my feed room is infested with MICE!!!

[sunlinesusie]

get r

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.

 

[sunlinesusie]

we use traps with peanut butter and move them around because they get use to the locations. All feed is in metal trash cans with lids. Some days 4 mice other days 3..21 this month then stop traps wait couple days do it again.

Get rid of the feed bags. Go and buy bins with tight lids and that will get rid of your mouse problem to a large extent. Leave bait out at night, if there is no other food source they will
eat the bait. Keep leaving bait out until it is no longer eaten. A good old fashioned non toxic bait that I use very effectivley is plaster of paris mixed with icing sugar and drinking chocolate. They love it and it will kill them.

 

[sunlinesusie]

Commercial baits will kill your chickens and anything else that eats it. Put it out at night when your other animals are not around and PICK it up in the morning, put it somewhere safe. The good think about the plaster of paris and drinking chocolate is it will not harm larger critters.

 

[Daniel_I]

I have a rescue dog and a rescue cat + 3 Japanese Bantams (a rooster and 2 hens). I got the dog first... to look after the house and garden. He was found in the street at about 2 years old and had been in dogs homes for about 6 months. He was vicious with other dogs, and unpredictable with people. I worked hard with that boy for 2 years... then mice started to visit... and before long there were lots. So I got a 10-week old rescue kitten, he was found motherless at 5 weeks. The kitten was no threat to the dog... and the dog soon became the kitten's surrogate mum. On the 2nd day, the kitten found a mouse hole and sat there for an hour or 2 every day after that. At 12 weeks old he caught his first mouse. After that, the mice just seemed to leave for pastures new. Then I got the chooks. Making sure that they all get fed in a timely fashion... and making a fuss of all of them, I have not encountered any aggression between any of them. The dog still will chase any cat other than his friend... and the cat still chases pigeons away... but never the chooks. They all seemed to have worked it all out... AND no mice. If you can manage it, I'd try a cat every time. And they all keep each other company if I go out. I was a bit worried at first... but it's now about a year that I've had the lot of them... and they seem to be just fine.

 

[RoosterML]

Choot’em

 

[BDutch]

You can borrow my cats or get some Mouse X, a 'poison' that safe around anything except rodents.

Poison for mice and rats its also poisonous for other living creatures. Its proven that Bayer, Monsanto and some other poison makers too, lie about safety to make more profit.

 

[slowloris]

I use the metal trash cans. They're fairly cheap, really convenient for feeding and not unattractive.

 

[countryladyNH]

In 4 years of keeping chickens we have never had a single mouse. This is what we did. First we bought a 'Grandpa's feeder'. Do not be put off by the cost. Ours works and looks as new at the day we got it. Feed NEVER gets wet, and no bugs or mice can get in! We got various sizes of small metal trash cans with lids from Home Depot. The feeds and scratch grains for our hens, ducks, and goose are each kept in one of these with scoops and plastic bucket to refill the feeders. The lids are always put right back on and these are kept in a "chicken area" of our shed. I would suggest that you put mouse traps in the run at night when all chickens are safe in the coop. Dispose of any dead mice; don't give them to the chickens. Set up the new system of feeder/bins as soon as possible. Hope this helps! It sure works for us!

 

[Preciouslooks]

Hearing that makes me nervous. I just moved my chicken feed out in the shed, I use to keep it in the house. Where are you in the Carolinas?

 

[BDutch]

I use the metal trash cans. They're fairly cheap, really convenient for feeding and not unattractive.

I use old big paint buckets to store the chicken feed. I got them for free, they close very well. The mice nibbled on 2 smaller containers with soft plastic lids. But the paint bucket plastic holds very well.