CompostaBlog | Animal Agriculture

How do I prevent mice entering my chicken coop?

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! While both mice and chickens love grain and seeds, chickens are actually omnivores, which means they also eat meat. 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. There are several preventative measures that should be undertaken to keep away these undesirable visitors.

Can I physically keep mice out of my 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 have a fixed chicken coop made with iron walls, a concrete floor and fine mesh, you may be able to keep them out. But if you’ve got a mobile chicken coop or you regularly free range your chickens, there’s likely to be a tiny gap somewhere for these determined creatures to find their way in. So physically keeping mice actually out of your chicken coop may not be really possible, but there’s still other ways to keep them under control.

Preventing spilt grain

One of the main ways to prevent mice coming into your chicken coop is to make sure that your chickens are not spilling feed onto the ground. As owners and manufacturers of ‘Royal Rooster’ mobile chicken coops, we regularly had customers asking for suggestions about how to prevent their chickens from scratching lots of grain onto the ground. Chickens can waste a lot of grain by scratching it onto the ground, which costs a lot of money and also attracts wild birds and rodents.

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. We’ve designed our feeders with special dividers in the middle of the feeding tray that discourage chickens from ‘swiping’ 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 that these feeders significantly reduce the wastage of grain. The chickens are forced to peck at the feed to eat it, rather than ‘explore’ the grain mix and make a great mess in the process.

We’ve found that having a feeder that prevents feed wastage is a key factor in keeping away the rats and mice. So while they may physically be able to come into your coop, if you can get your spilt grain under control, you’ll also have your mice problem under control.

Scattering Grain

To help get a mouse problem under control, you might decide to take away the chicken’s self-feeder for a period of time and simply scatter grain each morning. 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.

Keeping your supply of feed away from mice

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. Several years ago I discovered a lost Tupperware container in our garage, hidden behind a cupboard, that was completely chewed through for the mice to gain access to the food that was hiding inside. Tough plastic or even wood is not a problem for rodents. Be sure to purchase a strong container, ideally made of metal, to store your grain.

Looking for a quality, attractive mobile chicken coop? You can’t look past the quality, Australian-made coops from Royal Rooster.

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Hatching Your Own Chickens

To follow up on my previous article on keeping chickens in your backyard it’s probably likely that some of you will want to go one step further and hatch and raise your own chicks from your existing stock. Breeding chickens couldn’t be easier and it’s a worthwhile and rewarding project to get your kids involved in too.

If your far enough from your nearest neighbours or lucky enough to have very understanding ones that don’t mind being woken at the crack of down by an over zealous cockerel announcing the dawn of a new day then you are already half way towards getting your hens to breed.

Firstly, you need make sure you have happy healthy hens in good breeding condition by following the guidelines in my earlier article. A plentiful supply of good food and the appropriate nesting facilities in the form of a well-constructed chicken coop.

Firstly, hens kept on their own without a cockerel present will not produce viable, fertile eggs. I know this is stating the obvious but you would be surprised how many people completely miss this critical point!
The introduction of the cockerel to your flock will ensure the eggs are fertile and likely to produce chicks after incubation. It will take no time at all for the cock and hen to do what comes naturally! Bear in mind that when a cockerel is present in the coop you can still collect the eggs and use them for consumption as long as they are collected fresh and haven’t been allowed to remain under the brooding hen for any length of time.
Don’t make the mistake of boiling an egg that has been half incubated! There is nothing more off putting than cracking one open to find a half formed chick inside, in fact you will probably never eat an egg again!

You should ideally remove the cockerel after a few days with the hens as he can become aggressive if he’s had enough of their company. Let him roam the yard or the garden but keep him out of the coop where your hens are going to brood.
Having said that, I have on many occasions left the cock with the hens without any problems but there is a risk attached.

When you decide to let the hen brood just stop collecting the eggs and allow her to start the incubation. It will take 21 days from the time the last egg is laid for the chicks to appear during which time you will have to do nothing other than feed your hens as normal and try to disturb the brooding hen as little as possible. The more peace and quiet she gets the more comfortable and secure she will feel and will be less likely to rise from the nest.

