Chickens vs. mice

[curly_kate]

We have a couple of little field mice living in our chicken coop (don't blame them - it's a good source of food!). Anyway, I disrupted their nest and sent one of them running, and one of the chickens got it! She didn't eat it, but pecked at it and carried it around for a while. So my question is, is it a problem to have mice in the henhouse, except that they are eating the food? If it is a problem, how can I get rid of them? Setting traps doesn't seem like it would work very well in this situation. I just have these visions of the chickens running around with mousetraps stuck to their feet.

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

Other than the fact mice carry a multitude of diseases and are very prolific, if the mice being there doesn't bother you then I don't see a problem. Other than they will help bring in snakes that are hunting for food, which in turn could eat your eggs AND suffocate your chickens while trying to eat THEM.

Unfortunately mice and chickens go hand in hand. So to help control the ones in my chicken area I use PVC stuffed with rat poison. On each end of the PVC I put elbows to prevent the mice from pulling the poison out and the chickens can't get to the poison inside. Yes, you will find little dead mice here and there from t ime to time but the amount of poison in their little body is negligible and won't harm anything that might sample the little corpse....


I forgot to mention we have some barn cats that are excellent hunters but they usually don't fool with something so trivial as field mice - they are BIG GAME HUNTERS (rabbits and rats!)

 

[Greensage45]

Other than they will help bring in snakes that are hunting for food, which in turn could eat your eggs AND suffocate your chickens while trying to eat THEM.

LOL...this is such a fabrication! I am not sure who scared you into believing this but it is so untrue unless you are talking about Chicks! Really ...I don't mean pullet-size either, really baby chicks.

As for the eggs. Only a few snakes eat eggs and of those I highly doubt one would be waiting for the egg to come out of the chicken and the chicken to not have a full blown 'freak-out'. Chickens will not get near a snake and if one came in at night it would definitely be the mouse hunting kind. A snake knows what it can swallow and if one is big enough to swallow a grown chicken then I would suggest a smaller wire on your coop! LOL

This totally made me laugh. It is the perpetuation that a snake is bad! Snakes are a gardener's friend, and yes! Even Rattlesnakes are beneficial and outweigh any risks (minimal as they are).

Getting back to mice. Mice and grain go hand in hand. If you feed your chickens so there are no leftovers laying about then there will be a reduction in mouse population. If there is an excess of food then there will be an excess of mice.

You need to get yourself off of the idea of a poison. Nothing in this world has ever benefited from the use of poisons and if that were the case there would be no mice. Use poisons and I bet you have still have mice. Poisons (such as what are used for mice) can sit and wait until one day, long from now, you forget you used it in that area and or the mice drag it elsewhere. Mice take their food with them.

What you need is a Tin Cat. They are wonderful, they are clean, they work!

You don't even need to put food into them, and I have been using mine for over 5 years now! What a great investment for something under $20.

Other than that, please do not see this as me 'bashing' you Broke; I realize we all have our indoctrinations from good intentions; but nothing in the world will be benefited by poisons and nothing could be so cruel and destructive! I say, God forbid if a cat or dog should happen along a dead mouse full of these poisons.

Please take the time to read this article!
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_rat_poison.html

Please be careful. We are only here on this Earth to usher in a better way of life, not to embrace the old school thoughts and consumerisms.

It is time to get back to basics and rekindle the Natural Balance that is missing!

Blessings, :watering

Ron

 

[digitS']

Weeeelll, I like Victor but I don't like mice.

You know what?!? They might run up your pants leg when it's dark and windy and things are waiting out there in the trees ready to swoop down on you while you are distracted trying to get a mouse out of your pants!!!!!


The Victor traps I'm quite happy with are the little cheap ones with the trigger that holds something tasty for those dirty vermin, the mice. And, something nice and tasty that works great is a juicy raisin dipped in peanut butter - lethal!

Don't put up with mice in the coop. Actually, I think they spook your laying hens on the roost as well as contaminate their food.

And, how I keep the hens out of the traps - - they go in a cage, inside the coop. Chickens can't get in; mice can get in; but they can't get out. . . not after they've sampled that raisin and peanut butter!!

Steve

 

[Texan]

I dont know this for a fact and I want you to understand that this is something that I have heard and not verified. From what I have heard, mice will pee in your feed if the feed is not properly stored. From what I have heard, mice peeing in the feed can cause some health issues for whatever animal that is eating the feed.

Again, I have not verified this. Myself, I would not tolerate mice in my chickens coop.

 

[curly_kate]

Thanks for the advice. Does the Tin Cat kill the mice, or just trap them? I don't want to release them just to have them come back. I wish I had a useful cat - mine is fat and lazy, and just watches the mice instead of actually CATCHING them.

 

[Greenthumb18]

I don't think the chickens eating mice would be a problem, unless they had diseases. And i wouldnt use poisons as others had stated it would be better to use traps, it would be better for the environment.
Good luck catching those mice!

 

[Rosalind]

I just keep the feed in big plastic snap-shut bins. Seems to work OK. I have caught a couple of mice trying to get into the bins late at night, but at that time of night the chickens are all up on their roosts anyway, so not bothered. I don't think that a broody hen would tolerate a mouse attempting to cuddle under her; I hatched two batches of chicks this year with broody hens, and had no problems.

 

[Greensage45]

Please forgive me if I am too graphic, but in regards to what the Tin Cat does to the mice is sort of based on their sensitivity.

You see, as prolific as mice are, they are highly sensitive creatures, and especially to over exposure. Even in the Summer if a mouse gets caught at night (our nights are cool) they suffer from exposure and die really fast.

Also, if i catch more than one, within several hours I typically find one dead because the other one attacked it.

The Tin Cat was meant to be placed and left. Then emptied periodically so as not to have that 'death smell'. A mouse cannot go more than a day without eating or they will die. If you notice also they have holes all the way around, you could simply place the trap in water and dispatch them very fast.

It is all cruel, there is no question. Just as a normal trap is designed to kill a mouse instantly, we all know that does not happen all the time.

Personally what I do is I take mine out to the field and release them. Some make it back, but most times it is so exposed and there is no where to hide that a nearby Sparrow Hawk notices them first and takes them. This summer I had a Sparrow Hawk (Kestrel) hanging out on the telephone pole waiting for me to bring him a mouse in the field. He took them as soon as I released them. If he missed then the mouse was meant to live. :coolsun

Ron

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

LOL...this is such a fabrication! I am not sure who scared you into believing this but it is so untrue unless you are talking about Chicks! Really ...I don't mean pullet-size either, really baby chicks.

Nope, not fabrication whatsoever. I can't count how many GROWN chickens I have lost to bull snakes that get in the coop and try to swallow them (head first) then realize the bird is too big and they will regurgitate them. Of course by this time the chicken is very dead. I have had it happen all the way from small chicks to full grown standard sized chickens. Matter of fact I killed a bull snake about 2 months ago that got in the coop and swallowed a 3 month old chick then couldn't get back out because it was too fat.