Keeping Rodents Out Of The Coop

Keeping Rodents Out Of The Coop

November 28, 2021


(Eliza sitting amongst the chocolate mint near our coop!)


During late fall and into winter, when the temperatures are dropping, and the field mice and rats are looking for a nice warm, safe place to spend the winter as well as a readily available food source nearby, your chicken coop is looking pretty good to them right about now! It's filled with soft bedding, chicken feed, and protects the rodents from predators like weasels, mink, and fox who enjoy a little mouse snack!


Mice and other rodents not only can carry disease and contaminate the area with their droppings, they can transmit lice, mites or ticks to your chickens, and they will eat your chicken feed and chew all kinds of things you don't want them to. Not only that, often snakes, weasels or other varmints will travel using the tunnels mice dig - and that's the last thing you want. So ridding your coop and run area of mice is really important. Here are some helpful guides for signs you may have a rodent problem, bait for humane rodent traps, and some other ideas for how to keep rodents out:


Signs that you might have a rodent problem:

  • round 2-3" holes and tunnels in the ground around your chicken coop and run
  • piles of fresh dirt around the chicken coop and run
  • evidence of gnawing along the base of your coop door
  • chewed cords and wires
  • rodent droppings
  • round holes chewed in feed bags
  • items knocked off shelves 
  • missing eggs (or baby chicks)
  • eggs moved from the nesting boxes to the floor or ground
  • rustling noises when you approach after dark
  • ripped window screens

Bait for humane rodent traps:

  • peanut butter
  • cheese
  • grains
  • wet cat food
  • Nutella (y'all better believe it!)
  • chocolate
  • seeds
  • nuts
  • marshmallows
  • gum drops
  • jam
  • deli meat
  • hard-boiled eggs
  • dried mealworms or grubs

Other ideas to keep rodents out of the coop:
  • Keeping all your chicken supplies in a trash can
  • Having a cat around
  • Sprinkling mint around the coop
  • Essential oil-saturated cotton balls thrown down rodent holes

Just remember, no rodents = happy flock! :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lafayette ~ From Runt To Rooster

Image
  Lafayette ~ From Runt To Rooster September 20, 2020 (Lafayette in front of the coop!) The French Maran breed is a very beautiful breed of chicken. The roosters and hens are colorful alike! The roosters have very glossy feathers with streaks of gold here and there. The hens are also black in color, but they do not have any gold feathers. Hens lay chocolate-colored eggs. French Marans are also known to be very friendly. The hens are very docile, and the roosters are barely ever aggressive. This is no different with our French Maran rooster. Lafayette is the sweetest rooster on earth! (At first, he was the runt. From a previous post, you may have remembered that he eventually turned out to be a roo!) He is a delight to hold, and even my mom, who would never go near a chicken before, (let alone my dad), actually picks up Lafayette now!  Whenever you put him on the ground, he will sit down and wait for you to come back before he stands up again. If you leave him alone in the coop, he will
Read more

The Great Eggscape

Image
The Great Eggscape January 2, 2022 (A chick making the Great Eggscape!) Ever since starting to raise chickens, I had in the back of my head to try hatching eggs one day. And so I decided to do so over Christmas break! Unfortunately, Angelica isn't the best broody hen (she will sit on her eggs for a few days, then abandon them forever!). Fortunately, we were able to borrow a Brinsea incubator from a friend and so I got started! The plan was originally to hatch the chicks on Christmas day (cool right?), however, we got the incubator a little too late to set them for Christmas, so we eventually set them for December 28th, my grandpa's birthday!  Since Lafayette kindly provided us with some fertile eggs, we decided to use those for hatching! How exciting it will be to have mixed breed chicks!  If you are hatching with a Brinsea incubator, or are just starting out your journey of hatching eggs, Brinsea's Incubation Handbook is a great place for info! As soon as I collected th
Read more

My Independent Science Experiment 2021

Image
   My Independent Science Experiment 2021 April 4, 2021 (A screenshot of my computer screen as I worked on my lab report!) As you all know, around Christmastime, I had to do an Independent Science Experiment for school. I decided to do: "Advances Of How Music Has An Effect On A Chick". I think my experiment turned out really well. The results were shocking! The experiment got 2nd place in a county science fair! Plus, I want everyone to see the results of how music affects the brain. So, without further ado, I give you my lab report on my Independent Science Experiment! Advances Of How Music Has An Effect On A Chick Purpose : To find out whether classical music actually has an effect on a chick’s brain, and whether it might have an effect on a human’s brain. Hypothesis : I hypothesized that the chick that was exposed to music would be mature in size, wingspan, weight, and behavior, because of exposure to constant classical music, and the chick that is not exposed to music
Read more