Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: ScottBarton on October 21, 2009, 16:46
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Yup...noticed a few holes being dug here and there over the last few days. Lifted up one of the paving slabs in the coop and there is a tunnel to the outside.
I also found some rather large droppings in an old bucket that was laying on its side adjacent to the hen house. Looks like they are using it as a toilet! :mad:
OK. I need to get rid of them, but is there anything else i need to be aware of? Am going for the kill method, traps as a preference rather than poison. Am fully aware of Weils and Leptospirosis so will be careful when clearing up....anything else?
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Whatever method you use, make sure it's humane (rats deserve to die quickly too) and ensure nothing else can get to it.
A length of guttering is often cited for placing poison but not sure how much room you would need for a trap.
They are very inquisitive but also very intelligent and can problem solve. Small mammals need to be thought of as well. DOn't want to trap any hedgehogs or shrews.
Good luck
Rob
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i am fully against killing anything but as my girls are on the allotments i have to aware of other plot holders an when i knew i had rats i went out an got a bait box which has proven to work really well { its hidden under pallets within the run that the girls cant get to cant really put it outside the run as theres to many kids on the site } as i havent seen any since althoughh thats not to say they still dont visit the run during the night .
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I would get a good hunting cat or like me I have 2 Jack Russels but only one catches the rats. Even the smell of dogs can detur them. My bitch came in today with a huge rat and guarded it in her basket for a while before giving it up but they do kill them instantly by breaking the neck when they shake them. 4 so far this year and we dont really have a problem. As soon as they sense danger they go elsewhere! Todays one was a whopper!! No poison to leave to chace that something else including nosy chickens may consume.
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First question I would as is "Why have I got Rats?" "What has attracted them?"
It is your chicken feed.
Do you pick it up at night?
Do you broadcast split corn by hand?
Why not try a treadle feeder?
With rodents I worry that my chickens will eat the poisoned ones.
But as a last resort I have used poison.
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Hmmm.
Yes i have tended to leave the food out for them all the time.
Last night i removed it and stored it away safely, replacing it this morning before i went to work.
As for scatter corn, i tend to feed them by hand and throw some loose on the grass, but they soon hoover that up so am confident none remains for vermin.
At the weekend i am going to lift up all the slabs in the run and lay some wire mesh i had left over when i built my extension, followed by the slabs again on top. I am then going to concrete in some more bricks at the base and finally concrete the hole in the bank where i think they are. This should stop them burrowing in underneath.
I have also bought some large rat traps that kill.
If the wife ever found out we have a rat she will go ballistic!!!
Really dont want poison due to the proximity of the tunnels and the run/chicken house. I also have a cat, and the last thing i would want is for her to play with a dead poisoned rat.
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iv heard peanut butter is good at attracting them to traps just make sure the chickens cant get to it
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A chap on Grimefighters on the TV the other night said he uses chocolate spread on the traps. They love chocolate too!!!
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I have choc and peanut butter in the cupboard so shall knock up a tasty treat for them......mwahah ha ha! >:( It will be thier last.......
Just bought a powerful 'Rentokil' kill trap from Robert Dyas and tested it with a pencil....it chopped the pencil in half. That should do it. :ohmy:
:nowink:
Dont get me wrong, i hate the thought of killing things...but i have a friend who has suffered first hand with Leptospirosis and i dont want to take any chances with my 4 year old running round the garden.
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We've got a large dyke/land drain down the back of us, so we have rats all the time. I hate the things. I also don't like killing things, but I'd rather kill a rat than them get away with anything around here!!!!
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Exactly.
I have also just rang my local gun shop and i can get a complete .22 air rifle set up for £150.
Hmmmm.....tempted.
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gees i hope you get the little so and so :blink:, i have stepped up my cleaning outside as i know its the season when you can draw them in so to speak. My feeder is kept on a patio, so when the girls go to bed its easily swept up and then i take the feeder in the house were i store there food. I feed mixed corn before it gets dark but i only feed enough to do them and they always clean every bit of corn up. nickyx
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ive had this problem recently(see my post) ive caught 3 in a t rex trap so far, shot two and they have eaten a whole seed tray of poison, i think im getting on top of them now
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i have a permanently set bait station under the shed with blocks that the rats and mice can gnaw on, none seen for a while.
ascot supplies did have an electrical rat killer that was battery operated to get rid of the problem, like a station, only allowed a rat in, then set off a light to tell you it had been activated, have not bought one, as the problem is not that big, i take the food up at night
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u have the same sort of thing as me grumpydad by the sounds of it and i know clean up all my food but at times i have put it to the test an left stuff out and its not been touched in a long long while . i think tonight i forgot by mistake to pick up the odd pellets in the bowl as i got back from the vets when it was dark an the chicken i took was a nervous one so i wanted to get her settled fast , will see in the morning if any of it has been touched or not .
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just like red mite, i keep putting the diatom, poultry shield, and everything else i can find to stop them, and have not seen any, same with the rats, make sure it is down to stop any getting a toe hold and reproducing
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:lol: :lol: talknig about me not seeing anything for a long time , i went out there this mornnig at 6,15 to let them out and i picked up the little food bowl i use to scoop out the food with an guess what there was a tiny little mouse under it maybe i should not spoken to soon :D
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did it run off, or did the chucks get it ? lol, have not seen any mice for a long time under the shed.
