Rats and Chickens

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muntjac

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Rats and Chickens
« Reply #15 on: October 22, 2007, 15:30 »
how much land have you got to work over ? it may pay you to run  a trap and poison line around the boundaries of your property
 :wink:
still alive /............

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mambo

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Rats and Chickens
« Reply #16 on: October 22, 2007, 20:32 »
Many thanks for all your sterling advice. Operation rat annihilation now well and truly underway!

Over and out

commando Mambo

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chiken dood

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« Reply #17 on: October 29, 2007, 20:58 »
I am soon to get chickens :D  :D  do you now any ways i can prevent rats and mice coming. if so what. :?  :?  :?
=)

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muntjac

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« Reply #18 on: October 30, 2007, 00:15 »
start by killling them before you have the chickens  :wink: les the * to kill when you get the birds n they find loads food n breed tpo eat the blooming stuff lol

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Bodger

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Rats and Chickens
« Reply #19 on: October 30, 2007, 11:58 »
This is a short but I believe interesting extract that I've taken from a very old book called 'A Pot of Smoke. Being the life and adventures of dan Owain' by an author called RM Lockley. Its a pre 1940s book and is one that I intend getting a copy of. See what you think.

One autumn morning when three of us were coming home after a night watching for poachers,tired and done up physically and mentally, for it was cold, and there had been a skiff of snow covering everything that night, we heard a curious sound on the hill road. It was like the whistling of a bunch of starlings, only more squeaky.

Suddenly I discerned the road ahead of us was black instead of white. The rats were coming - the whole army of them covering the road until it curved out of sight up the hill fifty yards away. Only one thought struck us three - to get up somewhere high! Harrison was for turning them with a shot at first, and Evans was for running away, but we were already dead beat, and I thought it best to leave well alone... besides which the sight held us fascinated. We scrabbled on to a five barred gate... I can tell you it was a horrible feeling to be sitting there with thousands of rats passing by, there wicked eyes gleaming...and for some reason or other very excited with their tails held high up like fox hounds scenting ... squeaking, and some of them looking up at us pretty hungrily, I though. Well, they didn't touch that gate, and, what's more, I noticed they veered off our foot marks as if they could smell something dangerous. After they had gone down the hill we slowly followed...there wasn't a square inch of the road that wasn't pitted with their patterns.

We found afterwards that they'd been thrashing in two or three farms on the mountain ... the rats had been starved out, and with the first skiff of snow they'd joined in a great army to move off at night to the valleys for food. That very night the mansion of Preswillfa was invaded by hundreds of rats which took possession of the old place, filling the wainscots and panelling until the running and squeaking and gnawing frightened the gentlefolk out of their wits. A gamekeeper was called in, and as he was a pal of mine he asked me to assist him in dealing with them. This is what he planned to do ... he meant to get rid of the lot in one go. He blocked up all the holes except those in the attic, and these holes - in the skirting of the attic - he covered with trapdoors regulated by strings slung from the rafters. There we fed them every night... I never thought rats would get so brazen, but in a very few nights the rats were expecting their meals regular as a major-general. They very soon got used to us watching them come out for food ... we'd go up and lay the food, and watch them running around in battalions by the light of a candle ... feeding from the big saucers and troughs and drinking from the pans of water; in fact , they'd hardly wait for us to put the food down before they'd be at it like chickens around out feet. The young master of the house loved to come and watch... well, the attic got in a bad state after two weeks, for hundreds of rats were leaving their droppings ... and the mistress of the house was anxious to proceed with the big coup. So we got busy on the fifteenth night with the strychnine, oatmeal, sugar, and whisky - only a dash of the last. We fed the mixture in little scraps at a time, so as to get them all out and hungry for it. The rats were eating, rushing to water, and rolling over dead ... the sugar made them thirsty, and whisky made them light headed, and the strychnine killed them. Some rushed for the trap doors but we had dropped them, and they would only open inwards, and so they were trapped and none could escape. We killed over five hundred the first night, seventy the next and only three on the third night.

Dan Owen: A Pot of Smoke.

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muntjac

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« Reply #20 on: October 30, 2007, 12:05 »
the bit with the strychinie is good as i still have a jar of it for moles i dig a few werms n touch the ends in the powder n drop em down the run ...... moles never show again :wink: .

