Grain, feed, loss from mice

[DJ in WA]

I noticed some mice scurrying around my chicken pens the other day and realized with the price of chicken feed I'd better start trapping again. Set 5 mouse traps and have caught over 2 dozen in two days. Nice big fat mice I'm growing.

Makes me wonder the magnitude of losses overall from mice and what is done to control them. Our cat is lazy ("it's cold outside!"). My chicken pens in the barn are raised. I'm thinking if I nail some slick sheet metal on the legs of the pens, the mice won't be able to climb up.

Before feeding, I've always kept feed in containers, but after feeding is the problem. What do you all do for mice control?

[Oregon Julie]

I have cats, which have done a nice job of keeping the mice population down, but they won't attempt to tackle the rats (which I have to say I understand completely and don't blame them). I have gone with traps, but find that a good number of the rats are too smart for traps. We have intentionally set out water buckets and get a pretty large number of floaters that way.

But recently I have found a product called Rodetrol. It kills them by somehow disrupting the system in a way that causes them to die of dehydration. The nice thing (well not for the mice/rats) is that there is not an issue with secondary kill like with most poisons. You don't want other non-target animals to eat the pellets, but according to the maker there is not a risk to say a dog getting a dead critter and eating on it.

We breed and show Parson Russell Terriers and the secondary kill aspect of most poisons was a real concern. The dogs catch some of the stupid rats that come through their kennels (Gods way of thining the herd of the stupid ones) and they are dead fast. Most of the dogs won't eat the rats, but they do enjoy eating mice when they get a chance to we have to be very careful about what is put out to deal with the problem.

I too had some rather fat, shiny, healthy looking rats running around my barn until I put out the Rodetrol. Now there are very few, which pleases me to no end. I hate the buggers and I really hate the damage they do. It isn't just what they eat, it is the rat poop in the feed and the chewed through bags, etc. So many praises to the folks who make Rodetrol, not going to be without it in the future.

[electronrider]

Ya know, with all the creative people on this board, we should be able to find SOME sort of market for all these mice... Keeping the feed in steel trashcans was the norm back on the farm, and is the norm in the garage now. Helps a lot.

[jacksun65]

live trap them and sell them to snake handlers

[Jim S.]

DJ, I searched around and snagged six 55-gallon drums with lids for $7 each for all my feedstuffs. No worries. Plus, I now can load them on my trailer and go direct to get bulk feed...cheaper.

[Fire-Man]

Originally Posted by jacksun65

live trap them and sell them to snake handlers

I thought of that---Offered them to some snake owners------They said No Way---The rats/mice Might have "something" that might kill the snake. So I just let my bulldog kill all he can find and I help him find them. Like one night I stuck a water hose in a tunnel at the edge of the chicken house--It took a few minutes---then rats/mice came out of holes every where---the two cats caught one each---the dog caught 3. The cats will not eat them, but my bulldog thinks they are "Candy"--LOL. Good Luck with the rats/mice. Randy

[wy_white_wolf]

As a kid I used to get a nickel apiece for mice from the local zoo. They figured I might bring 1 to 2 dozen a week. They were supprized when I showed up the second week with over 250 mice. catch alive traps in grainaries worked great. Just had to check them about 4 times a day.

[DownHome]

We used a repeating live trap. Like this one

http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/425N.jpg

We got our for 15.00 at the local farm supply store. I hate setting and baiting and disposing of the remains of the little flip traps, so these are great for us.

You just wind it up and as the mice crawl in the hole as they all love to, it flips them into a holding area. When we check them, we just hollar "here kitty kitty kitty", shake the box up real good and dump them out. The mice are either dead or disoriented and the cats scarf them down like there is no tomorrow. We've caught up to 6 at a time.

[DJ in WA]

DJ, I searched around and snagged six 55-gallon drums with lids for $7 each for all my feedstuffs. No worries.

Yeah, I’m storing my feed in 33 gallon garbage cans, but the problem is after feeding. Chickens have to access the feed, so mice can also. Ideally, you would keep them out of a chicken pen, but mice can fit their skull through a dime-size hole. So would have to seal tightly. Fortunately my pens are raised on legs, so I think I can take measures to keep them from climbing up.

Makes me wonder about feedlots, etc with mounds of grains laying around. Seems the mice would be endless, but maybe they poison them.

Pretty impressive to see a pile of mice. I’ve got some real trophies. They will go into the compost pile where I can reclaim some of the nitrogen I've invested in them.

[wildhorse]

Try storing feed in an old freezer and feed smaller amounts so there wont be so much left over for mice to find.