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it ran of as i stroked it :lol: :lol: the girls were not out then. of to eat chinese be back later :tongue2:
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We had rats before we had chickens, we have 3 large compost bins and they live in the bin, ignoring the traps. The dog got one once, but I know we still have another. Strangely my hubby says he doesn't mind the rat as it eats all the snails in the garden. Not so sure I agree here and keep trying to get the damn thing, but zilch so far with the bait station. Was wondering whether to get a rat trap, but then what do you do with it!
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throw it in the bin, but take the rat from the trap first, a neighbour borrowed a couple of mouse traps, when she had caught the mice, she threw them in the bin, still in the traps, she thought you used them once and then threw them away !!!
i of couse then had to go out and buy myself more traps,
lol
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We had rats before we had chickens, we have 3 large compost bins and they live in the bin, ignoring the traps. The dog got one once, but I know we still have another. Strangely my hubby says he doesn't mind the rat as it eats all the snails in the garden. Not so sure I agree here and keep trying to get the damn thing, but zilch so far with the bait station. Was wondering whether to get a rat trap, but then what do you do with it!
A couple of times when moving shed bases i have found heaps of a couple of dozen empty snail shells that have been eaten by mice , if they would just eat these and not chew the contents of the sheds to pieces i would happily put out food for them instead of traps. :)
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We have rats in our garden due to the fact we have a brook at the bottom of the garden! We get the council pest control out! Free and he tends to treat the problem and leave boxes about to help! Oh and he offers us chickens , fruit , goats! :ohmy: ect from the various farms he visits ::)
remove any feeds at night as that is just asking for trouble!
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GOTCHA!!!!
Bought a rat trap from Robert Dyas. First night i set it and Bingo!!!
The little person had a network of tunnels under the paving slabs in the run. The night before i caught him i actually spotted him sitting in his nest under a slab before he jumped and ran off down the garden.
I prepared a lovely cocktail consisting of a few layers pellets, corn, topped with a chocolate Malteser. :D
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a290/scottbarton/IMG_6229.jpg)
Have reset the trap in case there are others.
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It was the malteser that did the trick Scott!!! :D
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Exactly.
I have also just rang my local gun shop and i can get a complete .22 air rifle set up for £150.
Hmmmm.....tempted.
DONT it will be a load of rubbish for that money. Probably cheap, Chinese and inaccurate.
Go to your local gunshop and look for a second hand Air Arms, BSA or Wierauch. These will cost you about £200 for one in decent condition.
It will be a spring gun not a Pre Charged Pneumatic which will cost you in the order of £500 with the air bottle essential to charge them up. Dont believe them if they tell you to use a pump.
My scope cost more than that comlete set up but I can put a .22 hunting pellet through a 1p size target time after time at 25 yards. You cant do that with a Chinese cheapy.
(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg289/zelda_munsterlander/BSA_UltraMultishot.gif)
You always have rats near you and it gets worse in the autumn as they move off the fields which have no cover left.
I shoot and trap them. I wont let my dogs near to them as they have no immunity to lepto. Cats are immune. Lead poison is the most effective but if you see one then you have a problem. They do not live alone.
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Yep, we have rats... Quite a few of the * aswell >:( I know a couple of pest controllers so I put some bait stations down, the only problem there is that the rats take the bait and drop bits in the chicken area :blink: obviosley dont want to poison the chooks so I had to move the bait stations out and I bought a couple of live capture traps... Worked a treat, managed to trap 5 in 5 nights and duly dispatched with the air rifle ( only as I thought the shotgun would upset the neighbours at 06.00 in the morning :D ) Anyway, all going to plan till I trapped a squirrel, now I dont like those * either but as I didnt check the trap in the morning, when I got home that evening the poor thing was on its last legs.... Dont like doing that, if your gonna kill something, make sure its quick and humane... Lesson leant, I now check traps every morning.... :) Keep the live traps down and you'll soon get rid of them
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Although I don't have my chickens yet, I did have a rat earlier this year because I feed the wild birds. I actually put the poison pellets at the top of their tunnel, and because she was breeding she took it down to the babies. When the bait stopped going I filled the tunnel in. Not pleasant to do but necessary. I had to be very careful because of the hedgehogs, dog, frogs etc, but the field mice actually carried some into the top of the composter which I had to scrape clean very carefully!
When I put my run in place I will lay a mesh skirt under paving slabs all around the perimeter, I am now neurotic about rats.......!
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We have stupid rats - they ate the bait from the box in the shed before I put it in the bait boxes!
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We have a rat/rats too which I believe come in from old factories that back on to our long back garden. I'm really careful with spillages of girlies food and any they are given can't be eaten by rats as their large outer pen is completely encased with mesh. I had to stop feeding wild birds around a year ago so as not to attract more rats but they are still out there. A couple of days ago I noticed large freshly dug earthworks spilling out from under the garden shed :ohmy: These animals are very clever and now rarely get caught out by the 'nipper' rat traps. We are calling in the council rat man soon as he puts poison down and I believe the service is free. I hate the thought of killing them too but understand that it's necessary because of the diseases they carry. I'm lucky that my hubby and son deal with traps and any dead rats (on the rare occasion one may fall foul of a trap) :ohmy:
Jan.x
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It is worth remembering that any mouse that eats poison bait and staggers past a chicken is likely to go down in one gulp , and it could be the end of that hen.
Once the poison is eaten by a rodent it could end up anywhere.