Mice!!!.....How do you control them!?!?

[Chicken Fruit]

We keep outdoor cats, and during the warm weather we do not feed them hardly anything. In the cold weather we feed them first thing in the morning, when mice are least active. If they want more food they have to catch it.

One is 18 pounds and sleek and happy

The other is teeeny tiny about 8 pounds, she's just naturally small, but not under weight.

We also keep rat poison in the attic and basement, where the cats never are.

 

[lilbirdee]

I vote Barn Cats too.
I keep most of my alpaca grain in a large garbage can with a tight lid, but the extra is just stacked in the barn.
I used to have a horrible mice problem. When I walked into the barn you could hear them scatter. Shudder shudder. And they were making holes in the sacks of grain.
I really didn't want to do the trap & poison thing so I called this lady that works with the Feral Cat Coalition. She brought me 2 girls that had been rescued. They were spayed, wormed & vaccinated. She does this for free, asking only for donations of what ever you can afford. I gave her $50. Well worth every penny.
Now these girls are not pets. I hardly ever see them because they are scared to death of people. But I also don't have ANY mice problems. No more holes in grain sacks!
I actually did see one girl running across the yard the other day...with a mouse in her mouth!
I named them Thelma & Louise.

 

[LynneP]

15 barn cats which can't get to the hens but which get all around the outside of the coop and run= no rodents on the property whatever. The cost of cat food is such a joy, all things considered.

 

[farmgirlie1031]

We have 2 cats, a mouse hating dog, and a mouse hating hen. Between the 4 of them they end up getting any mouse that dares enter the barn. I don't use poison anywhere on the place because it could make my pets sick if they found and ate a poisoned mouse.

 

[gaited horse]

I have a huge fear of mice but the 3 feral cats we rescued from the humane socity take care of me.

 

[jonesgirl]

I have a little mouse too, which I fear may turn into a bigger problem as it gets warmer..

I would get a cat, but then a coyote would probably eat it before it got to a mouse... I will have to find some good traps!

 

[dancingbear]

I have 9 cats, probably 6 are excellent hunters. However, we have chicken wire around the coop between the floor and the ground, because hens were laying eggs under the coop and we couldn't get them. Feed falls through the cracks between boards in the oak plank floor of the coop. In addition to that, mice run straight up the corners and cracks and crevices, where neither cat nor chicken can catch them. Plus they have the inaccessible space below the coop in which to build nests, and be fruitful and multiply.

Of late, we have seen a dramatic increase in the mouse population. I'm going to have to figure out where to set taps where cats and chickens won't get snapped by them. We've been using ordinary traps in the storage shed, and caught several mice very quickly. We use a smear of peanut butter on them for bait. We won't use poison.

 

[fowltemptress]

I bring the food in at night, lock the chickens in their coop area, and lay a couple of traps along wherever I think the mice are running . . . bait isn't really needed, and I don't use it because it would negate the purpose of bringing in the food in the first place.

 

[dancingbear]

Because chickens tend to "bill out" feed, and mice will eat the seeds on the straw bedding, I'd have to completely strip and clean the coop every night to remove all feed. Then there would still be feed under the coop. Mice build nests all over in hidden crevices, and under the coop, so even if the feed were gone every night, the mice would still be there. They eat during the day, too.

If you have a very small, easy to clean out coop, that might be practical, though. Not for a coop the size we have. It's not huge, but it takes about 3 hours to clean it and put down straw. Not happening every night.

I've been looking at the multi-catch "tin cat" live traps. Like these: http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=victor+tin+cat&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=3244755837&ref=pd_sl_2b72esvkgc_b
I think that might be our solution. I'm trying to see if anybody nearby carries them. If not, I'll order online. Another brand is Eaton, nearly identical.

 

[MRW]

Quote:
Too funny