Little Mouse

We have had a field mouse in our garden for a couple of months now. We call it “Little Mouse”. It spends a lot of time in the flower beds by the veg plot and it also visits the chicken run.

We first noticed it in the flower beds and over time it has become almost tame. It has become used to us and if we are still it will come quite close to us.

We then started to see it in the chicken run. The bigger girls, Emerald in particular, showed curiosity at it but no attempt to catch it. I know standard sized chickens will eat mice and frogs but I don’t think our bantam girls would. I have never seen them take anything bigger than a spider and even then only small spiders.

Little Mouse would often pop out from behind the shelter so I moved the shelter out to make sure there were no holes behind it. I don’t want rats finding a way in. This has been the first winter that we haven’t had a rat problem.

Then one day I was outside the chicken’s gate and Little Mouse ran past my feet and popped through the weld mesh. It took a spin round the patio and popped back out through the weld mesh with ease.

A few evenings ago I was checking that all the girls had gone to bed when Little Mouse popped out from behind the shelter and came quite close to me. I went for my camera and then dropped a few seeds in the run and waited for it to appear again.

I took a few photos. I didn’t use the zoom as I can’t see the settings without my glasses so these photos show how close it came to me. They would have been amazing with the zoom.

Little Mouse

It gets quite close

It has such big eyes and ears for it’s tiny size. I am surprised  that it hasn’t been predated as it appears during the day and seems unfazed by us and the chickens. We don’t think one little mouse can do much harm and as it gets through weld mesh there would be no stopping it anyway. It is very cute.

I looked up some information about it. Field mice will live anywhere where there is food and shelter. They grow to ten centimetres long.

They eat seeds, berries, invertebrates and worms. In the wild they tend to have a short life, as so many different creatures prey on them, with an average of six to twelve months. They can live longer if conditions are favourable.

They reproduce quite frequently with a gestation period of around twenty five days. They give birth to between four and seven mice which are out on their own after about four weeks. They can reproduce several times a year.

They are generally nocturnal and are a vital food source for nocturnal hunters such as owls.

Maybe Little Mouse is safer hanging around our garden and chicken run during the day than being out at night. We often hear owls calling at night.

We will miss Little Mouse when it goes. It’s the closest I have ever got to a wild mouse.