Mouse in the Chicken Run

[Sue]

I'd heard about hens attacking mice but I've never seen it till today. My placid girls turning into raging killers in an instant. I've fixed up a run surrounding their fixed run and house so they can roam about on the grass while I'm there to keep an eye on them. They were rootling through the undergrowth and a mouse shot out and in a panic headed for the open door of the hen run and then of course couldn't find its way out. The hens went berserk and were after it in a trice, they cornered it behind the feeder, two of them working in tandem with their wings out and low on the ground to form a barrier. Enid got hold of it and tossed it around but let go, grabbed it again and then Ruby made a move to get her bit but then Enid let go and it managed to get away finding the door and off under the barrier netting.

I was a bit relieved, not wanting to really have to witness a mouse being pulled apart. Just goes to show what's lurking under that placid surface!

Sue

[RichmondHens]

And if you find a dead mouse, try throwing one into the run for them - they love it (assuming it's fresh of course). It's all protein, after all.

I witnessed my 8 week old Welsummers chasing a rat off the feeder the other week. Pity they didn't tear that limb from limb!

[lettucegrow!]

This is all toooo much first thing in the morning -I have these awful images of these cute hens doing a strange transformation thing and turning into the hens from hell!

[kevnsue]

Hi,my chickens are out in the countryside,so the rats wait for feeding time.
spent some of yesterday shooting them with a.177 air rifle,it did'nt kill so have now moved on to a .22 air rifle,bring it on you dirty rat !!!!!!!!!!!

[frias]

My lot did this to a pigeon that got into the run and couldn't find it's way out. Strangely they left a magpie alone.

[julesapple]

Hopefully and mice that are attracted to our hen run with think twice about it with 11 cats in residence.

If you're a mouse and you decide to move into our house, you'd need to be either suicidal or very daft.

Not very practical, but I'm glad the wee mouse escaped.

Jules

[Flummery]

With half inch by inch weldmesh there's not much can get into the run (though a mouse could) but I sometimes fear for the garden's frog population when the girls are ranging on their Chicken Field!

[RichmondHens]

Well, rats tunnel into our broody/chick coops nightly to eat the spilled crumb (I take the feeders in) so it doesn't make any difference what the coop is made from, they just go underneath.

[Flummery]

Not under ours - it has flagstones on the floor and brick paths round the outside.

[frias]

With half inch by inch weldmesh there's not much can get into the run (though a mouse could) but I sometimes fear for the garden's frog population when the girls are ranging on their Chicken Field!

The door to the run was open as the girls were free ranging. A mouse can get through a hole the size of a pencil and a rat not much bigger. My lot love frogs. I'm amazed there's any left in our garden but on a rainy night I still see some. Goodness knows where they hide in the day.

[Burgerboy]

I have seen mine go berserk when they came across a slow worm before. There wasn't much left!

[janeyo]

Mine haven't even so much as thought about chasing one of the darned pigeons unfortunately.
No chance of them catching mice either, I have a great mouser who's getting one a day at the mo

[seeds]

hi, the other week i found one of the chickens was running around with a dead mouse in their mouse, they were all desperately trying to get at it! after a while i managed to coax it out of the chickens mouth!

[bluemoon]

When we first got Coco and Elvis, before the girls arrived, a nest of mice was built in the run. Either the boys were ignoring them or the mice were sensible enough to only come out when the boys had gone to bed. In the end the boys were eventually moved into the big run and the ground where the smaller run had been was turned over. I haven't a clue what finally happened to the mice, but we definitely saw them every night until the boys moved home.

[irisgirl]

My chuck Ruby will gobble down a mouse if she can. More than once I found her with the tail hanging out of her beak. I don't like it but just love the way that when it comes to food, chickens don't descriminate!