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Viv

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rats and chickens
« Reply #21 on: November 03, 2007, 08:31 »
After reading all this I am about to start my defence against the rat. I haven't seen any signs but looking at your posts it will happen. Do you remove the poisons during the day or do you leave them down?  Are they safe for the hens? Sorry if I'm asking the daft questions.  :?:  :D
Happiest in the countryside.
Breathe deeply, and let the butterflies fly in formation!
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http://www.oldmotherhubbardsgarden.blogspot.com

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muntjac

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« Reply #22 on: November 03, 2007, 11:03 »
they stay down all the time you need to refill the trays .. you need to make sure no animal other than rats or mice get to the seed . see tunnel in search for an easy rat baiting station ,make a few of these up and bait around the area :wink:  :)

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Viv

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another question
« Reply #23 on: November 03, 2007, 12:55 »
I live in the countryside, surrounded by sheep,in the next field, cows around the corner and loads of horses, so, am I already on a losing battle as there will be rats here anyway? we have no main drains, the village, 30 properties in total are all on cess pits?
What would you all do? :?:  :)  :?

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muntjac

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Rats and Chickens
« Reply #24 on: November 03, 2007, 13:01 »
run a trap line like wot i do .im in avillage next to the fileds etc .since 1st oct i have kiled 13 rats .all 1/2 growed  so far  and im using poison as well :wink:

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NanaJune

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RATS!
« Reply #25 on: February 18, 2008, 16:35 »
I am so glad to see all of this info on rats.  We live in North Texas, USA.  They have bought up all the land next to us and put in a subdivision of homes at the end of our road.  Now, we are being BOMBARDED with field rats who have no place else to go.  I've fought a few mice before - but nothing like I've seen this winter.  I mean RATS - big ones.  My cat and dogs handle the smaller mice, but I think my cat is afraid of these bu99ers!  I have 20 hens, 3 roosters, and lots of quail.  Consequently, we have lots of feed around.  

I have been afraid of the poisons because of my birds, cats, dogs, etc.  I have one hen who had a poisoned rat and the next day was blind (coincidence? - I don't know for sure).  Anyway, I am afraid of my cat or dogs or birds eating a poisoned rat.  We have put out traps, made "feed barrel traps" as my husband calls them, and secured all feed in metal bins.  But the population doesn't seem to be dwindling as much as we had hoped.  Our feed room floors are off the ground, and our brooding house is completely secure. But the hen houses and chicken runs are not.

Are the poisons truly safe to use around all of my animals?
Nana June

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Bodger

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Rats and Chickens
« Reply #26 on: February 23, 2008, 08:50 »
Poison is as safe as you make it. Used incorrectly, its dangerous but then so is a toaster or a car.

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Ruby Red

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Rats and Chickens
« Reply #27 on: March 22, 2008, 20:27 »
Quote from: "tallulah"
Thanks Munty and Bodger - I live near Woodbridge Munty.  Yes, I do definately need a control system in place.  And yes I agree that I have a moral duty apart from anything else, to keep the area clear of rats, its not a nasty thing to say, just true - I said I was a wimp didn't I?  My husband is even more of a wimp so I get no sound advice from him.  I love my hens, and love keeping them, and also value my neighbours' health as well as my own, so am working toward a solution.  I keep the garden scrupulously clean now, best I can, and we stopped feeding the garden birds in the spring, thanks to the rats.  Best poison?  Easy to get hold of?[/quote      
   
   If you love your hens then get rid of your rats. If the rats come in your garden they are peeing and leaving their droppings all over the place. Then your hens scratch about pecking the soil and getting contaminated. The eggs in the process also get contaminated.
Oh for those halcyon days of England long ago

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Kiwi

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Rats and Chickens
« Reply #28 on: May 01, 2008, 06:58 »
Ew Rats.
We live on a farm and only occasionally see a dead rat - we have 5 cats! But we know they're there as we see poop sometimes in our wool shed.
We bait all year round, the rat man showed me how to make cheap bait stations.
Get a piece of down pipe - an old off-cut or something. Cut it to about a foot and a bit. Drill small holes about an inch in from either side and loop wire through them. The loop should go right round the inside of the tube. Thread the rat bait that has the holes in through it. Works a treat and your other animals can't get at it.

One of our cats sits with the chickens who cluck around it and catches any mice that go into their house!

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ratman

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Rats and Chickens
« Reply #29 on: May 04, 2008, 02:11 »
Quote from: "muntjac"
the bit with the strychinie is good as i still have a jar of it for moles i dig a few werms n touch the ends in the powder n drop em down the run ...... moles never show again :wink: .


http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/approvals.asp?id=1475

Just for info Munty, No doubt the jar is empty now anyway mate  :wink:



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