[newatthis]

Morning, not sure if this in the right place or not, if so please move to right place thankyou


I've been to let my girls and chicks out this morning and i notice some soil has beeen moved from under the chick coop which is on mud no gaps, i did look all around the outside to make sure no holes on the outside befor letting the chicks out and nope no holes so not fox getting in and no holes around the coop(chicks)and no holes anywhere in the main run, so this has lead me to belive it's rats??

so.... what is the best way of getting rid of them please and can they kill 11 week old chicks?? as i found 1 dead in the coop this morning..
please help thankyou

i do have a trap(not 1 that kills )

[Flowerpower136]

I think a mature rat could kill a chick, but not a full grown chicken.

Everytime I see anything that looks like a rat route/hole, I stuff it with crunched up chicken wire.  I also use Eradibate, in little parcells, stuffed into holes and crevices in dry stone wall (which forms 1 side of my hen pen).  And I have several Mk4 Fenn traps which are available from Wild Fowl Trust, and are a serious bit of kit.

To discourage rats, I've made sure that all compost bins have a base of weldmesh, because I found they were burrowing in and nesting.   Eeeek

I remove all chook food every single night.  Also chook hutch is on legs so that floor of coop is same height as a table, makes for easy cleaning, provides more room for chooks underneath (it's their safe place), and doesn't provide shelter for rats who prefer something a bit more cosy.

This seems to keep us relatively rat free.   If you think you do have rats, then don't wait to take action or you will be overun with them.  Some councils provide free rat advice/traps.

[newatthis]

hello thankyou i will have a look for Eradibate, and try and make the coop higher, im going to use railwaysleepers to make it higher and i will try and put weldmesh around the coop and will sort out the food, thankyou for the help

[peter rooster]

Hi

I use ERADIRAT they claim it is safe on dogs and cats. Use it in a proper bait station. If that fails to solve the problem I go to SLAYMORE that is a dyed corn. My coop is raised 1 foot off the floor so plenty of room to bait and trap rats.

Peter Rooster

[grumpydad]

if possible, try to use blocks of rat poison, rather than grain, it will stop the poison being picked up by other animals,

[themagicaltoad1]

I didn't appear to have a rat problem until I started a compost bin, one of those heavy duty plastic ones. I put weldmesh underneath it once I realised they were attracted to it and they then chewed a hole in the side! They ignore the poison bait box and the traps.

[richyrich7]

Hi yes they will kill chicks, I've heard of them going for full grown hens while their roosting.

You have a trap then use that , put inside a "tunnel" alongside the coop or where you see evidence of them travelling, they usually keep to the sides along fences etc.

When you trap them your going to have to kill them, better off buying something that's designed to kill straight away IMHO.
Like others have suggested use poison, taking the usual precautions make sure your hens or wild birds can't get to it. 

have a look at this link some good advice in this thread http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=9078.0

[wooley1000]

Hi,

We found an effective way of killing them is to leave some small diameter drain pipes on the perimeter of the chicken area's and put the poisen in the tubes about half way down. Just make sure that the pipes are small enough that most small poultery (chicks) and house hold animnals can't get in.

Hope this is if some help it worked for us.