Mouse in my chicken house Advice

[LaFemme Chikita]

Yesterday I was running water through the coop and a mouse ran out (guess I drowned it out). Found what I think was a nest in the roof. Before this i notice eggs were eaten and moved.Is there any specific safety precautions I need to take with my girls and their eggs? Don't want them sick or unsafe eggs.

 

[rIrs roost]

Yesterday I was running water through the coop and a mouse ran out (guess I drowned it out). Found what I think was a nest in the roof. Before this i notice eggs were eaten and moved.Is there any specific safety precautions I need to take with my girls and their eggs? Don't want them sick or unsafe eggs.

Don't put poison out even if the chickens can't get to it. I use mouse traps in the building next to the coop so the chickens can't get to them. If you use poison and the mouse dies, the chickens could eat the mice and be poisoned too.

 

[junebuggena]

Doubt it's the mice bothering the eggs. Do you have a new layer in the coop? Sometimes pullets new to laying tend to knock the eggs around getting settled into the nest, breaking them or knocking them out of the nest completely in the process.

 

[ChickNanny13]

I've seen a video (somewhere) of a chicken eating a live mouse I use the spring loaded traps set at night outside the Run/Coop.

 

[JaeG]

I've had mice squeeze through ¼inch hardware cloth to get into my aviary and eat my finch eggs and chicks, which was horrible! I was blaming the parents until I found a mouse in there one day and watched it squeeze out! I'd say chicken eggs would be too hard for them to eat though. We have a mouse trap that you bait with whatever food they've been going for and, when they go in and trigger it they get a rubber band round their neck (or middle if it's still a little one).

 

[Howard E]

Do you feed inside the coop? If so, mice (and rats) come for the chicken feed the birds tend to spill all over the place. Remove the feed and what else is there for them?

So move feed outside and/or secure it at night. If it must stay indoors, try a rat proof feeder. Some of them work really well to allow the chickens to eat, but deny rats, mice and wild birds like starlings (flying rats) access to the feed, so those move on or never come in the first place. BTW, simply taking the feed up at night is not good enough if there is an abundance of spilt feed on the floor.

Aside from all the other obvious issues with rats and mice, there may be another subtle issue that is most important of all. There are predators like weasels and snakes that dine almost exclusively on rats and mice. A large concentration of rats and mice living in or near the coop may well attract these other predators who arrive for the rats and mice, but are opportunistic killers who easily transition to the birds.

 

[Luka Dorkić]

Yesterday I was running water through the coop and a mouse ran out (guess I drowned it out). Found what I think was a nest in the roof. Before this i notice eggs were eaten and moved.Is there any specific safety precautions I need to take with my girls and their eggs? Don't want them sick or unsafe eggs.

I guess filling the crawlspaces with mouse glue should do the trick, caught 6 mouses like that the other day.Just place the glue so that the chickens can't get to it and if you gonna do it- be ready.It will get messy.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Setting snap traps inside cardboard boxes that have a mouse sized entry hole and are taped shut to keep hens out works.

Look for evidence of what path they take. Mouse droppings are a sure sign.
Put your traps in those pathways.

Mice are nasty as they chew feathers off sleeping birds and carry diseases.
I hope you can be rid of them quickly.

 

[aart]

I was running water through the coop

Huh?...like spraying inside the coop with a garden hose?

 

[LaFemme Chikita]

Doubt it's the mice bothering the eggs. Do you have a new layer in the coop? Sometimes pullets new to laying tend to knock the eggs around getting settled into the nest, breaking them or knocking them out of the nest completely in the process.

No new layers, I thought it was them at first but the area I found cracked and eaten eggs is a spot my girls can't fit it.