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fitzwSomeone was trying to make sure that I was awake this morning.
My father has a cold, so I'm back to taking care of the chickens, at least in the morning. I have to gather the eggs, spread some cracked corn, and refill the hanging grain feeders.
The grain is stored in bags in the upper barn; the chickens are housed in two rooms in the middle barn, the floor below. There is a wooden chute that we refill regularly with grain from the bags, so that we don't have to carry pails of grain down the stairs. The top of that chute is set flush with the floor in the upper barn, to make it easier to pour the grain into it. Normally, the hole for the top of the chute is covered with a piece of plywood, to keep anything other than grain from getting in. The bottom of the chute is in one of the chicken rooms, ending about 3 feet above the floor, with a sliding cover to allow the grain to flow out into a pail.
This morning, as I was refilling the pail with the last of the grain from the chute (before going upstairs to pour another couple of bags of grain down), I was thinking to myself, "This grain has a few really large lumps in it."
And then the lumps began moving. Let's say that my response was vocal, and rather intensely so.
Three mice had come tumbling out of the bottom of the chute with the grain, three very dusty, thick-furred mice with big black pop-eyes. One hopped out of the pail, and was promptly chased all over the room by the chickens. Another quickly followed, with the same result. The third looked up at me, still half covered in grain, and decided that he would try to hide by burrowing down into the grain in the pail. That was a wrong move -- I was wearing gloves, and had no qualms about digging him out of the grain and sending him after his fellows.
I never did see whether the chickens caught any of the mice, but they were all pretty excited as I finished filling the feeders.
I went upstairs afterwards, and found that there was a half-empty bag on top of the chute. My father had opened one bag too many, and wasn't able to get all of the grain into the chute, so he had just left the bag there. Next time that that happens, I've asked him to slide the board under the pile of grain to make sure that that hole is covered. In the meantime, I refilled the chute myself and put the cover on.
It's not like this was the first time that we've had mice in the grain chutes -- that's why the board is there, to keep them out. Usually by the time we find them, though, they've died of suffocation because we would put more grain into the chute before it was completely empty. This time, I emptied the chute before putting more grain in.
Heart was going pretty good for a little while there...
My father has a cold, so I'm back to taking care of the chickens, at least in the morning. I have to gather the eggs, spread some cracked corn, and refill the hanging grain feeders.
The grain is stored in bags in the upper barn; the chickens are housed in two rooms in the middle barn, the floor below. There is a wooden chute that we refill regularly with grain from the bags, so that we don't have to carry pails of grain down the stairs. The top of that chute is set flush with the floor in the upper barn, to make it easier to pour the grain into it. Normally, the hole for the top of the chute is covered with a piece of plywood, to keep anything other than grain from getting in. The bottom of the chute is in one of the chicken rooms, ending about 3 feet above the floor, with a sliding cover to allow the grain to flow out into a pail.
This morning, as I was refilling the pail with the last of the grain from the chute (before going upstairs to pour another couple of bags of grain down), I was thinking to myself, "This grain has a few really large lumps in it."
And then the lumps began moving. Let's say that my response was vocal, and rather intensely so.
Three mice had come tumbling out of the bottom of the chute with the grain, three very dusty, thick-furred mice with big black pop-eyes. One hopped out of the pail, and was promptly chased all over the room by the chickens. Another quickly followed, with the same result. The third looked up at me, still half covered in grain, and decided that he would try to hide by burrowing down into the grain in the pail. That was a wrong move -- I was wearing gloves, and had no qualms about digging him out of the grain and sending him after his fellows.
I never did see whether the chickens caught any of the mice, but they were all pretty excited as I finished filling the feeders.
I went upstairs afterwards, and found that there was a half-empty bag on top of the chute. My father had opened one bag too many, and wasn't able to get all of the grain into the chute, so he had just left the bag there. Next time that that happens, I've asked him to slide the board under the pile of grain to make sure that that hole is covered. In the meantime, I refilled the chute myself and put the cover on.
It's not like this was the first time that we've had mice in the grain chutes -- that's why the board is there, to keep them out. Usually by the time we find them, though, they've died of suffocation because we would put more grain into the chute before it was completely empty. This time, I emptied the chute before putting more grain in.
Heart was going pretty good for a little while there...
