I love backyard chickens but I'm definitely not a fan of mice and rats. Just because you have chickens in your backyard, doesn't mean you also have to have mice or rats in your chicken coop. In most cases, it's the spilt grain that attracts mice into the chicken coop. Once inside, the mice may discover that there's also fresh water and may conclude that your chicken coop is actually quite cosy place to live! Of course these mice may not realise that chickens are actually omnivores, meaning that they consume both meat and vegetable material. This means that a mouse that is a bit slow running through the coop, might find that he becomes a light snack for one of your chickens. I wouldn't however, rely on your chickens to keep your mouse problem under control. Owners of backyard chickens should always take preventative measures to keep away these undesirable visitors that can bring with them a range of diseases.

Keeping mice out of the chicken coop

The first thing that you might think to do is to try to physically keep mice out of your chicken coop. This, however, is quite difficult to actually achieve. Mice can fit into spaces we would never assume they would be able to gain access. If you've got a mobile chicken coop it's going to be quite difficult to keep mice out of your coop altogether. There's likely to be a tiny gap somewhere for these determined creatures to find their way in. But don't despair! Even if you can't physically keep mice out of your chicken coop, but there are still other preventative measures you can take to keep the situation under control.

Preventing spilt grain

One of the key factors in keeping away rodents is to make sure that you have an adequate feeder that doesn't allow the chickens to spill a great deal of feed onto the ground. As manufacturers of mobile chicken coops, we often had customers ask us about ways to prevent the spillage of grain onto the ground.

Your chickens can cost you a great deal more than necessary in the way of chicken feed. Most chickens naturally love to scratch at their feed, which means a lot of it ends up on the ground and then wasted.

To be honest, we were also having issues with our chickens wasting lots of feed. We were determined to overcome this problem and so decided to design our own feeders. A key part of the design of our feeders is the special dividers in the middle of the feeding tray. These dividers make it much more difficult for chickens to 'swipe' the feed onto the ground. Chickens will naturally try to sort their grain mix to find the tastiest piece of grain or seed.

We've found our feeders really do reduce the amount of grain that is wasted. The chickens are forced to peck at the feed to eat it, rather than 'explore' the grain mix and make a great mess with their feed. We've found that having a quality feeder with tray divisions or a treadle type feeder are a key factor in keeping away the rats and mice. If you can get your spilt grain under control, you'll soon find that your mice problem is also under control.

Scattering Grain

If you have a really bad mice problem, you may be tempted to just feed your chickens at one point in the day by scattering their feed on the ground. Unfortunately, chickens do much better if they have a regular, continuous supply of feed that they can access throughout the day. Self-feeders are really the only easy way to ensure they have a continuous supply available. Rather than taking away the self-feeder all together, it is much wiser to invest in a feeder that limits the amount of grain spilt.

How should I store my grain?

You also need to make sure that your grain or pellets are stored appropriately in a sealed container. Rats and mice can be fairly determined if they sniff out some food that they're interested in. I've discovered a lost Tupperware container in our garage, hidden behind a cupboard, that was completely chewed through for the mice to gain access. Tough plastic or even wood is no problem for mice or rates. Be sure to purchase a strong container, ideally made of metal such as an old-fashioned garbage bin or 44-gallon drum to store your grain.