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Dodge County, WI | This reminds me of when we had calves in a large hutch-type of housing next to our barn. The hay bales and pellet/corn mix was kept in a old chicken coop next to the hutch. Not a lot of pellets got used each day, so a 55 gallon drum lasted for a couple of weeks. Somehow the mice were getting into the pellets bad. I remember covering the barrel, but maybe the barrel was rusted through on the bottom. It was to the point that they had tunnels in the pellet barrel. You would bang on the side of the coop before you went in, and it usually sent the mice running so you could work in peace.
Every couple of days, I would bring my favorite mousing cat; we called him "Jaws" (probably cause I was 9 and it was cool). Jaws was a long haired, perpetually hungry cat with a poor sense of personal hygiene, but he was friendly. Mostly because he knew you would scratch under where all the burrs would cling to his fur and he couldn't reach. He was a nasty piece of work. I would put Jaws in one hand, and a stick in the other. I would open the coop door real quick, flip the lid off the barrel, toss in the cat, and then immediately start mixing the pellets in the barrel. They never had a chance. The mouse tunnels would get closed up by the mixing, and the mixing would bring up dozens of mice. That cat had never quite figured out what to do with this mouse buffet. He would have mice in his mouth, under paws, and they were still running around and driving him nuts! Lift up a paw to get one, while letting them go at the same time. You would give him a minute, till he had the first group down, then start it all over again. each round, he got slower and slower. To the point that he would see a live mouse running around the inside of the barrel with him, and just lay there and look at it. There were some days he would leave the old coop slow, low, and visibly wider.
In a few days, you dug out a layer of pellets, the mice would re-establish the tunnels and calm down. Then Jaws would show up and start in again.
My brother and I still bust out laughing about this memory Jaws and the great Mouse Feed, and that newly fat cat struggling to find a place to just lay down and digest.
Ben
Edited by CUBE 3/8/2013 19:21
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Cheapest way to keep mice out
