tweetzone86
Songster
Hello all!
Well, dang it! I'm dealing with mice in the chicken coop! It's a 12x8 lofted barn shed, and since we don't have a chicken door cut in it (it's not going to be a permanent coop- we're working on a new one soon) the big door is open during the day.
Problem is, we have mice droppings in their feeder, and the other evening I closed the door and collected eggs, and spotted a mouse just as it ran under a lip in the vinyl flooring we have in there. Plus, a few of the chickens seem to be missing a couple of breast feathers. We live on 5 acres of pasture (and are building our house and currently can only mow a portion as we're using a backyard mower and don't have a riding one), and it's not fenced yet (plus severe cat allergies in the family).
Any tips? We built a feeder out of a rubbermaid tote with four 45 degree 4" elbows and it holds 50 lbs of feed, so it's not easily moved once full. We're going through a lot more feed than usual (50 lbs about every ten days +/-), despite only having 9 hens now instead of 12 (three died- two unknown (one old house, and one here in the past 2 months) and one from eating screws) and we REALLY need to get this mouse problem under control. I'm not paying for mouse feed!
Any tips! Using pine shavings as bedding now (was using hay before) and new coop we're building will have 1/2" hardware cloth lining a dirt floor with 2-3" of sand on top of it.
Well, dang it! I'm dealing with mice in the chicken coop! It's a 12x8 lofted barn shed, and since we don't have a chicken door cut in it (it's not going to be a permanent coop- we're working on a new one soon) the big door is open during the day.
Problem is, we have mice droppings in their feeder, and the other evening I closed the door and collected eggs, and spotted a mouse just as it ran under a lip in the vinyl flooring we have in there. Plus, a few of the chickens seem to be missing a couple of breast feathers. We live on 5 acres of pasture (and are building our house and currently can only mow a portion as we're using a backyard mower and don't have a riding one), and it's not fenced yet (plus severe cat allergies in the family).
Any tips? We built a feeder out of a rubbermaid tote with four 45 degree 4" elbows and it holds 50 lbs of feed, so it's not easily moved once full. We're going through a lot more feed than usual (50 lbs about every ten days +/-), despite only having 9 hens now instead of 12 (three died- two unknown (one old house, and one here in the past 2 months) and one from eating screws) and we REALLY need to get this mouse problem under control. I'm not paying for mouse feed!
Any tips! Using pine shavings as bedding now (was using hay before) and new coop we're building will have 1/2" hardware cloth lining a dirt floor with 2-3" of sand on top of it.