rats

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DRROCK

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Hi all
Due to my chicks being confined to their run and coop because of the avian flu issue and having to put food in there, I now have a rat problem ! I can see various ratholes. What is the best solution, never had any problems when they were free ranging.

Thanks
 
Ideally you would have a run that rats can't get into, but that may be a lot of work for you. You certainly can't use poison and they wouldn't eat it in preference to chicken feed anyway. First thing is to remove the feed at night and make sure they haven't access to water. They will eat the spilled pellets, but need water as well. With no feed in the run at night you could then bait cage traps with chicken feed outside the run. I don't like snap traps because you may well have hedgehogs moving around there. You will need to humanly kill any rats caught, so drowning isn't permitted. A single shot with an air pistol is acceptable I think?
 
A cage trap is best in your situation, our neighbour uses them around the cattle sheds, and they then shoot the rats.
They did use rat snap traps, but they had two rats that just caught by the tail and were running around with the traps. At least you could hear the rat approaching.
We have a mouse invasion locally. The local owls and kestrels are having a field day
 
I don't know about chicks, but with adult birds a treadle feeder is a good option (though my hens took a lot of persuading to use it when it first arrived...). The downside is that it doesn't offer the entertainment value of having to actively search for food, so they get bored.
 
DRROCK said:
Hi all
Due to my chicks being confined to their run and coop because of the avian flu issue and having to put food in there, I now have a rat problem ! I can see various ratholes. What is the best solution, never had any problems when they were free ranging.

Thanks
Click to expand...
I put rat bait down as a routine , at this time of year Rats tend to move in around poultry , it always works for me. Also for mice around the outside of house & garden shed
 
They seem to be very prolific at the moment, seen lots out in the field at front, and down the neighbour's cattle sheds.
We use cage traps and shoot the rats, very popular with the Kites and Buzzards. We also trapped 50 Grey Squirrels earlier in the year that were causing so much damage, we thought it was just 3 about, yet we just kept catching them. Kites and Buzzards enjoyed them as well.

You can bury wire down into the ground around the run, but it needs to be fairly deep
 
We currently have two runs, with the old ex-batts having the treadle feeder & the new girls using a traditional plastic feeder which I'm having to bring in every evening & put out again early each morning so that we don't attract rats.

My husband has suggested that I get a 2nd treadle feeder, so I've been looking online. I'm horrified by the number of cheap copies of Grandpa's feeders but without side baffles. They look as though they're intended to decapitate chickens rather than feed them, when they try to eat from the sides...
 
I too have bait boxes around the garden- as a chicken keeper with neighbours, I have a responsibility to do so. But the rats will still tunnel into the run & eat the layers' pellets in preference to the bait if I give them the chance. So it's up to me to reduce their menu choice by taking in the non-rat-proof feeder after the hens go to bed each night & to put it back out in the morning.

I was unhappy to open a bait box recently & find a mouse in there having a munch. The last thing I want is for one of our tawny or little owls to be poisoned by a mouse that's been in one of our bait boxes... 😔
 
Rats moved in a few days ago , tunnelling two holes , they found the bait , I kept it topped up , I filled the holes over now no more Ratty, looks like they died underground. This same procedure has been going on for years with me.
 
Glad you're keeping on top of things. I think that reacting swiftly, before they get too numerous, always helps.
 
That's the one downside of bait, I hate the thought of our wood mice eating it and then the owls eating them.

Seen a few more rats this week, after getting rid of a few, and the squirrels are back, found 5 in the cattle feed this week, I am sure someone is bringing them by the van load at night
 
I have a very large back garden, and put traps down, when caught I humanly kill them. Afterwards I skin them and have them for snacks, quite tasty bit like chicken. Rats I shoot up, then leave them for the cats in the area. They won't be getting in my chuck house.
 
Clucking Grandpa said:
I have a very large back garden, and put traps down, when caught I humanly kill them. Afterwards I skin them and have them for snacks, quite tasty bit like chicken. Rats I shoot up, then leave them for the cats in the area. They won't be getting in my chuck house.
Click to expand...
That should be an m instead of p, in up.
 
I was picturing you eating air fried rats for a moment. Then I twigged that it must be the squirrels that you eat! I guess you use the fur too? I've had a squirrel snuggle up under my fleece before, and its fur was very soft...

I don't mind squirrels in our garden. But the moment they get into our roof space and start chewing on cables, then the traps come out...
 
Yesterday I found a rat half in & half out of a bait box, deceased. That's one way of it warning its family off eating the poison...
 
My Rats came as they do at this time of year, they seem to be in the maize fields until harvested, bait is very effective, they don’t last long . Occasionally I’ll see one dying but I think most die in their holes
 
Touchstone said:
I put rat bait down as a routine , at this time of year Rats tend to move in around poultry , it always works for me. Also for mice around the outside of house & garden shed
Click to expand...
We use cage traps around the cattle area and other places, then shoot the rats. For inside sheds we have some electronic traps that work well.

our biggest bugbear at the moment is squirrels (grey) getting into just about everything we thought we had 3 or 4 persistent devils, but trapped 50, now this week seen another 5 roaming about, cages out again. This lot are quite destructive as they were seen chewing a neighbour's tyres
 
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