overrun with mice in chicken pens

[Frosty]

They make live traps for mice that are safe around pets and poultry, or you can make a bucket trap out of a 5 gallon bucket. A few inches of water in the bottom of the bucket and all you have to do is fish out the dead mice now and then.

My cats leave the chickens alone, even the bantams. While chickens will eat mice, that only works if the mice are out while the chickens are awake which usually isn't the case.

Some types of rodent poison are supposed to be safe if a pet eats the dead rodent, they basically give the rodent a vitamin D (cholecalciferol) overdose. I'm not sure if they still sell it in small quantities though (Quintox is the one that I heard of).

 

[SuperChickenDude327]

I've seen chickens hunt frogs, a vole, and a snake before. They LOVE meats! I chopped up some leftover moose meat and they LOVED it.

 

[dwest]

Another thing to consider is how you handle your feed. Is it stored in rodent proof containers? Is any spilt feed cleaned up right away? Have you removed all sources of food that the mice can feed on?

 

[slc]

Since this is in the turkey forum, do you have turkeys? My turkeys kill mice all the time. More so than chickens. In fact my turkeys will kill any small furry or feathery thing including chicks that wander too far from moma hen.

 

[2overeasy]

I speak from experience (unfortunately)! I posted on this back in the summer because I was so infested it was driving me nuts. The lower side of the dirt floor of my coop (it's a bit sloped due to location and the fact that it was just a three-sided metal run for horses at one time) has gotten spongy and soft due to the vast number of warrens and tunnels the mice and rats have built. I've put down concrete paving blocks on the ground at that end.
I don't keep feed on the ground. My one feed hangs from a rope from the rafters. T'd see mouse droppings in the feed until I started greasing the rope with vasoline! I also raised it higher off the ground.
I sprinkled poison behind some osb boards (4X4ft sheets) along the sides so there is a space between those and the metal walls. The thing I learned about poison, however, is that mice are very smart when it comes to food - like people, they will take very small bites of something, wait to see if they get sick, then if they do they won't eat anymore. Therefore, poison is ineffective in the long run. BTW, I was absolutely sure before I sprinkled that my chickies couldn't get to it.
Then, I cleaned everything up off the floor except for posts of roosts. I had other things in there, including piles of hay. When I did, I found several nests of tiny baby mice which I stomped, stomped, stomped! (Look, I was furious and frustrated by then. I did cry while I was doing it!).
I killed the two rat snakes I found in my hen house b/c they were eating my eggs. However, this was before I was completely aware of just how bad my rodent problem was. Now I wish I would have let them alone. They weren't eating that meany, you know?
I will now be getting traps. But the problem is not nearly as bad as it was. The problem I'm having now is that I've noticed that the paving stones have start to kind of sink, which means ground is still soft enough from mice tunneling.
It's highly frustrating, I know!
Hopefully this summer, I will be building a brand new chicken coop - large, and entirely enclosed and off the ground.
Good luck!

 

[Minniechickmama]

I have had mice in the garage where I was keeping all the feed in garbage cans. A little gets spilled and the mice come running in. Plus, I had brooders in the garage. So, I started getting the metal mouse traps that they go in one door live and can't get out. I put poison in there for them to munch and they die. You have to empty it out, but it is pretty effective. The best thing to do though is to make your coop mouse/rat proof. If you have bedding like straw or hay, they love it to build nests in.
Block any wall entrances with hardware cloth. If you have a dirt floor, you will never get rid of them, so having a solid floored coop with wood or cement is the way to go. Rats can chew through wood though if they are determined, just so you know.
Where there is grain, you will eventually get rodents. You do your best to keep them out and then you get Buckeye chickens to go at the rest

 

[iajewel]

The best thing I ever did to rid myself of rodents, as my neighbor has a small corn field right across the street and every year in the fall, I have rats and mice and just got tired of it. Poison didn't work, traps were always full... I bought Muscovy ducks and haven't had a bit of trouble since. They can't eat the adult rats but sure clean out the nests. They can and do eat the adult mice. They have taken care of the problem. I leave my feed building door open during the day so the ducks can get in there to "work" yes it creates a mess of sorts but I would rather clean out duck crap then I would have mice and rats.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I like the ketch-all mousetrap. It catches them live and they they are dispatched by you. No bait, no poison.

 

[iajewel]

and how do you kill a mouse? I don't really want to get bit or touch them. I like traps that are instant death or ducks.

 

[Frosty]

For mice in a live trap, I dump them out into a garbage can and drop a cat in with them...