my feed room is infested with MICE!!!

[Folly's place]

I don't think it's possible to use a glue trap responsibly.
Mary

 

[Bonnieboo]

the title says it all... how do I get rid of them?! they are everywhere! I see them even during the day! they are chewing through the feed bags and are totally grossing me out. thank goodness they are not rats. I have used snap traps but it hasn't affected the population much. would mouse poisoning hurt my chickens or contaminate their feed? they are living in the straw bales and me and my faithful dog cant seem to catch them.

We put a tall bucket with a brick either side. The mice can climb up via the brick but because the bucket is so deep they can't climb out. Unfortunately you have to drown them after. It is amazing how many you'll catch!
Ps. Put a small amount of chicken pellets/crumble in the bucket to attract them.
The best way to drown them without crying is to 1/3 fill the bucket, don't look at them swimming then put a bucket that just fits filled with water and the space between the buckets is completely filled water. Then go away for an hour or so and they will have all drowned.
It's a horrible thing to have to do but mice can bring mites and really stress out the chooks.

 

[proudchickenmom]

today i was cleaning out the chicken coop and i saw a mouse run out from behind of of the hay bales. i trapped it in a corner and stabbed it with the pitchfork i was using to clean out the bedding. i felt totally guilty about it as it started to twitch. but then one of my hens saw it and picked it up in her beak. one of the other chickens saw her eating it and grabbed the mouse's hind leg and ripped it in half. i was standing there like "WHAT???" chicken #1 swallowed its head whole, and the mouse's tail disappeared down into chicken #2's gullet! yall were totally right, chickens are tiny raptors!!! vicious little carnivores !!!

 

[aart]

vicious little carnivores

Good for you ...and them!

 

[proudchickenmom]

it was really freaky watching them eat that thing. it was a pretty large mouse and you could see the chicken's neck kinda bulge as it went down ! GROSS!!!!!!

 

[aart]

it was really freaky watching them eat that thing. it was a pretty large mouse and you could see the chicken's neck kinda bulge as it went down ! GROSS!!!!!!

Good thing they 'halved' it.
My current crew wont eat mice.

 

[proudchickenmom]

something like this happened with my rabbits. one of my rabbits unexpectedly became paralyzed overnight from the waist down. as you may guess her butt got quite dirty from not being able to clean herself properly. she started to stink. she had flies and ants in her cage. my brother caught a frog and had the bright idea to put the frog in a container and put the container in the rabbit hutch in hopes that the frog would eat the flies. the second we closed the cage up, the rabbit drags herself over and sticks her face into the jar with the frog in it!!! when she lifts her head out, the frogs head was slowly disappearing into her mouth!!! i will never forget that moment. i ran screaming into the house and never looked back... the rabbit died a few days later... maybe because she ATE THE FROG that was trying to help her! i looked it up on google and it said that rabbits are HERBIVORES not CARNIVORES. same goes with chickens, they are herbivores until they aren't... never trust google...

 

[WallyG74]

I’ve read this thread from beginning to end. All I have to say is... WOW! Chickens ripping a mouse in half, rabbits eating frogs and a dude catching snakes to release into his own home! It’s better than the OJ trial mini series my wife is watching. By the way, my mouse catcher is furry, orange and vicious toward little creepers around the house.

 

[littledog]

I read the same thing as you did about mint a couple years ago, and this has worked well for us. We planted peppermint plants around three sides of the chicken run, and put a rat trap along the outside of the 4th side (where the door is.) We occasionally catch a rat in the trap, but mainly now the chicken food is eaten at a normal rate for our chickens, not like it was before we did this, when apparently rodents were coming in at night and feasting, and the food was disappearing at an alarming and expensive rate.
Mint has seemed to really work great for us, but I would say, don't bother spending a bunch of money on essential oils, or a lot of work mixing and spraying it. Just buy some mint plants and plant them around your coop. They spread like crazy and keep growing year after year.
You can even take cuttings to grow elsewhere, and pick leaves to make tea.

 

[leslielbk]

I have to chime in. I've got rats in my attic and they eat the feed left on the ground at night. To the chickens now only get fed so much in the run. I could go on about that but this is my real success:
An electronic rat trap. It's killed a rat a night since I got it. I'm using it plugged in instead of the batteries. I throw a raisin or chunk of granola in there. Today, while I was in the kitchen the little beep started that says there's a kill inside, and it was A SQUIRREL!! I didn't mean for that to happen, and where the trap is located the squirrel would've had to come from under the house... Now I wonder if I don't have both rats AND squirrels in the attic.
You can see how big the trap is. It's not gross, they're electrocuted, and you can either open the top and take out the critter or just pull it out by the tail like I usually do. I know it's expensive but it's a lot easier than trying 800 methods to catch mice. Get the bigger one because I got the smaller one and the rats couldn't fit inside lol