# yuck-A mouse in the feed barrel.



## Breezy-Trail (Sep 16, 2011)

So this morning I went out to feed.
I give small 2 scoops to Molly,who is due to kid in 2.5 weeks.
On the second scoop out came this little brown mouse.
IN MY FEED. I don't even know how it got in there.
Maybe I didn't have the cover on all the way at some point.
I am going to make sure of that in the future.

So I thought it would be best not to use that feed anymore?
There is about 5-10 pounds of feed left.
I wouldn't want any of my goats to get sick because of that so I did not feed today.
Of course Molly is super mad because she has got to have her grain or else.

If I shouldn't use this grain it will take me a few day..or maybe tomorrow until I can get some more grain :doh: 

That dumb/smart barn cat of mine should really be in the barn.
I find the fur ball in my apartment a lot. Throw it out and it never learn to stay out :scratch: 

Now I am making extra sure that he stays in the barn at least at night.
During the day the barn door is open and he gets out.
Weird thing is he is actually a good mouser...just not doing his job outside.


----------



## Oat Bucket Farm (Dec 14, 2009)

Ick! I hate when I find a mouse in the barn. Our feed is in sealed containers, so they don't get in there. But occasionally they show up for the kernel of grain that get's dropped here or there. We keep it swept up in there, but inevitably there are a few that get missed.


----------



## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

It is best not to use that feed like you thought. Toss it for the deer or something. Ypou don't want to risk your goats getting sick.


----------



## jaycee (Aug 3, 2011)

I have a bad mouse problem in my barn. I keep my feed in heavy duty plastic trash cans with snap on tops. I need to get some barn cats but I'm afraid they will encourage my indoor cats to try to come outside. They are attracted by the duck feed pellets which are in a self feeder. My black lab is actually a pretty good mouser but she cant get into the duck pen where they hideout because I fear she would be a good 'ducker' too lol.


----------



## Breezy-Trail (Sep 16, 2011)

Okay thanks. I will toss the feed.


----------



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

We've had this happen before too! My kids left the lid off and inside was a mouse! I used an old feed bag, caught it, tied it up and whacked it like a crazy woman with the shovel, umm yeah I know CRUEL! But umm...yeah...

I'd definitely make sure you have something with a snap on lid.
We have a hard plastic, 30 gal black trashcan, have it sitting on 2 cinder blocks, so the mice can't climb up and chew on it, works great! We've had it for 2 years. The only problem is when the kids left the lid off - we have a dryer that my BIL left in our shed that is next to it, so the mice can just jump inside. 
I've also stored grain in a large plastic tote before and never had mice in it. We used to have a TERRIBLE mouse problem <no cat>. 
My husband ended up putting bait down and I haven't seen a mouse for a very long time. Of course you can't do that with a cat.


----------



## Breezy-Trail (Sep 16, 2011)

I have 55-gallon feed barrels/trash cans that you get at agway.
The lid was supposed to be kinda snap on but since Macy stepped on it it got all bent up.
I took the cover off and she practically tackled me while stepped on the lid that used to be in my hand.
That was over a week ago. I bent it back as best I could.

I tried to kill the thing but it got away. It was in one of the feed dishes so I tried to pound it flat but it got out and ran away.


----------



## Crowbar032 (Dec 6, 2011)

I would save that feed and use it to bait additional mouse traps. Generally if see one mouse there are at least two. If you have a spare feed barrel or a 5 gallon bucket, put some grain in the bottom and a ramp from the ground to the top of the barrel. The mice can't get out and then you can kill or relocate as desired. 

I did this one time and ended up with 5 live mice in the bottom of a barrel I kept in the garage. I don't like cats in my garage, but I picked up the only cat that was semi-tame and put him in the barrel. 5 minutes and a full kitty later, I had no mice. I couldn't keep him out of the garage after that.


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Good advice given...I hate when that happens...no fun.... :hug:


----------



## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

I saw an interesting mouse trap in a magazine. Take a bucket (any size). Fill it half full of water, Put a little wooden ramp up to the top- have a string hanging over the center of the bucket with bait on it- (I use peanut butter with grain stuck to it) The mouse leaps for the bait, falls in the bucket of water and drowns. (or, if that is too mean- use a 5 gal. bucket empty and dispose of the mice however you are comfortable with). 

I don't use rat poison anymore, my chickens tried to eat a mouse that must have eaten the poison. I ended up with 3 dead hens and one that never has been right.


----------



## J.O.Y. Farm (Jan 10, 2012)

I had that happen to me just it was a chipmunck! and it got into a brand new bag of grain! the deer had a whole 50lb bag of sewwt feed!


----------



## cyanne (Jan 7, 2009)

We had some yucky mouse issues here too! First I was feeding babies that were in a stall and saw something in their water bucket. Turned out to be a drowned mouse! Ewwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Scrubbed the heck out of that bucket and gave them fresh water, then a few days later I found a dead RAT floating in my bucks' water trough. I'm thinking, what the heck? Never happened before and now twice in a short time period?

Then I noticed mouse droppings in my garage, which is where I store feed. Yuck! I'm guessing that the severe drought has caused them to come around searching for an easy meal.

So, feed had to be put into sealed containers, and we started researching traps. Single traps seemed in-efficient, but we were nervous about the poison since anything that ate the dead mice would get poisoned and I was scared the sick mice would run outside and get eaten by our chickens. So, we bought these traps that hold up to 5 mice at a time and put the poison bait inside the trap, thinking they'd get trapped, eat the bait, & we'd just dispose of the bodies. WRONG! The first 5 mice were still alive when I found them and took FOREVER to die off from the poison. Made me feel awful! So I took out the poison and re-baited the traps with regular food, figuring I would re-locate the rest. Only the traps didn't catch any more mice....

Then I found a couple of dead mice on the floor....noticed that the container of rat poison had teeth marks on it...checked inside, and found that the mice had chewed their way into the box and eaten ALL of the remaining poison. So, the mouse problem solved itself. All of our mice committed suicide! :ROFL:


----------



## Goober (Aug 21, 2009)

I might have to try the "bucket trap" method. For my house... Mobile home, they like to get up in the floor. No way to set a regular trap without nabbing one of my dogs, and I don't like to use bait, dog might eat the dead mouse/rat - he LOVES rats and mice (and snakes and lizards). But I maybe could do the bucket, and either drown them or let the dog grab them.


----------



## John123john (Mar 3, 2017)

When i have that problem, i use repellents as well. So for example
*Grandpa & Eco Defense Mice Repellent. *It is don't harmful and repell them good!


----------



## Lstein (Oct 2, 2014)

Goats Rock said:


> I saw an interesting mouse trap in a magazine. Take a bucket (any size). Fill it half full of water, Put a little wooden ramp up to the top- have a string hanging over the center of the bucket with bait on it- (I use peanut butter with grain stuck to it) The mouse leaps for the bait, falls in the bucket of water and drowns. (or, if that is too mean- use a 5 gal. bucket empty and dispose of the mice however you are comfortable with).
> 
> I don't use rat poison anymore, my chickens tried to eat a mouse that must have eaten the poison. I ended up with 3 dead hens and one that never has been right.


I can confirm that the bucket method is the best mouse "trap" ever. Even when you're not intending to employ it, just a 5 gal bucket with a little bit of leftover feed in the bottom catches a few.

I have a mouse problem in my barn, currently waging war against them to retake/mouse-proof my little heated room that contains all my supplies.

My hens also LOVE mice , no mice problems in the hen house, lol.


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Good add ons.

This thread is very old.


----------

