A few weeks ago I saw a mouse under the coop. It came out and then ran along the feeder and stole some chicken feed. I was glad it was not a rat!! Tonight when I put the Hens inside the coop which sits off the ground there she was again. This time with the tiniest wee babies. I kind of figured she thought she found a really good home under the coop! Ok I am not the stand on a chair type of Hen!!!!!!! I find them wonderfully fascinating and I love watching the wee ones - but I dont want any harm to come to my hens either! One of the neighbors just lost another chick to a rat. He has been losing a lot of chicks so I am needless to say worried. I have 4 baby chicks in the next coop with their mum. Not in the one the mouse is under. The mouse doesnt seem to bother the hens and I am not missing eggs. Will she encourage rats - or help keep them away??????? Do mice harm chickens??????? I dont really want to kill them unless they are going to be a real danger to the hens. I know the Dog next door and our cat keep the numbers down. So what should I do?????????????? Leave them or evict? Will a mouse being there stop a rat taking up residence? I would rather have the mouse!!!!!!!! Should I leave her there and enjoy seeing her when I sort the hens or do I evict her with the help of my cat?????? I kind of enjoy her there in an odd kind of way but not if she will hurt the hens.
Your gonna have that. I have a chipmunk that has set up house keeping just outside the coop and it comes for all it's meals in the coop. The chickens don't even bother it and it's so used to seeing me most of the time it will finish it's meal instead of run off when it sees me. I have a cat for mouse control and she keeps them down to low numbers. As long as there is feed laying around you'll have rodents. I'm afraid to put out poison because of the cat and my dog. The traps might get a chipmunk so I don't use that either. I depend on the cat. I rarely see a mouse.
Last year I noticed a burgeoning rodent (mice, rats, chipmunks and ground squirrels) population in my yard due to having feed around. The chickens dealt with some of the excess rodents, but I pretty much ignored the problem aside from removing the feed at night to discourage feeding and waste. I try to maintain a "Live and let live" policy for the most part (with an exception for blood-sucking bugs). Fast forward to this spring- the rodents have invaded every space- they are eating eggs out of my coop, eating hundreds of dollars worth of bulbs out of my garden, getting into my sheds and garage to eat/ruin/despoil feed, building nests in my grill/tractor/snow blower/car, chewing walls/storage containers/wiring, etc. I have a MAJOR rodent problem! I am kicking myself for not dealing with the problem when I first noticed it last summer. I have declared war on all rodents since. Mouse traps and rat traps are set under weighed down milk crates in multiple areas of my yard and the .22 has seen more use than ever. My death toll is starting to be impressive, but I have barely scratched the surface. I would strongly recommend that you start actively destroying your rodent population. Rodents will share space with other rodents especially if the food source is plentiful. Don't wait until you have the huge problem I do. I could have probably saved my garden if I had dealt with this last year. Everything else may or may not have happened, but I probably could have saved my garden.
I vote with CMV. I hate any critter has to die. My son has a pet mouse and another that he lost recently. I think I was more upset than him. having said that, I'm having a heck of a vole/mouse problem. I didn't realize that's what was going on until this winter when I couldn't do anything about it. Now I'm fighting them like crazy. It's costing me a lot of money to mouse/vole proof my house. My coop is on cement so I think I'll be ok there, but I really wish It's something I didn't have to bother with. having said that, I fed a nest of baby mice to the chickens the other day.
Quote:I found the glue traps to be possibly the most barbaric traps ever. I had mice get caught to them and not die. The mice then basically ripped themselves apart trying to get away. Gads! Disgusting! The ones that didn't die from the injuries they inflicted on themselves I had to dispatch with a killing blow to the head. This was before I was toughened up by owning chickens, so I felt horrible and could barely muster the wherewithal to administer a final ending. I vowed after that I would never buy those traps again, and would firmly discourage anyone else from buying them. I am considering a bucket trap, though. My snap traps are filled every morning. I keep hoping to see a reduction in my body count, but not as yet.
Thanks folks - I wont get glue traps as I am not into cruelty. I am all for killing things that need it and have no trouble killing for food either. But I draw the line at making any animal suffer. However - The cat is going in the coop run tonight when the hens go to bed. He is frightened of the hens so wont do his job in daylight! I know what you mean about being over run. Last winter I got one mouse running across my pillow and actually pressed his little nose to my face! Then he shot round the lamp shade! Brave little fellow. - Anyhow it was 2am and I was tired and in no mood to chase the thing to put it outside - so got the cat. Poor thing was dead in seconds - felt a bit bad but my cat is very quick! Will wage war on the mice tonight!!!!!!!!!!! Oesdog
Really glad to have come across your reply. We were just trying to figure out how to put out mouse traps but keep the chickens and cats from getting hurt. The idea of weighted down milk crates is INCREDIBLE!
Mice can carry all sorts of diseases. Even if they are not harming your chickens, I would cut off an infestation before it starts.
