Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I can imagine it can get stressful at times.

Here's a funny.

I have mice in my pen area (which I imagine most of us do, but some have a better system, so maybe they don't). I have tried so many things to get rid of them or deter them from the area. Nothing works - the baking soda and cornmeal trick - I think they thought it was a treat and invited friends over to indulge. Supposedly they don't like crushed red pepper, it might not be their first choice, but it doesn't bother them like people claim - they will still eat around it. Also earlier this year, I waisted a lot of money on peppermint spray.

I don't like the mice as I fear it brings other maladies to my chickens and if mice can get in eventually so can other things. I put a 2' wide apron of 1/2" hardwire cloth only to have the mice tunnel under it. It has kept the rats out (I had that one episode prior to installing it).

Ok, so that's just the set up of the story and you might be thinking that's not funny ...

Here goes ...

Every night I go out to tuck my chickens and ducks in. Make sure they are all cooped up as they should be. Every night I put feed away and other things that I don't want the mice to be leaving presents in.
Every night after putting the stuff away, I tell my chickens "Bedtime". "Let's go, bedtime." "Come on Pearl it's time for bed."

As soon as I start saying this, I can spot mice coming out of their hiding areas. One night, I counted 8 (does that mean I have 30?)
Sometimes, I will be standing there and the mice see me and somehow I jump scare them. Now that gets me to giggle a little - as it's literally like watching a cartoon! Once in awhile, I will say to one of the braver ones, "I can see you - I'm still standing here."
So, the other day I'm standing there telling my girls bedtime. I see a few mice out of the corner of my eye. I'm like "hello - I can see you, you naughty things". Wouldn't you know one of them jumped up behind the chicken waterer and reached around with it's little head to take a drink out of the water nipple. I was like The audacity! I'm pretty sure that means I have pet mice. They are trained, they eat well, and have fresh water available. Sometimes that water has some good probiotics in it for gut health of course. These mice are having the times of their lives.

I told my husband about the mouse drinking from the waterer and he said that I could probably put one of those bucket traps out since they are so trusting. I asked him then what, I can't harm my pet mice.

The End.

Oh my goodness! Drinking from the nipple waterer is amazing! Such cheek! Long ago before the chickens, I actually did have pet fancy mice and they were clever little things. They were cute, too, but so hard to clean up after because they are just constantly going

I do think mice are an inevitability with chickens to an extent. I exclude them as much as possible by putting the feed up out of reach overnight and remeasuring it every day, which is a lot of additional work, but at least I'm not feeding as much to the mice that way. Of course, any time I forget a dish or someone spills feed that I can't efficiently clean up, sure enough there's mouse droppings and chewed up feed there the next morning. They say treadle feeders are the end-all solution to mice and rats, but of course those also require that you don't have tiny chickens like the OEGBs who aren't big enough to weigh down the treadle. Oh, well.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Just a quick check in because I have entirely too much to get done and entirely too little of this weekend left to do it in. Suffice it to say, school is keeping me busy!

I think Harriet is laying now because I've been getting a 6th blue/green egg every now and then, and only 5 of the pullets are blue/green layers. Harriet looks the most like she's laying right now out of the older blue/green eggers.

Pretty sure this loon isn't laying based on a vent check and the fact that she continues to crow every morning with the roosters like the loon she is Miss Fifi

Only other thing of interest to post is that I moved the OEGB girls back outside in that warm spell we had last week, though now of course I'm eyeballing tomorrow night's low and wondering if I wasn't a bit hasty in doing so... But they seem to be handling today's cold just fine so far, so hopefully one night in the teens won't do them any harm. They are less than impressed by their current accommodations, however.

Just one more random shot of Chicha deciding she could not wait for me to measure out the feed the other morning. She doesn't look close to laying to my eye, but she sure is squat-happy these days!