4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[ratfan]

Lived in my house a few years now and last year my neighbours got a few chickens which has now grown to quite a few chickens. Unfortunately over the last few days we have become riddled with mice and I have trapped five in two days.

 

Spoke the Environmental Health and they asked if I left food out for the birds or if anyone else had started doing this recently. I mentioned the arrival of the chucks next door and they said 'Well there you are.'

 

They also went on to say that I could do nothing about them owning chickens and that I would just have to deal with them when/if they made an entrance again. My bother is now that the mice have got used to their surroundings will it mean rats next?

 

I feel utterly disgusted that their hobby has caused me to get infested with vermin.

 

Any of you had similar outbreaks?

[urbanchick]

Oh dear, not nice. I think your only option is to talk to them and ask them to to deal with it. It's not the chickens but the food that attract mice/rats. If they are careless with spilt grain and the food bowls are accessible to mice at night, then that will be the cause.

They should be baiting, trapping, etc. and clearing up spilt food, bringing in the food at night. Sounds like they would benefit from contacting environmental health themselves!

 

I have had a mouse, but only one that I found dead. I know 3 people that have had rat infestations in the last year. NONE of them have chickens, but they do feed the birds and that was the cause.

 

One solution would be to get a terrier. I doubt you'd see a rat or a mouse after that!

[Janty]

I have only ever seen two mice in the garden in 14 months of having hens and I never bring the food in at night. I get on well with the neighbours and ask them regularly if they have seen any mice/rats but they haven't. They keep guinea pigs and their children often spill the food yet they have had no problems.

 

However, before we got the hens and cats, we found a few rats nests in the compost which we had to deal with. Last week, Emma my brahma caught and ate a mouse in front of us (one of the two mentioned above).

 

It could be co-incidental that the mice have appeared since your neighbours got their chickens. Please don't jump to conclusions and blame the current situation on their hobby.

I have 19 hens and have not had any problems.

[ratfan]

It could be co-incidental that the mice have appeared since your neighbours got their chickens. Please don't jump to conclusions and blame the current situation on their hobby.

 

Agree it could be a coincidence but I just wanted to see what the opinions were of folk who keep chickens and to draw on their experience. As I said I was informed by the EH it was probably that but not to get the flamethrower out just yet. Am not enjoying coming down to dead rodents every day and only hope my daughter doesn't find one before I have chance in a morning.

[Olly]

I think you should speak to Environmental Health again, because they have not given you good advice. (I'm assuming that these mice are in your house, not in the garden - every garden has mice in, and I had them long before I had chickens.)

 

If you have got mice in your house, then you've got a problem that has nothing to do with your neighbours - the mice are getting in somewhere, and you need to find out where and seal it up. As soon as the weather gets colder, mice look for somewhere warm to spend the winter and houses are top of the list. Broken air-bricks are a classic route in, and you'll have to deal with that problem.

 

Think about it - if the mice are in your house, they are not going to leave it and trek out across to next-door's garden to eat out of the chicken-feeder! The neighbour's chickens are a red herring, I'm afraid. If they were the cause of the problem, we'd all have mouse infestations.

[KAZAROO]

Lived in my house a few years now and last year my neighbours got a few chickens which has now grown to quite a few chickens. Unfortunately over the last few days we have become riddled with mice and I have trapped five in two days.

 

Spoke the Environmental Health and they asked if I left food out for the birds or if anyone else had started doing this recently. I mentioned the arrival of the chucks next door and they said 'Well there you are.'

 

They also went on to say that I could do nothing about them owning chickens and that I would just have to deal with them when/if they made an entrance again. My bother is now that the mice have got used to their surroundings will it mean rats next?

 

I feel utterly disgusted that their hobby has caused me to get infested with vermin.

 

Any of you had similar outbreaks?

 

Peppermint oil is a fantastic organic and lovely smelling deterrent.....

 

I expect to be honest its more a fact the mice have been around and have just had a flux prior to the hen keepers!!!! They come in as its warm...

 

My dads an exterminator and says there has been a splurge in the number of mice around

 

Most hen people are responsible and don't leave excess food out for the taking...

[Egluntyne]

Vermin of one sort or another is around us all the time. People leave food out on garden bird tables all the time, so maybe another neighbour is responsible.

 

In my experience urban chicken owners are at great pains to keep the place tidy so as not to encourage mice, or even worse.....rats.