Found a brown mouse/rat in the coop, what should I do

[MountainWoman73]

What if a chicken decides to snack on a mouse that has eaten the poison? Does that happen?

I've been using sticky traps instead of snap traps because I can remove those from a bird with less damage than a snap trap.

My thoughts exactly. We had a cat once that died suddenly with what looked like internal bleeding. We suspected he ate a rodent that the neighbors had poisoned. Another reason I don't use it myself is that poisoned rodents can crawl into your walls or other hard to reach spaces and die, and the smell is atrocious.

 

[Sooner Magnolia]

Sheesh, I think the gunk in our drain hose would kill rats!

You would think it could find other places to get a drink! It was a pain ordering the same part multiple times plus turning the washer over to fix it.....and dealing with the floods. Very happy to zap that sucker!

 

[Al Gerhart]

To prevent all sorts of problems a treadle feeder is a necessity. A spring loaded door model is best, as is a distant and narrow treadle, and read the negative reviews before the positive reviews. Those are the customers that actually had a rodent or wild bird problem, the other reviews are most likely people that wanted a chicken feeder.

Not many rodents can survive in most territories on natural food and they compete for those territories and will fight for them. An unnatural source of feed allows their population to explode. Deal with it in advance if possible by starting off with a treadle feeder with a spring loaded door. They pay for themselves in stopping feed waste and feed theft. Not having rodents helps prevent predators being drawn to your coop and helps prevent pests from being carried into your flock and disease as well.