If you're thinking of getting backyard chicken but are worried that you'll have a problem with rats or mice, there are preventative measures that can be undertaken to keep away these dirty creatures. Obviously it's not the chickens themselves that attract mice or rats, it's the spilt or poorly stored grain or pellets that can attract these unwanted visitors. Rodents are looking for food, water and shelter. If your chicken coop provides a secluded corner that your chickens can't access, food and water, these little creatures might just decide to stay.

Interestingly, chickens are actually omnivores which means that they eat both plant material and meat. Chickens happily eat insects, worms, carcasses as well as seeds, grains, weeds and other plant 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.

Preventing rodents accessing the chicken coop

While the first, logical thing to do would be to prevent mice actually entering your chicken coop, this is much easier said than done! Mice can fit through very small spaces, so small that we may overlook potential access points because we assume that they're too small. 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 grain spillage

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 manufacturers of mobile chicken coops, we often had customers ask us about ways to prevent the spillage 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.
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 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. The problem with this of course is that chickens do much better if they have a regular, continuous supply of feed that they can access throughout the day. Feeders that are full of grain and stay in the chicken coop all day are really the only easy way to ensure they have a continuous supply available. Rather than scattering grain and taking away your feeder, it is much wiser to invest in a feeder that limits the amount of grain that is spilt which will then attract fewer mice.

How should I store my grain?

It's also important that you store your supply of grain or pellets appropriately so that mice can't grain access. Keeping your feed in the bag in which you purchased it, is not wise as mice can very easily chew through this, much to their delight! 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.