How do you deal with MICE?!?!?!

[kateseidel]

NightsinWhiteSilkies - that's a really good question. My mouse problem is increasing dramatically - the coop is covered with mouse droppings, and I am starting to get frantic. But....now that I think about it, I am not sure they are really a problem. My feed stores are kept in steel cans, they come into the coop for the current chickent feeder, and they can't get in it, they just eat from the same area the hens do. Perhaps the issue is me....

I have, however, just purchased an outdoor feeder, and will be moving the food from the coop to the run to encourage the mice to stay the heck out of my coop. The hens free range all day/

 

[bluestar.ranch]

1) get a barn cat
2) use "just one bite" bait bar
3) check your area for places for mice to hide

repeat repeat.... good luck

 

[mandelyn]

I found a small amount of droppings in the duck side of the coop when the cold first set in. I took a shoebox, and cut two holes in it, mouse sized. Put a set trap inside it, taped it shut, and stuck it in the corner where the droppings were. Success that night. Nothing since. Not sure they're hip to my trick now or if it was one coming in away from the cold and finding a good food source. They haven't been a problem before.

 

[ducksinarow]

Cats! My cats and ducks get along just fine. Where we live you either have to love cats or love mice. Cats are territorial and they run off other cats. Also cats can kill small rats. I am not sure they could a big one though.

 

[redrooster78]

the best meathod i know in a ous trap with chocolat as bait.

 

[speralta]

I have not had a problem with mice, but we did have 3 rats try to set up a nest near my coop trying to eat chicken scratch and pellets out of the feeder. I noticed tunneling into the dirt floor coop, loss of food, etc.

We used a combination of poison, jaw traps, and a live trap. Problem solved in 2 days.

To protect the chickens when using such measures, put the poison or trap along the path that the vermin travels underground or underneath something that the chickens cannot get into such as a piece of plywood or slab of rock or concrete.

You don't want rodents establishing themselves near your coop, particularly if you are in an urban environment. Rats and mice achieve sexual maturity in 5 weeks and interbreed. If they have easy access to food and relative security, you could be dealing with an infestation of 3-4 generations of rodents in a single season. Plus, if you kill all of them at first sign of infestation, there is a much smaller risk of a repeat occurance.

Regarding your coop...

If you don't mind the aesthetics, you might consider digging a trench around the outer wall of the coop and run poultry netting or a tight mesh weave wire around the base of the coop into the trench and 18"-30" up the outside of the wall. Also, make sure your food is off the floor. We suspend ours from wires like bird feeders at a height the chickens will eat but that a mouse, rat or squirrel can't reach easily.

 

[NightsInWhiteSilkies]

So I looked online at some of the traps out there. Im not keen on using poison at all.
I found on amazon and ebay electric mouse/rat traps that actually look really good to use and the chickens cant get into it at all.
I found this one and wondered if anyone else has tried these or similiar traps like these?
Theyre saying these need DoubleD batteries and the old styles used AA's so they didnt last as long as these paticular styles.

http://www.amazon.com/Agri-Zap-RZU0...6?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1327337343&sr=1-6

Im thinking of ordering one of these and wanted to hear if anyone has had good results with them.

Thankyou for all the info on mice/rats. I wont be letting the little varmits run free thats for sure!

 

[AlienChick]

I noticed that my chickens and guineas will eat the mice. At least they run real fast with 'em in their mouths with all the other chickens in hot pursuit.

They drop the mice on occasion and peck at it and then run with it.

I really don't know what they end up doing with it, so I'm assuming they eat it. I never see any mouse leftovers.

For the house we have mouse traps from Lowes (the black ones), and they work very well. We bait them with peanut butter.

In the Spring we will be getting a barn cat from a neighbor, so we'll see how that goes.

 

[kateseidel]

We have two house cats who insure we have no indoor mice, and two barn cats who keep the barn and tack/feed room mouse free. But they have all they can handle, and unfortunately, the chicken coop is overrun. The hens would dearly love to eat the mice, but are just not fast enough to catch them! It is kind of scarey to see it when they do - they demolish it in minutes.

So, I don't want to use poison, because the hens will definitely eat any mouse they find, and the hens free-range. I don't want to use live traps because I don't want to kill the catch, and releasing them does not solve anything. I was thinking the bucket of water might be a good choice, but I like the Rat Zapper noted above and may take a closer look at that. Just need to make sure the hens can't get a shock pecking at the front of it!!

 

[perchie.girl]

Before spending a bunch of money on traps and poison and such. Try a 5 gallon utility bucket, those cheapo kind you can get at home depot or similar, with about six inches of water in the bottom. sprinkle a little bird seed on the water. It will float and look like a pail of birdseed.

Mouse hops in for a snack they cant touch bottom therefore they cant jump back out. The bucket will probably have a couple of mice each morning.

The other way is to use bait on the same bucket. a skewer through a soda can through holes big enouth to let the can revolve. Soda can smeared with peanut butter. Skewer secured to top of bucket. Mouse goes for the snack can rotates and mouse falls into bucket of water. Grandpa used that in his poultry houses he was a sharecropper.

deb