When you do see the chicks appear you can feed them with specially prepared chick crumb. This is small enough in size for the chicks to eat and has all the necessary nutrients for the early stages of development.
Keep a close eye on your chicks in the first few days and protect them from the usual hazards such as predators and watch for signs of the other hens pecking at them.
You may need to separate them if this becomes a problem but never separate them from the mother hen, as this would require artificial heating etc.

Other than that you need do nothing besides enjoy the whole experience but keep these few tips in mind:

· Feed your brooding hens good quality food and make sure they have a plentiful supply of it.
· Keep disturbance to a minimum when your hens are brooding
· Watch for signs that the cockerel is troubling any brooding hens if he has been allowed to remain in the coop
· Dispose of any unhatched eggs carefully at the end of the incubation period, rotten eggs are extremely unpleasant!
· If you plan to keep the chicks and breed from them at a later stage, do make sure to use a different cockerel to prevent problems with inbreeding.

Keeping and breeding you own hens is a rewarding experience and the perfect way to complement the organic garden.

The author has been successfully keeping farm and exotic fowl for almost twenty years and is also an enthusiastic keeper and breeder of aviary finches. For more information on keeping chickens and building your own chicken coop just follow these links http://tinyurl.com/raisingchickens and http://tinyurl.com/buildachickencoop. Related reading on growing your own organic food can be found here http://tinyurl.com/growingorganicfood

Secrets for Building Attractive Poultry Housing Cheap and Easy

If you ever thought about raising chickens or even building your own chicken coup for that matter, maybe it is time you actually did something about it. When you compare the price difference of building your own hen houses versus buying, you will be amazed at the amount of money you can save constructing them yourself. And it will not take as long or be as hard as you may have ever imagined. It is possible to get it done in a weekend or two.

Before cutting your first 2-by-4 or nailing two boards together, it is a good idea to come up with a plan. Chickens need a clean dry nesting area along with some room to roam. They will forage for a portion of their own food if you will let them, and this will keep your chickens happy and your feed expenses down. When you are making design decisions, you should be thinking about ways to accommodate the needs of your flock. In this case, you want the chicken coup to have an indoor area where their nests can remain clean and dry. You also want an outdoor area where they can free range for a portion of the food.

Both of these areas will be attached to form a single chicken coup. There will be a “house” section and a backyard area. Each section will be framed with 2x2s or 2x4s. The inside area will be constructed as an “A” frame building and the backyard will have 2x2s or 2x4s forming a large box without walls or a ceiling. The only other decision that needs to be made at this point is in regard to its location. The areas where the hen houses are placed must drain well. If the drainage is poor, it could end up being a health problem for the birds.

The main materials needed are lumbar, mostly 2-by-4s, chicken wire, nails and staples. The 2-by-4s will make the frame where the siding or plywood can be nailed. They will also be used to frame the outside area where the chicken wire will be attached with staples. It is important to buy chicken wire that has no larger than 2-inch spaces. If the openings are too large, predators and wild birds can squeeze through and come in contact with the chickens, either harming them or spreading disease. You also want to treat the wood and wire so that they will not rot or rust over time. Rotting wood can also attract insect infestations.

The outside part of these poultry houses will have an earthen floor. In other words, you will not make a floor from the wood or the wire. This will allow the birds to free range in that area. You will also need to make a hinged opening that will allow you to get completely inside of the poultry housing. This way you will be able to collect the eggs easily, remove any chickens when necessary, and clean out the droppings.

Another thing you may want to consider is whether you want to make your hen houses stationary, in other words in a permanent location, or if you want the added benefit of making them portable. You can make your poultry housing using the same basic steps whether they are permanent or movable, you just cannot make a portable chicken coup so heavy that you cannot move it when necessary.

