It’s that time of year and the rodents are looking for warmer places, too. You could close the door at night and that would take care of it at night, but mousies are out and about during the day, also.
We have cats. That is my solution to rodents……lots of cats. Ours came from the horse barn where we board and all eleven are spayed and/or neutered, so our colony has remained the same for a year or more.
I don’t use poisons, but I suppose traps would work, if you aren’t squeamish about emptying them. Don’t use the sticky boards! They don’t kill the mice and I think they are cruel……..the mouse starves to death if not put out of it’s misery by you and they are terrified. I don’t want mice, but I don’t want to inflict unnecessary terror on any species.
Good luck!
Laura
Laura Roberts
R Half Pint Farm
Spotsylvania, VA
From: CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of susan l
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 8:23 AM
To: CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [CHICKENS-101] Mice in chicken feed
For the past 4 years since we started keeping hens again, we have left the feeders in the pen and the coop and have never had a mouse problem. This summer I noticed mouse droppings in the food,so we started hanging up the feeders at night(the barrel of feed is in our store room covered. No more droppings until this morning.
Apparently they figured how to climb up the walls and onto the chain and drop into the feeder! The outside one that is also hanging up is not touched.
The coop has a cement foundation and we are seeing no holes or places they can get in after dark. However,the coop hen door is left opened at night that leads into the outside chicken pen. I figure they are getting in that way. No other signs of mice activities no droppings anywhere except the feeders. Should we just take the feeders inside at night or is there a safe way to get rid of the pests. Thank you for any help or suggestions oyu can give us.
