[kellym]

good evening everyone, i went to clean out my 2 girls this morning and notice mounds of mud behind thier run and a tunnel under. i have them in a coop which is off the floor with a ladder down into thier run. the run itself is just placed on soil and grass, i have slabs inside the run then playground bark on top for easy cleaning. the run is 3 inches away from a fence which is where i found the mounds. i have been leaving thier food in the run since i have had them (3 months) and have never had this problem, is it better to leave thier food out still so the rats/mice just take what thier after and leave my girls alone??? or is it best to bring it in?? im not here through the day as me and my partner both work so im a little worried about leaving the eggs in the coop untill i come home around 2ish as i have read that the rats may get in and eat them?!? any advice on this would be very greatly recieved also im a little reluctant to go down the killing route as i used to have pet rats  (i know thier different lol) thanks in advance for any advice
kellym

[otis pony]

Bring the food in at night, even any fresh greens etc that may have been left.  Are there fruit trees nearby that have dropped their fruit?  This will need clearing up too, the cold weather makes the little blighters very hungry!  Cover the holes they have made and wait. If there are still signs, try eradibait (i think thats how you spell it) recommended to me by poultry people on this site.  Good luck

[peter rooster]

Hi

I think you mean eradirat now eradibait this is the one I use as it claims to be nonharmful to cats dogs etc and does not secondary poison

peter rooster

[orchardlady]

I quite understand your unwillingness to poison the rats, however for the health of you, your hens and consideration to your neighbours you really must do this. Once you have rats they will breed out of control. By killing the rats you will be controlling them thus empowering yourself. You chose to have chickens not rats. If you do not control them your garden and hen house will become a no go zone for you and your husbandry will slip to the point of neglect, your neighbours will complain and you will eventually hate your hens.

[kellym]

ok i dont think it will get to the point where i hate my hens but thats for the lecture! food is being brought in now at night and i will most definetly be putting some kind of poison down, as long as i dont see them dead then i wont feel guilty haha

[orchardlady]

Ah Kellym, my apologies for being a bit strident in my earlier post. I know I can come across a bit bossy sometimes it's a personality fault in the women in out family. It's just I've come across people who've said they had to get rid of their hens because of rats. I've kept hens for a very long time now and I've always has the rat man come to control them. I'm probably the only person in my street who does but I know there were rats at the bottom of our gardens for years before I ever kept hens. Unfortunately rat's find you out very quickly and can ruin your pleasure in your hens. So my apologies again purrr purrr!

OL

[Bev]

Hi, I am quite new to it too and I thought, ' oh well, what harm can 1 rat do' and turned a blind eye to it. Before long I was seeing them every couple of minutes jumping onto my feeder and shooting back down their runs even all through the day. It was much worse trying to kill a large family of rats than just killing one.

You are supposed to go and have a quick look round everywhere each morning if you have got poison out as you will find the occasional body and it is best not to let other animals eat them! It takes 3-5 days for the poison to work.

 I feel really sorry for the poor old rats too but I decided to toughen up and I quite often use a spring rat trap (like your traditional mouse trap but bigger) as I think the rat does not suffer so long. When my hens are in bed I put the trap in the run near a rat run if I see one that is being used and close the door to the run so I know no cats or dogs will get in, or my toddler! Rats will run along the edge of a wall or fence rather than out in the open.

If you find a dead rat double bag it and put it in your wheelie bin. Turn brain off and Do it quick!

Their right about neighbours, I bring my food in at night but my neighbour doesn't. I only get occasional rats now but they are usually on their way to or from my neighbours, grrrrrrr!

[Flowerpower136]

I use both Eradibait and Fenn traps. 
Fenn traps get the big ones, and Eradibait sees off the smaller ones that don't set off the traps.
Act as soon as you see evidence or you will be overrun with them.
Having said that, I do think that baby rats are the nicest little things
As others have said, be sure and bring in all food every single night, and if you have compost bins, line the bases with weldmesh or similar, as they like to tunnel up inside, specially in winter.

[joyfull]

so true, I forgot to put weldmesh under my compost bins and got rats living inside them grrrr 

[kellym]

snow has fallen very heavily now so i am being able to see the tracks of these rats/mice. looks like they are coming over from the neighbours place  shall be having words with them.......i have poison down now so hopefully they will have that, * off to where they came from and the neighbours can find them......my 2 girls dont seem bothered by this at all, will they attack a rat/mice if it got in thier run or would they just go about thier business as usual???