OH O! Somethings digging into my run

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Lucylou

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Happy New Year Everyone!
I've got a couple of questions to ask you very knowledgeable lot! Having moved to the country we're now coping with various things we haven't faced before. This is No 1:-

Going into the run this morning I noticed a few piles of soil - odd I thought, the girls don't usually do that (there are hard wood chippings down on the run floor) I then saw where it had come from - 3 fairly large holes coming from under the fence & under my (loose laid onto the soil) paving slabs. Can someone give me any idea how I can tell what animal has done this, I horribly suspect it might be a rat :o but I don't know how to tell. Its definitely far too big for a mouse, can't be a fox (I presume as all my girls are safe & sound despite the coop door being open). I can't see any entry point on the other side (which is my neighbours pasture) & the other hole is on the garage side with only 8" gap.

Once I've established what the predator is how do I get rid of it/them? I'm terrified of rats :-)07

I've shut my girls up tonight just in case & I'll see what I find tomorrow.
 
Hi, can you post a picture of the soil pile and the surrounding area please.

It may help rather than people just guessing .

Dave
 
Most likely to be rats, I'm afraid - and, as the Pied Piper demonstrated, they don't come singly. Rats produce brown droppings cylindrical in shape, about 1-1.5 cms long, scattered around where they have been.
You will need to remove food and water from the run overnight, though if, as you say in your other post, it's open during the day, it won't be the complete answer. Then find out where the holes go to- ie, where are they tunnelling from to get in to the run. Do you or your neighbours have a compost heap, or outdoor stuff piled up behind a shed or similar, where they can nest undisturbed? And of course, is the chicken food stored in a rat proof bin, preferably galvanised metal?
We have problems now and then with rats because there are grain storage barns just up the road and so they migrate once the grain has been removed. So far, though, they don't seem to have got into the run, because when we built it, we lined the floor with the same kind of 1-2" weldmesh as the sides are made of, took this up the sides for a few inches, and then wired it on to the mesh sides to make a mesh box. Roof was done the same way, before we had it covered with plastic panels as well. The small size mesh prevents any vermin tunnelling in, and when I let the chickens out into the garden in the afternoon for an hour or so, after they've finished laying, I shut the run door until I let them back in again, so no birds or animals can get in then. I think this is the answer to your other question as well - just don't give birds the chance to get in. Hens enjoy an hour or so outside, but really don't have to go out all the time, and can manage for an hour of two without pellets. If you can exclude wild birds the risk of redmite is minimalised as well, and they won't be polluting the water or contaminating the feed. Rats polluting water is even more serious - if you have a pond and they contaminate it, you may be at risk of Weils disease.
As for the rats, you will have to go to your local agricultural store and buy two or three bait boxes, which are strong metal boxes like a tube with poison bait inside at the far end. Animals or birds other than rats or mice can't get down the tubes and the bait isn't loose in heaps on the ground, so the risk of accidental poisoning is minimised. Site these where you have found rat runs, out of the way, and hope they like it. Clear any places where you suspect they are nesting or hiding as well. If you can't face doing this yourself, go online and find a local pest control officer, who will advise you and quote for the job. It's the legal requirement of any householder to deal with rats on their property, and they breed very fast, so get to grips with it ASAP.
 
Thank you Marigold et al.
At the weekend got Hubby to help & we dug out the 2 areas where there were these holes & piles of earth, The tunnels were just below the paving slab so we have dug out as far down as we can (about 9", not really deep enough I know but horrible clay soil so really difficult :-)07) then put double layer of chicken wire attached to the run & lined the trench with it, filled this trench with rubble & stones & then filled it with 'postcrete'. Hopefully this will do it! We did find the nest too! It was on the opposite side of the run, also just below the surface under a slab. There are now slabs both sides of the run wall so that makes about 3 ft of tunnelling by whatever it is before they get to the goodies!

I also have taken all food & water away at night but very difficult to sweep scattered bits off the floor when its wood chippings but am working on a plan for that!
 
Oh dear, poor you, what a job. You have worked hard and this should help. But the rats will only have been displaced, not exterminated, so you will also need to put down bait boxes. Do all you can to keep them out of the food because layers pellets contain Vit. K a s a supplement for the hens, but unfortunately it's the antidote to rat poison so if they can eat pellets they are more resistant to the poison. Also, unless you can line the whole floor of the run with joined-up strips of mesh and wire this to the sides, they'll just tunnel in again under another of the slabs. What happens where the run sides meet the ground?
 
Hi Marigold,
At the moment 2 of the sides have extended wire & etc dug into the ground extending from the run sides but the 2 long sides only have slabs loose laid up against the run sides. One of these sides is against the garage wall (about an 8" gap so no external access & any modification will have to be done from inside, not easy!) I'm planning on doing this once the weather gets a bit better, our soil is just like clay & terrible to dig into (unless you're a rodent ha ha!)
I will look into the weld mesh as a floor. Can they still scratch about?

My OH says that what he saw running away when he lifted the slab which had the nest underneath it was definitely not a rat, he says it was just like a long fur ball without a tail - any ideas?
 
He might have seen a vole, we get them in our garden and they're pretty harmless, apart from eating the hens food. Not very big, about 3 inches long for an adult I suppose, and only a tiny tail like a hamster.
I should have said that, after we had laid the mesh over the floor and wired it up to the sides, I added about an inch of earth on top and raked it in level, to get the mesh flat and bedded in a bit. Then I put permeable weedproofing membrane over that and pegged it down well at the sides with metal tent pegs, then finally topped it off with 4-6 ins of Aubiose, so they can scratch and bathe in the bedding without digging into the earth and getting it all muddy. The main purpose is to stop animals digging UP from below, but it seems to work well the other way round, also. You're quite right to suppose it wouldn't be very nice for their feet if they had to walk around on bare mesh but the membrane has worked well and is still in good condition after 5 years, with the bedding on top to protect it.
If you could run it under the slabs, it wouldn't need membrane because although the rats might still try to tunnel under the slabs they wouldn't be able to get their heads up, would they?
 
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