Saw a mouse skittling in and out of one of our coops yesterday. So today after letting that group out, i closed the coop and set a rat zapper outside the pen where it was traveling. Checked the trap all day and nothing. When i went to open the coop tonight to get it ready for the chickens to go to bed, i saw i had trapped the mouse inside the coop. So i closed it up and set the rat zapper inside. Then had to bring all 8 of those chickens inside the house for bed. That was fun. Checked several hours later and the mouse had not gone into the trap. Dang. i guess my only recourse is to keep setting traps until i catch it. But it grosses me out to think it will be in there peeing and pooing until then. i have a big job ahead cleaning and sterilizing that coop. i hate meeces to pieces!
Don't know the size of your coop, nor the layout, but if you are a little braver/weird like me, you can buy a decent CO2 pellet pistol and go skeet shooting. I didn't have a problem with mice... I had an infestation. The coop was a mouse haven. Pine shavings, food, water, plenty of crannies for them to hide, etc. So, when I would fasten the girls and guy up for the night, I'd pull ol' Betsy out of the cabinet and go Dirty Harry on them. It was fun, the pellets wouldn't begin to penetrate the walls (the birds slept in a separate room from the food/nesting area). I dunno, maybe I'm a little sicko... but it worked.
i have no problem blasting the little miscreant with a pellet gun. The problem is, it's a little coop - one of those converted Lowes playhouse coops. It's 4' x 4' and supposedly 6' tall, but i'm 5'5" and can't stand up in it. i would probably shoot my toes off. Heading out in a bit to see if it went into the rat zapper. If not, i'll put in some snap traps, maybe some sticky traps, whatever i have here (no poison). Nurse_Turtle, i've heard of chickens eating mice, but my girls are all bantams - silkies, an OEGB mix, largest one is a bantam cochin in this pen. They're actually terrified of mice. Saw one run through the pen once and they all freaked.
Success! He went into the rat zapper and met a timely death. Thank goodness. i love those rat zappers. Never caught a rat in one but they are excellent for catching mice. Now i just need to pull everything out and give the coop a good cleaning.
