Lots of mice in my coop!!!

[Fred's Hens]

As long as you have chickens, you'll always be fighting mice, it seems.

Why not? The burrow under the floor, in the walls, amidst the litter and straw. Plus, there's feed, lots and lots of high grade feed laid out for them. I refuse to willingly feed them by leaving feed out after 5 pm and before 6 am. Those are times my chickens are not feeding, but the rodents are.

I set snap traps, baited with peanut butter. Likely catch a half dozen per week. Still they come. There are always more mice.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I know of no effect way of mouse proofing a shed, barn or coop. A mouse can slip through the smallest crack or hole you can imagine. Going the expense and labor of trying to block them out brings to mind the StarTrek vs the Borg. Resistance is futile.

 

[Czech's_chicks]

I agree with Just One Bite - it works really well. What I would add if using it is to leave buckets of water around with access to them for the rats/mice...don't fill the bucket all the way so they fall in trying to get the water. the poison is a desiccant that leaves them so so thristy and they will drown trying to drink. it also thins their blood so they can't coagulate and works fast - SECONDARY POISONING IS NOT GOING TO KILL YOUR BIRDS unless they eat a rat/mouse that JUST consumed a more than fatal dose. You MUST be diligent in picking up the bodies.

My dogs are absolutely AWESOME at mousing. I even have one that we use specifically if a mouse or rat gets in a feed bin. I keep all my feed in stainless cans and we pick him up and set him in and he takes care of the problem and thinks he is the king - cuz he is

I feed pinkies to the chickens and ducks - the muscovy especially love them. If you can eliminate most by poisoning, then you can get a handle on them. In all the years I have been raising birds, this is the best since I'm only battling a squirrel - but I know they are out there.

 

[TDM]

My mobile hen houses work very well against rodents.. There really aren't any places to hide in these structures, and they are always on the move.

I would take the mouse problem very seriously. My direct competition, Larry Schultz organic farm in Minnesota, voluntarily recalled their eggs for salmonella just recently.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45016652/ns/us_news/

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm276901.htm

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/10/24/minnesota-eggs-recalled-in-salmonella-probe/

 

[lilcritters]

My Cornish Cross hens that I kept back from slaughter LOVES to eat mice!!! If my bantams can get ahold of them they will eat them too, but the White pterodactyls usually beat any of the others from getting them.

 

[Flyboy718]

Quote:
OK...so I am pretty confused now, I got some people telling me that mice and chickens co-exist together although its not desirable but I don't see how it is avoidable and you can have mobile chicken houses or chicken houses that float in the air and you are still going to get mice somehow...how do you know for sure you don't have mice in your mobile chicken coops? And on the other hand I have people telling me that it's OK to have a few mice inside the coop. How can you positively trace the salmanilla to the mice? Could have come from infected chicks/chickens or who knows where. I think the best that can be done is to mitigate the mouse population as much as possible but I don't think you can completely shut them off unless your coop is completely wrapped in hardware cloth and even then they can still get through that. What about all these commercial meat bird houses in Louisiana/Arkansas...you can't tell me that mice don't live in those.

I am just not really knowing what to do, I have removed the food source tonight and put hardware cloth covering holes and cracks as many as I could find in the coop...I am worried about eating my eggs now, I have a small child and the last thing we need is for her to be poisoned. As long as you cook the eggs completely you won't have any problems with disease.

 

[TDM]

Quote:
The same way you can tell you have mice: evidence. There are no tell-tale sightings, droppings or burrows. My mobile hen houses are single wall except for the ceiling. On the other hand, I have mice in the duck barn. If you don't believe me, so be it.

From: http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/livestocksystems/DI6054.html

Good Management Practices for Salmonella Risk Reduction in the Production of Table Eggs

I. Rodents

Rodent feces have been found to contain infectious doses of salmonella. Consequently, mouse pellets commonly deposited in feed troughs are now believed to amplify salmonella contamination in poultry. Beyond their salmonella amplification role, rodents appear to carry infection to both nearby and distant houses and farms.

Therefore, salmonella risk reduction should include (1) attempts to make all facilities rodent-proof, (2) proper selection of baits and bait placement, (3) prompt, secure disposal of any dead birds, broken eggs or unused or spilled feed, and (4) regularly repeated professional rodent inspections, baiting and trapping. Cats are not recommended. They spread fowl cholera and salmonella. A detailed rodent control program follows.



From: http://www.jstor.org/pss/1591757

The Role of Mice in the Epizootiology of Salmonella enteritidis Infection on Chicken Layer Farms.

 

[Fred's Hens]

If you are unsure as to whether you have mice, just set a couple of traps. Not where your chickens will get into them, but safely in the store room if your barn or shed has one, or under a small pail with a mouse sized entrance hole cut into the rim, at the ground. Bait the trap with peanut butter. If your barn/shed/coop is like most, you'll catch mouse after mouse. Safely bait, safely trap. Slow the herd. Mice are part of nature, but I refuse to allow them to over run my place. We have them in the garden. I trap them in the garage and in the shop. It is a battle and it is what it is.

For egg safety, This is what all governmental health guidelines always say: Always cook eggs thoroughly. Even restaurant's menu state under-cooking eggs is not advised. Hollandaise or sunny side up is where the risk is. Salmonella can be killed with thorough cooking. Salmonella is found almost everywhere. It too is part of nature.

 

[TDM]

Flyboy, there are techniques to exclude rodents from poultry houses. I employed these methods when I built my mobile hen houses.

From: http://icwdm.org/handbook/rodents/RodentExclusion.asp

RODENT-PROOF CONSTRUCTION AND EXCLUSION METHODS

 

[Christie Loves Silkies]

I have the same problem.
I've stopped leaving feed out everything and I still have them!