Mice problems need help!!

[SilkieLady608]

I have a bad mice problem. I have vinyl siding on my chicken coop and they have made a nest between the OSB and vinyl siding. I'm thinking that I will need to take vinyl siding down and put some plywood up instead. But what can I do to safely keep them out of my chickens?!?

 

[aart]

I have a bad mice problem. I have vinyl siding on my chicken coop and they have made a nest between the OSB and vinyl siding. I'm thinking that I will need to take vinyl siding down and put some plywood up instead. But what can I do to safely keep them out of my chickens?!?

Post some pics of where they are please.
Did they get under siding from outside or inside the coop?
Snap traps work for me.

 

[50-45-1]

So i read this question to my husband who did vinyl siding for a living for years and had his own business.
he Says you must think like a mouse.
get down and look at the bottom flashing and see if it is capped off in all the lower areas.
he says if you are using vinyl or aluminum corner post , more often than not people do not cap the bottoms, so it leaves an open highway for rodents do travel all the way up to the soffit.
he would use aluminum stock and bend up a custom cap. to his knowledge they do not make a factory cap.
also there is this Great rodent and bug proof Foam that come in a pressurized can that you can spray fill gaps. its foam for insulating called GREAT STUFF, however i do not know that this should be used if it is exposed to your chickens , i am sure they will eat it if they can get to it, and it is toxic.
pictures of your coop would help, but with some investigative work you should be able to find the points of ingress, egress.
Good Luck!

 

[aart]

he says if you are using vinyl or aluminum corner post , more often than not people do not cap the bottoms, so it leaves an open highway for rodents do travel all the way up to the soffit.

Ooooo...I'll bet!

 

[Lizzy733]

So i read this question to my husband who did vinyl siding for a living for years and had his own business.
he Says you must think like a mouse.
get down and look at the bottom flashing and see if it is capped off in all the lower areas.
he says if you are using vinyl or aluminum corner post , more often than not people do not cap the bottoms, so it leaves an open highway for rodents do travel all the way up to the soffit.
he would use aluminum stock and bend up a custom cap. to his knowledge they do not make a factory cap.
also there is this Great rodent and bug proof Foam that come in a pressurized can that you can spray fill gaps. its foam for insulating called GREAT STUFF, however i do not know that this should be used if it is exposed to your chickens , i am sure they will eat it if they can get to it, and it is toxic.
pictures of your coop would help, but with some investigative work you should be able to find the points of ingress, egress.
Good Luck!

Great Stuff is commonly used for custom reptile vivs and even fish tanks, so it dries non-toxic, but chickens seem to think foam is ambrosia, so if you do use Great Stuff, make sure they can't get at it.

 

[HenKeepers]

Dog or cat that is chicken friendly. Rats are only slightly higher in the food chain, you have more friends than you know. Aà

 

[Al Gerhart]

The mice aren't staying there because it is a safe space to live, they are staying there because their feed source is so close.

Most mice will live within a few dozen yards of their main food source.

Get your chicken feed stored in metal trash cans, clean out the old litter and any spilled feed, then invest in a good treadle feeder and the mice will either starve or move away to where food is available.

Those mice are going to bring predators to your flock too if you don't practice some sanitation, snakes, coyotes, owls, hawks, plenty of larger predators live on mice. Your chickens will be next.

 

[cmom]

I had a severe rat infestation in one of my coops. I moved the birds to another coop. When I renovated the coop the rats of all sizes came pouring out as I was tearing out the wood around the bottom of the coop where there was an inside wall and the rats had built nests and styrofoam we had in the ceiling. I used poison baits in rat bait boxes. I had seen rats in the barn which is behind the coops so I put some baited bait boxes in the barn and in the coop. The rat bait boxes have access for the rats and mice to get the bait but nothing else. There is a little window above the bait so the bait can be checked often and replaced as needed. I have had no issues and haven't found any dead predators or critters from eating a dead rat. I haven't even seen a dead rat, but I think they go into the tunnels I saw around the coops and died. The baits haven't been touched in quite awhile. This was my personal choice and it worked for me.