So I had an exciting Saturday, I was in the barn cleaning stalls when a couple of chickens came hurtling in and hit the hay stack. I went running outside just in time to see a small whitish hawk start flying back up into the sky. No chicken fatalities luckily. I have seen hawks flying all over out in my "hood" but this is the first time I have seen one go for my birds. It couldn't have been that much bigger than my chickens!!!! The chickens have been staying under cover since.
Operation barn kitty has been a failure so far. It appears I just got two extra mouths to feed and no payoff. I was excited when I started finding a corpse a day in the barn, then realized they were moles and not mice. I still told myself that at least my mole population was decreasing.....then spotted the female cat bringing a mole into my property from the field across the street......so basically she is bringing extra rodents INTO the barn.......
I finally reached a breaking point in my shed/coop. The mice have eaten into all of my plastic storage tubs and I have to throw all of my egg cartons, medications and supplies out. I can't reach into anything in either my shed or my barn without uncovering a nest and having at least 6 mice run out. It is freaking disgusting. My coop reeks of mouse droppings. There are a good 200 mouse pellets on my nest boxes in the coop the day after I clean. I was hoping the cats would help but I can't continue like this, i can't touch anything in my coop without worrying about catching a rodent carried disease. So I broke and put mouse poison in the loft of the shed/coop. It is safely out of reach of the chickens who are being strictly locked out of the open area of the shed for a while. There is obviously a risk of the chickens eating a mouse that has been poisoned but they have not shown any interest in eating mice so I am crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. I tried snap traps (too many mice, not even making a dent), buck traps (same thing), humane traps, homemade poison and cats (worthless).....it is my last ditch attempt to re-claim my shed. 24 hours after putting the poison out I had 13 mouse corpses clearly visible in the people part of the shed, I can only imagine how many more are in the loft or in the corners, under boxes etc. My shed will smell TERRIBLE for the next few weeks, but hopefully i can keep the rodent numbers manageable with the other control methods once I knock the population back.
I will feel terrible if I accidentally poison a chicken but am really at my wits end with the issue and am willing to risk it at this point.
Good morning to you!
