Mice in the coop!

[LoneStarBirds]

If all you are looking to do is kill them just give them some type of fizzy soda to drink with all the feed that they are eating, they can't burp. My grandparents would do it when the rats or mice would get in the horse feed in the barn. Baking soda is suppose to also be effective. Good luck!

 

[Bonnieboo]

I find that a all bucket with a small amout of chook food and poison works a treat. Just put a brick either side of the bucket so they can climb in. Once they're in, they can't get out. This solves the problem of the chickens eating poisoned dead mice.

 

[juniperz]

Other than the fact that the mice are eating some of the chicken feed, why is it a problem for them to be in the coop?

 

[Altairsky]

With unlimited food, rodents can reproduce exponentially and cause quite a big infestation.

 

[juniperz]

Okay, so there will be a lot of them... but what harm would they actually do in a chicken coop? Genuine question.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Okay, so there will be a lot of them... but what harm would they actually do in a chicken coop? Genuine question.

First they will double or even triple the cost of feeding your chickens if you allow the colony to develop and they will. Let's follow the reproduction/life cycle of a single female mouse.

Sexually mature and breeding at six to eight weeks from being born.

After breeding she delivers the pups in 19 to 21 days. Up to 12 pups are born per litter.

Assume half are female and assume all survive.

One female leads to six breeding age females in nine weeks. Now you have seven breeders producing in three weeks another 42 female pups.

Another nine weeks you could have 294 breeding age females plus the 294 males.

Feed per day per adult mouse, two to six tablespoons per day. Lets say 4 is average.

294 + 294, just the new mice, ignoring the first male and female and the second generation of 12 mice, 588 x 4 tablespoons = 2,352 tablespoons of feed needed.

Tablespoons per gallon of feed, 256 or over 9 gallons of food PER DAY.

Now some won't survive, infant mortality, predators, whatever. But, the potential colony size in just 4.5 months is huge and people plagued by mice that have bought my feeder report their feed bill cost going down three and even four times.

Next and even more important. Disease and parasites. There is a site called chicken feeder reviews that has some pages on chicken information and one of the pages is on disease and pests, where you will find a pretty complete complete list of parasites and diseases. The info there will scare the putin out of you. Chickens skate on thin ice at all stages of their lives which is why commercial flocks spend a fortune on bio protections including preventing wild birds and rodents from hanging around. You do NOT want rodents coming into your flock if you care about your hens.

Next but not last, predators. Rodents pee when they walk. To mark territory, to communicate, and as a road map so to speak. It signals they are ready to reproduce and even if a male rat has babies to protect and feed.

And they pee a lot, 5ml per 100 grams of mice, call average weight 25 to 40 grams, roughly ten to twenty mice per pound, roughly the 588 adult mice would put out a third of a gallon of pee each day.

Mouse pee is dangerous to humans, it spreads horrible diseases. But the mouse pee is also visible in UV light which some hawks and falcons see as a bright yellow trail with the most recent urine shining the brightest.

So now you have a huge scent trails leading directly to your coop for mammalian predators like foxes, coyotes, and cats plus a bright yellow road map leading directly to your coop in daylight and in the dark for hawks, falcons, and owls.

Then mice eat eggs and will kill chicks.

Mice also attract snakes and.... rats. Rats prey on mice and both emit a different distinct odor, so the mice will attract the rats and almost always the rats will drive the mice away or kill them.

Now instead of having mice at ten to twenty per pound, you have up to one pound rats that reproduce just as quickly and eat ten times more per day.

Mice and rats also eat electrical wiring. My mom had two cars totaled from mice eating the wiring. Elderly, didn't drive but a few times a month. Plus eating the wiring in your house.

 

[juniperz]

Holy moly! Okay, now I get it. Thank you for the thorough reply!

 

[Al Gerhart]

Some claim that their hens will eat mice, some say not.

There are pictures out there of hens choked to death trying to eat a small mouse.

Find the first post I ever wrote. I developed our feeder after finding a basket ball size hole of huge rats under the galvanized hanging feeder I had been setting on the ground when introducing some young poults into my flock. Had to be over 50 rats that boiled out of the hole when I lifted the feeder. I had been using a PVC feeder along with the hanging feeder. I'd come into the coop and see the feeder hung at breast height just swinging like mad but never connected it to rats because I rarely saw one, just a tunnel or two. The feed use just slowly crept up. Always monitor feed use, make sure they eat no more than a quarter pound per bird per day, more than that, you are feeding wild birds or rodents. You gotta put out more than that of course so they eat enough but short of having a dozen roosters that estimate per bird holds up very well regardless of bird type.

 

[BDutch]

I find that a all bucket with a small amout of chook food and poison works a treat. Just put a brick either side of the bucket so they can climb in. Once they're in, they can't get out. This solves the problem of the chickens eating poisoned dead mice.

Im wondering where you dispose the death poisoned mice. ?

 

[Dogs Cows Chicken]

Im wondering where you dispose the death poisoned mice. ?

Fire pit?