Homesteading is hard... my poor turkey hen

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Wyorp Rock said:
:hugs Don't beat yourself up.
Come up with a plan to help her finish this hatch.
Do you have a way to construct a wire barrier around her to prevent the mice from getting to her?
Not ideal to move a broody but moving her may be a better option. Somewhere more secure from the mice and ants. If DE is all you have try dusting her, it may help kill any that's on her. If she's got bites, she's probably miserable. But the less you mess with her the best.

Do the best you can. Take care that the mice traps are where birds and pets can't get to them. I found some traps that I can put in or around my runs that adult bird don't mess with. I still wouldn't use them if chicks had access to them. "Dog proof" rat and mice traps on amazon. Of course, they were way cheaper last year (go figure!) I have a variety of traps and mix it up. For the regular snap traps, I made "covers" out of spare pieces of hardware cloth so a bird didn't inadvertently get in it, but even at that I usually disengage the trap during the day when birds are roaming about. Cage traps work so/so for me. Some do use poison too and if you are overrun it may be something to consider. I think @cmom may have some tips she can share as well.

I'm really sorry.
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I always cover the traps because we have barn cats and yes the birds. We are going to buy more traps today.
 
We are all constantly learning from each other and how to make things better tomorrow for our poultry raising setups. I know I have to look out for the fire ants, regular ants, mice, snakes and more - so thank you for sharing this issue with us and I pray you can take the advice in this thread and run with it. Just do what you can day by day.
 
turkey girl 0964 said:
Update: The hen is doing fine there are no ants around her or on her. All of the eggs ar ok. We think it might have been a snake that got the eggs but we are not sure. I went ahead and put up some netting around her nest so whatever got in there cannot come back.
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That's great - no ants!
Netting sounds good, hopefully there will be a successful hatch! Please keep us posted:)
 
I and some other BYC members put traps or poison in pet carriers. When I use the poison I use it in bait stations and put the bait stations in a cage or pet carrier up on a shelf. Rats are good climbers. I also put traps in a cage or pet carrier to so only the mice and rats can get to the traps or the bait stations with the poison in them. I have not found any dead rats laying around dead from the poison. I have seen tunnels around the coops and barn which I think in my case have been made by the rats and when they die they die in their tunnels and that is why I haven't found any dead ones laying around. The bury themselves.
 

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