Mouse poison

[Strix-Aliana]

I’m beginning to regret letting my husband use mouse poison inside of our chicken coop. I’m not as worried about the hens getting to the poison directly, my husband made sure of that but what I AM worried about is the possibility of the hens getting to a dead mouse and eating it… could this harm the chickens? Does it affect their eggs or are their eggs still safe to eat even if they’ve eaten mouse poison or a dead mouse who has been poisoned?

 

[cherrynberry]

I’m beginning to regret letting my husband use mouse poison inside of our chicken coop. I’m not as worried about the hens getting to the poison directly, my husband made sure of that but what I AM worried about is the possibility of the hens getting to a dead mouse and eating it… could this harm the chickens? Does it affect their eggs or are their eggs still safe to eat even if they’ve eaten mouse poison or a dead mouse who has been poisoned?

Sounds like a bad idea to me.

 

[RosemaryDuck]

I’m beginning to regret letting my husband use mouse poison inside of our chicken coop. I’m not as worried about the hens getting to the poison directly, my husband made sure of that but what I AM worried about is the possibility of the hens getting to a dead mouse and eating it… could this harm the chickens? Does it affect their eggs or are their eggs still safe to eat even if they’ve eaten mouse poison or a dead mouse who has been poisoned?

There is a such thing as secondary poisoning. It causes the deaths of many birds of prey and wildlife every year, so it can definitely kill your chickens.

Secondary poisoning is from ingesting a mouse/rat that's been poisoned.

https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/pesticides_reduction/rodenticides/index.html

 

[dawg53]

Mouse and rat poisons normally take 2-4 days to kill the rodents. Once the poison is eaten, the rodents go back to their nest, hole or wherever, and die.
You can smell their decaying carcasses outside the pens after a few days.

I've had rat holes inside and outside my pens and shoved a poison bait cylinder down the holes and covered it with a paver.

In other pens, I've set out poison baits on top of the coops AFTER the birds went into the coop to roost for the night, then remove it the next morning before letting them out for the day.

I've never had a dead rodent inside the pens, it's always been outside the pens. I inspect the pens each morning before letting the birds out of the coop.
That's not to say that it might happen one day.

I've never put poison baits inside coops. My coops are impenetrable. Even if they wernt, I wouldnt put poison baits inside a coop because a chickens curiosity gets them into trouble on occasion. Also they are walking stomachs.

 

[Strix-Aliana]

I’m going to get the flip traps instead of using poison… but since poison was set out and dead mice have been found all over, I’m wondering if we can still eat the eggs being laid by the hens?