Portable hen houses have a distinct advantage over stationary structures. Chickens can pretty much destroy a small area of ground from scratching and pecking for food. Having a permanent chicken hutch means that once they have ruined their outdoor area, it will stay ruined. With a portable hutch, on the other hand, once your flock has eaten most of the grasses in one area, you can simply move it to another area that has lots of fresh succulent plants. This gives the original area time to recuperate. By the time you move your portable chicken coup back to the original area it can be like new again.

Larry Sigurdsson has raised many breeds of chicken for both meat and eggs. He also maintains a fun and educational web site at hen-houses.org where you can receive free information about building hen houses.

Backyard Chicken farming- Free Range Eggs, For Free!

Keeping your own stock of free range egg laying hens is an enjoyable and rewarding pastime as more and more city folk are discovering with the increasing popularity of ‘urban farming’. Hens can be kept in even the smallest of spaces as long as they have suitable shelter, a ready supply of food and small patch of ground to scratch around in.
Hens can easily be bought as chicks from local farmers and smallholders. They will produce one egg per day per hen so even a couple of good layers will produce more than enough eggs for a family. They are easy to keep and feed and as long as you don’t add a cockerel to the flock you wont get any complaints from the neighbors either! In no time at all the hens will become very tame and make entertaining pets as well as being a useful source of fresh eggs.

Hens should be given a roosting shelter in the form of a well constructed chicken coop. This will need to keep them warm and dry and protect them from predators at night and also provide some roosting boxes in which to lay their eggs. When constructing the chicken coop, make sure that it is easy for you to gain access to for cleaning and collecting the eggs. The coop can be attached to or placed inside a small pen in an unused corner of the garden. Give your hens as much space as you can spare them. The more space, the happier and healthier your hens will be.
Your new hens should be fed with proprietary ‘layers pellets’. These will ensure that they get all the nutrients they need to thrive and produce a regular supply of quality eggs. You can also supplement their diet with food waste from the kitchen but remember that what your feeding your hens is ultimately what you are feeding yourself as you will be eating the eggs!
Make sure also that they have a supply of fresh water available at all times.On a warm day a hen can dehydrate very quickly and this can often prove fatal. Make sure that the container you provide the water in can’t be easily knocked over as they often perch on the side of the vessel to take a drink. A good idea is to purchase a specially designed water hopper as these cant easily be knocked over or otherwise emptied inadvertently.
Ninety nine percent of the time you will have no problems keeping chickens but there are some practical matters you will need to keep in mind.
For example if you are occasionally going to give your hens the run of the garden you need to make sure there are no hidden hazards such as holes in fences, gaps under gates or deep ponds which could cause a problem. Bear in mind also that the family dog or cat (or the neighbors for that matter) may have an entirely different agenda!
Make regular checks on the condition of the pen and coop for signs of predators such as foxes. It doesn’t take much more than a space the size of a hand for a fox to squeeze through and remember he has all night to do it. There is nothing more disheartening than seeing a mass of feathers and little else remaining when you go to collect your eggs in the morning.
If you decide to complement your ‘urban farmyard’ by growing your own organic vegetables then it might be best to keep your hens away from the vegetable patch as chickens like nothing more than a fresh leaf of lettuce straight from the plant.
Remember also that if you plan to spend some time on holiday you will need someone to take care of them.

Overall, keeping your own chickens is a fun and rewarding pastime with the added bonus of having a constant supply of free range eggs! It’s easy and fun to get started and a great project to get the kids involved in.

The author has been succesfully keeping farm and exotic fowl for almost twenty years and is also an enthusiastic keeper and breeder of aviary finches. For more information on keeping chickens and building your own chicken coop just follow these links http://tinyurl.com/raisingchickens and http://tinyurl.com/buildachickencoop. Related reading on growing your own organic food can be found here http://tinyurl.com/growingorganicfood

Archive for the ‘Animal Agriculture’

How do I prevent mice entering my chicken coop?

Related Blogs

Baby Chicks Off the Lights

Related Blogs

Hatching Your Own Chickens

Secrets for Building Attractive Poultry Housing Cheap and Easy

Backyard Chicken farming- Free Range Eggs, For Free!

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