Mice!!!

[The Chickens' Maid]

We need help figuring out what to do about the mouse infestation around our four coops. The coops are all built into our barn; three are in a stall on the outside wall of the barn, and one is the last "stall" in the line of inside stalls. There is another stall that we use to store the chicken feed that is adjacent to both chicken stalls. This whole area in the barn is overrun with mice! They don't get into the chicken feed because it is in a metal can, but they do live off of everything the chickens have (food, water, nesting under cages, tunneling through dirt floors, . . . ). We can't use poison because the chickens and the barn cat might be poisoned by eating the dead mice. We can't use traps because, if we put them anywhere that is accessable to us, the stupid chickens will most likely stick their heads in to get the bait.

Besides that, there's also the fact that the barncat doesn't actually do his job and prefers to eat birds.
I'm a little exaspirated by this; I don't want the mice to start bringing in any disease, not to mention the holes that they're digging in the floor.
Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Dad had a live trap for mice. It had a weighted door that the mouse would stand on, the door would open and the mouse would fall in, then the weight would close the door again. The trap would hold several mice. Not sure where you could find a mouse trap like that. I have not seen one like that for a while.

You could build a box to put against the wall. Have a small opening on each end of the box that a mouse could get through. Have a hinged lid that a chicken or cat cannot open but you can. Screw a snap trap to the bottom of the box.

 

[Chickmate]

Post over in the Pests and Predators forum. Lots of good mouse and rat solutions over there.

 

[imtc]

you can make a pretty simple one out of a bucket with a few inches of water. It will catch many in one night and resets itself. There are many other designs online similar to this one but gives you an idea.

http://robo.bushkillfarms.com/better-mouse-trap/