How to Keep Mice Out of Your Chicken Coop

In the event that you’ve ever experienced mice in your chicken coop, perhaps you understand how it can feel to let your hens outside in the morning, only to find that their tail feathers have been chewed on. You might also discover that an egg or two has been cracked open. These situations are exactly what chicken fans can’t stand. A proficient chicken keeper would definitely identify this as a rodent intrusion. Rodents are bothersome and problematic creatures that eat your feed and damage your chickens, in addition to being carriers of sickness. Mice and rats can be a problem not only for chicken owners in the country, but for keepers of backyard fowl in the metropolitan area also. 

 
If rats break into your chicken coop, they’ll develop a practice of eating eggs as well as feed, upping your charges and resulting in a reduction in great tasting breakfast eggs. These pests are also known to chew on plumage, which is a particularly big worry for those raising show poultry. Having said that, the chicken owner ought to be careful of using rat killer to exterminate these animals. Poison can be an efficient killer, but you should be cautious in order to be sure that your fowl doesn’t get into the toxin.
Mice have the ability to squeeze through holes the size of a dime, so protecting them from entering isn’t necessarily trouble free. First of all , you should do is to make certain that your chicken coop is raised off the yard. By allowing for room in between the chicken coop and the earth, you will be helping to make the rodent’s task more difficult. Next, be sure you close up your coop each night. This will make it problematic for rodents and other sorts of pests to gain access to your chicken house.
 
The most significant aim that one will need to have while aiming to stop rats from moving into their chicken houses is making the hen house unattractive to these invaders. You must make a conscious attempt to lessen food waste. This could mean raising feeders to a specific level to ensure that chickens cannot scoop food out on the ground with their beaks. One may additionally wish to get a feeder which has a shield which doesn’t enable fowl (who seem to be notoriously messy-eater) to distribute their feed all over the floor. Next, the owner must be sure that eggs are collected fairly often. You will not want rats to get your eggs– especially if your birds develop a practice of pecking their eggs. Once again, the easiest way to control these animals is almost always to not allow them to start at all. Prevention is the key.
 
Along with making sure that your feed waste is lessened, invest in a metal trash can for holding your feed. Rats can chew through plastic trash cans, so a well-built metal trash can is the strategy to use. Ensure that the cover is closed up strongly every night. An additional benefit of storing feed inside a metal garbage can is that it will keep the feed dried out.
 
Chicken keeping doesn’t have to be extremely tough, and you shouldn’t be weighed down . by the danger of mice in your hen house. There are many simple ways to fight these feed wasting annoyances, such as the methods listed above. Follow these steps and you will be on the right path to preventing rodent infestation in your hen house.

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