You can take the girl out of the city.....

...and sometimes.....she goes full blown COUNTRY!! :))  In all the time I've lived here with my Honey, I've thought I simply "enjoyed" the peaceful country surroundings; watching the horses in the pasture; the geese and ducks on the pond;  and the stress-reducing benefits of raising chickens.  TODAY, I have learned that I have truly become a "farm girl".  How do I know this you ask??  Well.....just let me tell you!

In anticipation of the baby chicks...due to arrive just any day now....I decided I'd better get the coop cleaned up some, and build another "nursery" for the babies to use, when they finally get here.  The nursery actually is just several bales of hay, turned up on their sides, to form a square enclosure.   Once the chicks hatch, I'll move them to the nursery & let "mom" tend to them there.  They'll need their own watering can & feed, but "mom" will protect them from the other, bigger chickens, as well as keep them warm till their feathers come in.  I'M SO EXCITED!! :))

In cleaning out the coop, I had to move the old bales of hay that formed the previous nursery.  I had just left them in the coop because the chickens like to sit on them.  HOLY CRAP!!!!!  I moved the first bale & little mice scattered everywhere.  I counted at least 8 before they all disappeared.  THEN, I found the nest!!  There were 10 tiny baby mice, in the nest & none of them over an inch long.  I don't think they even had their eyes opened yet!  For a very brief moment, my mind thought, "what the heck am I gonna do will baby mice?"....then the next thought was CHICKEN HORS D'OEUVRES!!!  I pitched the entire nest of baby mice to the chickens.  The feeding frenzy began!!!  Needless to say, the babies didn't last long.  It was a quick death they suffered. I began to feel like a murderer.....then I had to REASON with myself about how destructive mice can be & the diseases they can carry.  They HAD to be eliminated!!  The chickens had great fun playing "catch & release" before they finally ATE THEM. 

Next, I turned over the second bale of hay.  Another flurry of mice scattered in all directions.  These were larger ones....probably adolescents and some young adult mice.  The chickens FREAKED OUT!  It was too funny!!  They fought over the little teenie baby ones, but when the larger ones started running around the coop, it scared the crap out of the chickens......at least, at first!  Have you ever seen a chicken jump straight up in the air about 3 ft, while screaming??  It really was hilarious!  Then, a mouse ran under one of the roosters as he was strolling by.  His foot landed on the mouse.  He wasn't expecting that!  TOO FUNNY!!  he jumped like he'd been shot!! Then he proceeded to chase the mouse down & kill it.    At one point, nearly every chicken had a mouse, of one size or another, in it's beak!

Then.....(drum roll, please).....I turned over the third and final bale of hay.  It looked like a seen from the movie "Willard".  MICE RAN EVERYWHERE....BIG ONES!!!  Heck, it dang near freaked me out!! 
We aren't just talking "nest" here, folks, we're talking an entire village of mice.   They had tunnels chewed throughout those bales of hay.  There were several larger areas hollowed out, which were, I guess, previous nesting areas and sleeping quarters.  No telling how long this colony of mice have lived in those bales!  One thing's for sure.....they're all homeless now & will have to scramble around for a safe place to sleep tonight!   I gotta say....those mice were pretty smart, making their "community" in the bales INSIDE the coop......no other predators can get to them, inside the coop!   The neighbor's cats are gonna have an easier time finding a meal for the next few days!

And me......I think I just handled the situation the way any good "farm girl" would......feed the mice to the chickens!  It sure beats buying rat bait!   Besides, I wouldn't want to risk my chickens accidentally getting into the poison!  That would be catastophic!