower seeds on top. Mice jump in and can't get out. Glue traps maybe? Don't care for them at all myself but it's a thought. There are some electrical mouse traps that I've heard folk's swear by. Still not sure you'd kill enought mice quick enough to get ahead of the population that way.

As far as cat's vs chickens, I've never had one of my cats show even remote interest in full grown hens. Chicks yes but those are raised in a secure environement not accessible to my cats.

 

[Anna_MN]

My indoor cats are terrified of the chickens and the chicks. Someone offered me a cat that was the runt of the litter and never found a home- she was raised around chickens and is a good mouser apparently. They just have too many cats and need to get rid of a couple. If I got a female i'd have to get her spayed...no kittens for me please...

 

[mandelyn]

We had them in the garage going after feed. I had an old brooder with a lid that had 1/4 inch hardware cloth, started to put the feed bags into that. It caught 2 mice. LOL wasn't expecting that! They tried to go through the hardware cloth and got stuck.

Traps are everywhere in the garage. I go by the amount of poop, to see if the population is under control. The bucket traps work, but then the thing has to drown, so I prefer regular old mouse traps.

In the henhouse, I put the traps inside shoe boxes, and cut two little mouse sized holes in the shoebox. That way the chickens can't get near the trap. You can go more permanent by using small plastic storage containers that have a lid.

Used to be a lot of missing feed. Hardly any now, and the poop isn't like it was either. Just keep them set and check daily for traps that need reset. Put them along the wall, where the mice run. Use peanut butter as bait.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

You need a mouse-eating chicken. My Delaware took care of our mouse problem.

 

[Dwkuska]

If they are in your coop then they are after the food, I would suggest steps to lift/raise your food/water off the ground. I have heard although I cannot confirm that large cat(bobcat/cougar, ect) urine repels some rodents. Might be worth looking into.

 

[Anna_MN]

That picture is awesome! My Buff Orpington hen, "Large Marge" is a mousing machine. But she can't keep up with them either, especially when the mice are on the outside and she's on the inside. The mice seem to mostly come out at night.

 

[Fred's Hens]

If they are in your coop then they are after the food,

That is a fact. The rodent population only expands at the rate easy food is available. If there is a 24/7 banquet of free and easy picking, high quality feed available? They'll reproduce by the hundreds in the blink of an eye.