I found a mouse in my coup?

[Stephanie-hall]

I was walking by the coup door today and saw a mouse could be a small rat but I found it in the coup. Should I be worried? Will it hurt my chickens? What do I do?

 

[SilkieBantams]

Mice are carriers of all sorts of sickening diseases

 

[TigerLilly]

I would be worried...mice & rats carry nasty diseases. They can also stress out your flock. They may be attracted by the feed. There is another thread on here regarding some kind of 'poison' that can be put out that wont harm the chickens or other animals. I have heard of chickens making mincemeat out of rodents, but I don't know that you can count on that.

 

[woodmort]

Actually if the chickens can catch the mouse, they'll kill and eat it. The biggest thing you need worry about from mice is the amount of feed they consume/spoil. It is a good idea to keep any food in mouse-proof containers. I use a 50 gal Brute trash can--holds 250 lbs of layer pellets.

ETA: Also mice can raise havoc with wiring--I've had them nest under water heaters and chew the wires. You have to make sure the bottoms of these are covered.

Rats, on the other hand, will kill and partially eat a chicken and love eggs.

 

[Stephanie-hall]

So far the chickens have been ignoring the pest I think it's a mouse it's a bit to small to be a rat it just looked a little bigger then a mouse. I'll look up the other thread for mouse poison. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Mattemma]

I recall one year finding mice living in the straw bales I lined the metal coop with.Lots of pee and poop! I started setting mice traps all over with a milk crate over it to protect all but the mice.

 

[woodmort]

If I had my druthers, I'd set traps in an area that was not accessible to the chickens or other animals and dispose of the body. Poison is so indiscriminate and you never know what will eat the body--maybe one of your chickens.

 

[brahmakid11]

be woried they spred all kinds of diseisis

 

[brahmakid11]

oops! did i spelll the words wrong in the post above me?

 

[BetterHensandGardens]

What kind of chickens do you have? We have Golden Buffs and Buckeyes, and the Buckeyes will make mincemeat out of a mouse. I'd heard they were good "mousers" and finally saw if for myself the other day, I feel sorry for any mouse that attempts to get close to our chickens feed! The chickens just seemed to consider the mouse the same as they would any other bug they'd eat. I'm sure there must be other breeds that also consider mice this way...........