You're Fired, Chicken Nanny

I tried, unsuccessfully, to trap "the mouse" last night.  I made some "boxes" to put the traps in, using items found in my recycling bin.  I took the feed containers out of the coop to encourage "the mouse" to find the traps.  My Chicken Nanny Apprentices helped to get everything set up.  After an hour or so, I ran back over to check on them, and the chickens had knocked over the boxes and set off the traps.  We reset them and tried again, but no luck this morning. 

Since Beth got home late last night, she officially took over with the chickens.  It was very hard not to bust down her door to check on them.  We waited patiently (okay, this isn't true -- Alex was jumping up and down on the couch in the front window, waving his hands, yelling "Wake up Esteban!!").  As soon as we saw signs of life across the street, we descended.  Despite my best efforts to fight the urge, the words out of my mouth were "how are the chickens?".

Beth took the news of our furry little friend(s) in stride, requiring only one cup of coffee to get through the news (the Chicken Nanny might have resorted to something a little stronger).   This afternoon, we decided on a plan to try to clean out the coop.  The boys played in the house while we got ready.   

The  Mouseketeers

We started by taking out all of the old bedding (pine shavings) in the top part of the coop with a snow shovel.  Then Will started pulling the paneling off.  We heard some frantic rustling in the wall.  I started to get a little nervous.  I was worried about baby mice and a nest falling out and not knowing what to do with it.  That wasn't what happened.

The Chicken Nanny ready for battle

Instead, mouse after mouse fell onto the floor, scuttled around looking for a way out, while Beth and I screeched.   Ten mice in all made their way out of the coop from behind the left panel.  Yes, TEN.  Who knows how many more were living there but heard the commotion and escaped before we got to them?!  Equally impressive was the home that they had made for themselves.   They had burrowed through the thick Styrofoam layer to make tunnels behind the panel.

So it seems that my once amazing power of observation has completely failed me.  It appears that there has been an infestation in this coop for a long time.  Yet I did not see any evidence of anything other than chickens living in the coop until the last couple of days -- no rustling sounds, no Styrofoam until two days ago. 

We removed all of the Styrofoam from the walls, seeing at least ten mice.  It was nasty work, and Will did a lot of it (I owe you honey!!).  Beth sprayed everything down with a dilute bleach solution and will put new bedding out tomorrow after it's had a chance to air out.  After we were done cleaning, we found two dead mice in the area of the coop (not from our efforts, these mice had been dead awhile). 

In conclusion, I kept the chickens alive... with an added bonus of at least ten disease carrying vermin.  Oh, what's that?  I'm fired?  Sigh.