mice

[terry stewart]

ive got mice around the chicken coop whats the best way to get raid of them

[Smallhold]

They come here at the rabbitfood too. Only strong poison seems to do the work.
We find the odd one staggering in front of us and finish it off and dispose so the dog can't get at it.
Traps didn't work.

[WolfWalksSoftly]

We have had a mouse problem in the coop too..going as far as putting a metal mesh floor in that didn't work. We used to have a hanging feeder in the coop, but now throw the feed out on the ground for the chickens.

[keljonma]

We've used snap traps and live traps. Cover the snap traps with a shoe box (with one small side removed) so your chickens can't get at them.

[bill not in oh]

My chickens will eat the mice that occasionally stray into their part of the barn. I see them fighting over a mouse 8-10 times a year - no idea how many they actually catch. I wouldn't use poison. Try putting a small amount of chicken feed in the bottom of a metal trash can (25-35 gal) - they'll go into the trash can for the feed and won't be able to get out. Just place the can along one of their trails where they can get to the top of it. I discovered this by accident when I neglected to cover up the goat feed once. Maybe it was the molasses in the goat feed that attracted them....

[lmnde]

Can your chicken get to the mice where they are? When we had free ranging chickens [bd = before dogs] - we had actual chicken fights over the occasional mouse that had the bad fortune to get caught!

There is nothing as hilarious as a chicken trying to sneak off [on tippytoes too], before the rest of the flock catches on that she has one. Then follows a happy round of evasive maneuvers - forget basket ball - they have nothing on chicken playing "mouse"! By the time that mouse is history - it has been at the very least skinned, quartered and drawn [literally]. Let your chicks go at them! Cheap entertainment and free protein.

I would most definitely not use poison around the chicken coop!

[Thoughthound]

How about a cat?

[vtfarma]

take a 5 gallon (or so) bucket. Drill 3 or 4 holes about 4 to 6" from the top. Add water to overflow and sprinkle sunflower seeds on the top. The mice/rats scamper in for the seeds but drown. Dump it once a day at first then adjust accordingly. The stupid things will actually go into the goat's drinking water and drown. Really gross but beats poison.

Try it. It works just fine.

Laurie

[kasilofhome]

We raised mice (for real)
It is hard to believe but they can die real easy (esp when they are worth $1.00 - $2.00 each)

The Number one cause of death. Lack of water.

They do not need much water but they need it all the time. They do not have a true bladder and are "leaking" all the time. It is that "leaking that leaves a "scent" trail. Just like they poop on the run well they pee on the run.

Find your constant water source.
In a house check you water pipes for condensation. (prof- water systems for mice work very much like pipes with condenstation on them) ---Mice drown very easy so making the prime souce of water a trap would word two. Some where you have free water -maybe spills. They can even get water from roots of plants.

Having raise those buggers VTFARMS is a great way to go. The seeds and water (they can smell water too) Idea is a great one. Now here is my question to VTFARMA do you float the seeds on the water to hide the water? Do you find that you do not have to cover the water top completely with the seeds? Mice do have good eye sight.

Mice roam quite a bit and they can travel fast. Any poison could end up where you can not have it when you poison.

For a dirt floor, lay a wide board down along a wall. Mice will soon tunnel under it. Raise the board and put " One Bite " or other bait in the run and cover with the board to keep the chickens out of the poison. For trapping, cut a few lengths of 1 and 1/2 or 2 inch pvc pipe about a foot long or a little over. Buy some cardboard glue boards and roll them up and insert them into the plastic pipe and lay them along walls. Mice are stupid and their only goals are finding and hoarding food, staying out of sight of predators, and mating.

[Christiaan]

One word: ferrets. These were the old-time solution to mice and rats. They are trainable, like people and are popular in the pet trade. Be the first to bring back an old homesteading practice!

[vtfarma]

When we throw the seeds on we do not put that much on it. Maybe a cup or two. Actually we have caught them without the seeds on it before when I was out of sunflowers and had just refilled the bucket. Seems to me they needed the water and went for that then couldn't get out.

The other option is to borrow our buck (goat) Apollo. He really hates mice and headbutted the daylights out of one a couple of days ago. Pinned the little sucker right to the wall. Didn't realize a goat could steamroller something so flat!

Laurie

[The Paw]

Originally Posted by poppy

... Mice are stupid and their only goals are finding and hoarding food, staying out of sight of predators, and mating....

Jeez, that sounds like most single people I know....

Originally Posted by The Paw

Jeez, that sounds like most single people I know....

Well, you need to hang out with a better class of people. It is true, mice are really dumb. I've attended several seminars given by highly educated people who study mice for a living and they all say the same thing. Their only advantage is their ability to multiply so fast. They are compulsive at storing food and following established routes of travel. I saw photos of a house owned by an elderly lady who owned 2 cockatiels. After she died, they found receipts that showed she had spent over $4,000 a year feeding those 2 birds. She had mice by the hundreds and they were hoarding birdseed in the ceiling and walls to the point that the plaster collapsed in 1 room's ceiling from the weight. It was amazing to think of the number of trips mice had made to carry that much birdseed.