My coop is the other half of our wood shed so plenty of places for mice to live. My feed can has a very tight lid. Yesterday, I found a big dead mouse that had tried to get into the coop but our hotwire is close enough to the ground that it got shocked to death. Was kinda funny yet got me worried. We have big square wire to keep the dogs & racoons out (haven't seen racoons for a few yrs but this is our first yr with chickens). Then chicken wire to keep smaller things out but mice are just small enough to get through the chicken wire. I have black ground cover cloth, I wonder if that would work to go around the bottom half of the pen. If it would work, should it go on the inside of the coop with the chickens or outside? We can't use bait to kill the mice as we have dogs & sometimes let the chickens free range through our yard. Shannon
I am in process of building box traps, essentially a box big enough that a rat caught in trap is not reachable from outside of box. I plan on using these around my coop and run, which are rat proof, with 1/2 inch hardware cloth all around and top, whereas floor is raised plywood.
I imagine that what works for me for rats would also work for you with mice. Buy bait tubes and put "Just One Bite" rat poison bait that you can get at the feed store inside the tube slathered in peanut butter. I don't have a rat problem as long as I keep my bait tubes full of poison.
I put a rat trap under a plastic open-weave type milk crate with a big patio block on top. It can go right inside my coop without the chickens getting at it.
Quote:X2. I just put a little in the rat hole and cover it with a chunk of concrete block. Whatever works for you to keep chickens and dogs and such away from it. The chemical in Just One Bite is bromadiolone. Unlike the usual warfarin rat poisons, it has no effect on whoever eats the dead rat. I have three dogs and 2 cats, most of whom have been seen eating rats/mice.
I pick up my feeders at night and don't leave any feed outside. Only have 16 chickens in two small coops/pens though. deb g
I am concerned about poisons as we used it in the basement and when I cleaned I found little piles every were . Mice are hoarders, if the chickens get a hold of rat poison; that would not be good. I have switched to traps that kill, they can be placed so chickens can not get to them but you don't need to worry about the mice moving the poison
