Yeah, so remember those mole holes I wrote about?
Apparently, not all of them are for moles.
We've known since we moved in that there is a bit of a mouse problem in the chicken coop. The previous owner didn't clean out the coop for quite some time (duuuuude, like, a really really long time) and so the floor is a solid mixture of chicken poop and grain. This, apparently, is some sort of mice heaven. A few weeks ago TMOTH quietly sat in the coop for five minutes and he swears he saw 17 separate mice. Ugh.
I assume that once we clean out the coop and acquire our own chickens that the mice will move on and seek other avenues, as their food source will be significantly reduced and the chickens themselves will deter the mice. So, in the meantime, there's been a bit of a truce.
But yesterday I was walking behind the coop and apparently interrupted some sort of mouse convention, as a good half-dozen fled from the holes in the grass to the coop. Say what?
Oh dear, the mice aren't just in the coop...they're in the lawn. Which means they could move into the house and/or the garden.
Oh dear...
--Rational Mama
From what I've read, a chicken will kill and eat a mouse. I've never seen our chickens do it, but it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
ReplyDeleteAlso, getting that coop cleaned out and cleaned up should resolve a huge part of your problem. Carla Emery says in her Encyclopedia of Country Living that any rodent holes should be covered with metal if you plan on reusing the coop.
As far as them living out in your lawn (I wondered about that when I saw your mole post) they honestly might just leave for better living arrangements with the coop smorgasbord closed up. And not necessarily into your house. We don't usually see mice in our house in the summer, but last fall we had a good number get trapped and we think it was because our compost bin was too close to the house. Now that's moved and we've not seen them again.
I'm sure as soon as you take care of the habitat (that smelly coop), they'll leave.
Thanks for the encouragement...I'm hopeful that once the birds move out to the coop they'll do their own pest control. :)
ReplyDeletesounds like you could use some guineas. They are noisy, but the noise scares away predators like foxes and coyotes. They will also kill off mice, moles, shrews, and any other small defenseless rodents
ReplyDelete