Lots of mice in my coop!!!

[Flyboy718]

I took the feed out and put hardware cloth on several access points. I went outside to check on the coop lastnight and opened the door real fast and probably about 10-15 mice went everywhere! I am so ticked right now I am about to put the birds up for sale and quit my little backyard egg supply. I am not going to put any more money or time in the chicken coop because I don't have the time to work on it and enough is enough on the spending. Hardware cloth is very expensive and I can't afford to cover the entire coop in hardware cloth and that is the only way that you won't get a mouse in there. I am going to buy some poison today and if that don't stop or slow them down significantly I will put my birds up for sale. I just wonder how the world of chicken and eggs with mice survived before the CDC, EPA, FEMA, YMCA, XYZ and ASDF existed it's a wonder the human race is still here.

 

[Fred's Hens]

The mouse, in colder weather, seeks shelter. He needs to be out of the weather and if it is slightly warmer, all the better. Eliminating 100% the food supply isn't possible either, even with ration feeding and/or no feed out at night. Crumbs fall, chickens beak out and drop feed. A hungry mouse will chew and eat anything and won't describe in detail what all is involved with anything.

If trapping isn't one's "thing" and it isn't for everyone, then the easiest thing to do is use covers over Just One Bite or similar, potent poison. The cover has to have an opening, at the soil height, of course, to allow the mice entrance. The eat the poison and will die. The cover prevents the birds from getting into it.

Frankly, it may be the simplest, most effective program. I do both. I set traps but also poison. It keeps the mice at bay. I don't think we'll ever eradicate such a prolific reproducer as the small rodent. Nature also fills the void. Mice are known to come into a void left by the killing of mice. More mice are out there. Lots of them within a mile radius of your coop. You do the best you can and that's all you can do.