Rats!

[montysmummy]

We've had ous girls for almost 5 years now and have always been able to deal with the odd rat quickly and easily. However this year there seems to jave been a population explosion (rats, not hens!). They dug in to my greenhouse and completely decimated the tomato crop, and now that the tomato supply is gone have turned their attention to the hen run. They are brazen! Two enormous specimens sat watching me this morning waiting for the food to go down.
The problem is that they will not touch the poison. We have tried changing the supply and the brand but to no avail. Hubby has been told by a friend that this is because there is too much more tempting food around and the best way is to only feed the girls for a short spell in the morning and then lift the food and do the same again in the evening. I''m not sure, as I thought that hens were supposed to be able to eat as and when they want, but I fear we are going to be overrun if we don't do something.
Any ideas?

 

[bantiekeeper]

Is there a lot of clutter around the run? This gives the rats another place to hide. Is the run floor earth or wood. They will thrive under a wooden floor.
I keep my coop raised up on legs. The earth floor has a membrane on top covered with fine wood shavings. The whole floor area is visible. Food and water containers hung from the roof which is covered. In the five years we have kept chooks we have only had on rat too. The coop originally did not have legs and stood on some slabs on the run floor. The rat tunnelled in under the slabs and set up home. Since carrying out the above we have not had any more problems. Fingers crossed!! :?

 

[montysmummy]

We have a large fenced off run (chicken wire) and the hen house sits in the middle on bare earth. It is just a smallish house (on legs) so no room in there for a feeder to be hung. The rats have made their home under the shed and oil tank - which of course I can do nothing about moving! They just make their way to where ever there is food and don't seem to care if it's broad daylight and there are people around!

 

[Margaid]

You say 2 specimens watched "waiting for the food to go down" so presumably they have some easy way into your run.
I think you really have to look at trying to remove all sources of food so they have to take the bait. I seem to remember that chickens used to be fed twice a day, and I think there's something In Lewis Wright about it. I'll look it up when I have a moment.

If that's what you have to do, then the sooner the better before the weather gets worse.

Light bulb moment - my friend has made a shelter for the feeder , just 4 posts and a roof. The feeder can be suspended from the "ridge beam" to keep it out of their reach. Then maybe you could set a trap nearby.

 

[EddieS]

Stick a hose pipe down the hole, flood them out.

 

[Margaid]

Just looked up Lewis Wright about feeding. He reckons two or three feeds a day, depending on whether the run is big enough for them to forage for themselves. He also says hens should only be gicen as much as they will eat eagerly and no more. He recommends a soft feed early in the morning and grain last thing at night. If they can't forage for themselves he suggests a scanty feed at midday, but doesn't say what or how much.

That may not be possible for you if you're out all day, but it does indicate that they don't need to have permanent access to food. How you stop the rats waiting for the restaurant to open I'm not sure!

 

[montysmummy]

Thanks Margaid. Yes, the rats can easily get in under the gate. The run is mainly to keep the girls contained as (touch wood) until now we haven't had a problem with anything trying to fight it's way in. We have been so lucky really as we have open fields all around and hen keepers at the other end of the village have has awful problems with the fox.The fencing is 8ft high and we have boards around the bottom, but as I say the rats squeeze under the gate.
I will keep feeding little and more often and maybe try to persuade hubby to get his tools out and make a feed shelter. Although now we are in to the shooting season I don't fancy my chances........
Failing that I will look out that hosepipe!

 

[chrismahon]

You need to spot the rat runs and bury Fenn 4 snap traps in them, on the other side of the run fence away from the chickens and by law they must be covered over(make sure the cover is high enough to allow the trap arms to spring up and close )and checked every day. 50% of rats in my experience will not be killed outright and are best shot in the head with an air gun. No bait is necessary but cover the trap with soft soil. Small rodents won't set the trap off, so you will only catch large rats and not baby rats or mice.

Alternatively you can pick them off in daylight with an air rifle, or someone you know can Montysmummy.

It is a legal requirement, where rats are seen to be present, to have an effective control system in place. So if the poison isn't working you need a system in place that does.