How to keep designer rodents away from chickens.
by Susie Curley. Some people say if you have chicken, you have it
mice. no escape. If you agree with this statement, then you
Perhaps you have a rodent problem or are looking to eradicate critters in your backyard.
One pair of rats usually produces up to six litters per year. they
They are constantly looking for food for their growing family. Chicken feed is
An attractive source of food, which makes the chicken coop a target.
They’re not just pesky thieves, though — mice can hurt chickens, too.
They will kill and eat young chickens, so they are a particular threat when you are raising young birds. They spread diseases including fleas, mites, and salmonella. They can dig and jump and are good climbers – it’s hard to prevent determined mice from getting to your birds.
Secure your ban
To keep your flock safe from rats, protecting your barn from predators is the first priority. Mice have very hard teeth and can break chicken wire with them. Small mice can squeeze through the holes in the chicken wire without ever breaking it.
When my husband and I put an infrared camera on our guinea pigs’ cage to see what they were doing at night, one of the most interesting sights was the mouse squeezing through the wire mesh to get upstairs and eating the guinea pig food. The holes were much smaller than chicken wire, and watching the video opened our eyes to how easy it was for ferrets to get into cages, cages, and cages.
Rats can also gnaw on wood and most other materials that are not as hard as steel.
Make your place less attractive to rodents
If you give your ferrets a nice, cozy place to live, they won’t want to go out. They will live there and breed there, and you will end up invading. When I went to stay with my friend who keeps guinea fowl, he
He said he got rid of mice. It was quite interesting to see a family
Five mice live under an overturned boat. I had mice
Shelter, a good source of water, and plenty of food from the seed he laid
in the garden for his birds. Life must be harder than this for mice, or you’ll end up with families of little mice living on your land too.
Once we made him aware of the mice, he moved the boat and got rid of their house. Stop feeding the birds on the grass, and shoot the
mice.
Take their food away
We had a rat tunnel through the compost heap on one occasion. we
Remove all food scraps from the compost pile and deposit only grass trimmings, leaves, poop and guinea pig bedding in the compost. Food waste went to the designated council collection instead. My husband also turns compost on a regular basis, so the mouse didn’t think it was a comfortable home. Our resident rat decided he was tired of the commotion and moved out.
Be sure to collect chicken eggs every day, so that the eggs are not a food source for the rodents. The Backyard Chicken Project writes, “A friend of mine was wondering why her eggs were disappearing from her nesting boxes
Every day and she was about to blame it on the chickens when she wandered into the box and found a nest full of baby mice living there.”
Keep your chicken food inside a sturdy construction or in steel containers with tight-fitting lids, because mice will often chew through any other containers left outside. Obviously, make sure the rats can’t get to the food scraps left in the garbage or compost collection. Don’t leave feeders or water bottles outside at night, as the mice will feast. Feed your chickens just as much
They will eat a day, and feed them in a rat-proof feeder. Leave nothing edible
Lie outside at night because this is when mice are most active.
Get rid of clutter
A crowded yard provides rats with plenty of places to hide and shelter, so move all your messes off the floor. Hang things on the wall or put them on a shelf. Then the mice have fewer places to hide and cannot make a home among your garbage.
Securing the hen house
Rodents are looking for easy ways to get into your enclosure. They don’t want to do acrobatics or chew on wire or gnaw on wood if there is one
They are easier ways to get food. So, there are things you can do to make a life
harder on them and make your coop less attractive.
Build the coop at least 1 foot off the ground – this can act as a deterrent. If this is not possible, a cement floor provides better protection than soil, because mice cannot penetrate cement.
Alternatively, layer the ground floor with a cloth made of wire mesh. This should prevent most rodents from tunneling. Pin the netting firmly to the corners of the cage and continue up the edges of the coop for a few inches.
Fill in any holes that appear in the ground around your coop with wire mesh. This will make the entire area look less attractive.
traps
Traditional traps work well for rodents, but you can also purchase humane traps if you want to release the smaller pests somewhere where they will do less harm. Another option is an electric shock trap that kills rodents
Immediately by emitting a high voltage zap. Glue traps are inhumane and
Danger to all wildlife. Avoid them like the plague.
Mouse poison
You can use rat poison, but this can poison other species, either directly if you come into contact with the poison or indirectly if you eat dead rats. A rat may hide away to die in a place you can’t reach, leaving you with an unpleasant stench. Therefore, using poison should be a last resort. If you use poison, using bait stations can greatly reduce the risk of other animals, including chickens, coming into contact with the poison.
Shoot them
If you are able to shoot the mice from a distance, away from the chickens, this is a quick and effective method of pest control, but it can potentially be difficult to
Eliminate all inhabitants using shotgun alone.
Of course, you can always get a cat — they’re experts at rodent control! The other simple answer is to call pest control.
More on dealing with creatures here…
https://backyardpoultry.iamcountryside.com/coops/rodents-that-can-be-aproblem-for-backyard-chickens/
Susie Curley Live freelance writer and journalist
In Great Britain with two young guinea pigs and an elderly pair. In Britain, it was published in Chicken, cage and cage birdsAnd
Small furry petsAnd kitchen garden Journals.
facebook.com/susie.kearley.writer
twitter.com/susiekearley
Originally published in the June/July 2023 issue of Backyard poultry Journal and is regularly checked for accuracy.