New to the chicken family

[helenl]

hello
very new to this ...... have got "my girls" about 2 weeks ago.

I have some young brown pullets, that I got from a Poultry Farm. The chap said they would start laying in 3-4 weeks. They are in a coop, watered and fed daily. They also free range, but do like the confines of their coop.

I have no idea, really, what to expect and whether I am doing this right. They have straw for bedding and like the water and feed plus scraps. As they free range they also seem to be enjoying the grasses etc

We have a mouse plague here at present. And I am finding dead mice in their water and changing it regularly !!!! Also, the mice seem to have taken up home in their bedding. Should I be concerned about this???

Any answers or suggestions would be grateful

Cheers
Helen

 

[Desert Rooster]

Hello

from Hesperia,CA and

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

Welcome to BYC! You have come to the coolest place on the internet for chicken knowledge.

I started with chickens last summer and the people of BYC have been great. This year I have tried hatching and buying chicks for even more chickeny joy. Please visit my BYC Page for my blog links that you may find informative or amusing.


Get rid of the mice ASAP! I have heard that Just One Bite is an effective poison.

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC. Set out a bunch of mouse traps after you've locked your chickens up for the night in their house. The next morning before you let your chickens out for the day, remove all the traps and dispose the dead mice. Repeat as necessary. Do not put down poisons. Rodents carry all kinds of diseases and external parasites. You should make this a priority to eliminate the mice.

 

[MSDeb]

Welcome to BYC, glad you decided to join us. Good luck with your birds.

 

[ghillie]

 

[AlienChick]

Welcome to the chicken world!

And sounds like you might need some barnyard cats to take care of your mice population!

 

[Balvennie]

Hello and

 

[chicmom]

Hello Helen and welcome!

Sounds like you're doing a fine job taking care of your new chickens. I think mice can spread disease, but I'm not sure how you can handle that because of course you don't want to put out poison, maybe some mouse traps that you can hide in a place where you chickens can't reach them, or those traps that the mouse has to crawl into, but can't get out of.....Or sticky traps, but of course, your chicken could probably get a food stuck to it (LOL)

Good luck and I'm sure members will come along with advice regarding the mice,

Take care,
Sharon

 

[kla37]

Sounds like you have a good start! There is a lot of good information on here. Maybe do a search of the threads to find a solution to your mouse problem. My chickens think mice are yummy....