Today is the day I had PLANNED to move the girls to the coop, BUT.....

[tri-5-ron]

.... I am currently finding mouse droppings in the coop, an I sure the rats are around or are soon to follow.

The Girls, are just getting too big for the brooder, and are 6 weeks old .
The coop has been completed for a week now.
I have set it up with, a feeder with food, a waterer, and fresh pine shavings about 2"-3" deep.
The girls have visited the new coop on a few occaisions for a couple of hours each, then returned to the brooder, inside the house, for the cooler evenings.

I have now installed a 250w red heat lamp, and have been using a indoor/outdoor thermometer for the past few nights, to monitor the minimum/maximum temps throughout the nights.

Lowest night time temps have been 49 degrees OUTSIDE the coop,... and 61 degrees INSIDE, at "poop board level", inside the coop.
So I am fairly confident that they will be ok at these temps.
OR,...
I can easily warm it up more by blocking some of the roof level ventilation grills, or re-positioning the heat lamp closer to the roosts.

Now I'm finding mouse/rat poop up on the roosts/poop boards.
I don't really want to use any poisions inside the coop for obvious reasons.

So my question is...
Has anyone used the electronic type of rat/mice traps that electrocute vermin when they enter the trap?

I realize the knee- jerk reaction to this is:
"Don't do it,... if a rat can enter, then a chicken can also stick it's head in there".

I'm sure I can "Chicken Proof" the zapper trap, by putting it inside a plywood box, where the chickens cannot get their heads near the zapper trap.
My thinking, and full intention, is this,
I would have a instantly leathal mouse/rat killer,...
without having the potential danger of poisions getting spread out in the coop.

What are your thoughts on these battery powered electrocution traps, inside the coop ?
Good, bad, indifferent?

I suppose a old fashioned snap trap could also be used inside of a wooden plywood box too.

The point is,...
to have an instant kill,
inside the coop, (as well as in the pen/run),
without endangering the chickens.

so what are your thoughts ???

Thanks,
Ron

btw-
No,... I am neither concerned, or interested, in a "Humane" way, to "Live Trap", the disease carrying, nasty dispositioned, damage inducing, VERMIN.

I Really dont "Give A ....**Concern** ....about them".
kill them fast, kill them all, kill them now.

same goes for the Oppossums too.

 

[Mahonri]

I would put the traps or the 'mouse killers' just outside the coop where the chickens have no access.

 

[lleighmay]

I have used the electronic (battery operated traps) in my house with good results. I too refuse to use poisons because I have dogs(inside), cats, chickens, and wildlife that might eat something I poisoned to their detriment. I don't use the electronic traps in the coop because I have grown hens who will eat anything they can catch and barn cats who will do the same (except for chickens). Since your chicks are younger I don't see how putting some of them in the coop (or immediately outside) until the girls are big enough to defend themselves will do any harm as long as a chicken cannot get it's head inside. BTW- a rat or mouse can go anywhere its head will fit so the hole doesn't have to be nearly as big as it does for a chicken.

 

[Oopoo]

are you somewhere that you can leave a radio running in the coop? A nice tune with lots of bass running day and night should make them leave. You've made it nice and warm and dry so now you have to make it nasty