Topic: chickens and rats

[MissBaritone]

we're having a problem with rats in our back garden. everytime we look out the window we see them running around the garden. Rat holes have now appeared going under the paving ajoining the house.  Now the garden is only small (about 18 foot by 18 foot) and my 2 chickens do have free run of it. I take all the normal precations such as picking food up on a night (although it doesn't do much good when the rats come out during the day) but the rat problem is getting worse. short of getting rid of my 2 girls does anyone have any ideas of what I can do

[goodlife]

Usually rat problem occur where there is food left lying around..
Do you feed you chickens from proper feeders?..do they scratch their food all over the place?
Can you adjust your feeders so the food don't flow out as freely?
Are your feeders low down on ground?...are you able hang then up, high enough so the chickens are just about able to reach the food.
Sorry about assuming that your chicken feed it the problem..it is just the first most obvious reason.
Does your neighbours feed wild birds?..perharps it is that food that is dropped on ground that is the rat 'magnet'?
What ever it is that brings them around your garden..it will have to be drastically reduced/eliminated. As for those rats that you see running around..they are not going to go away and only thing that you can do is set traps or get professionals on the job.
Rats are very clever things..and if you set traps..it may take several days before anything happens..but if you do good clean up around your garden..perharps suggest same to your neighbours if they feed birds..and eventually you will get top of it. Just keep setting traps, but make some runs that are covered so not cats can hurt themselves..perharps blank of wood leaning against wall/fence and trap underneath that..peanut butter smells irresistible for them.. ;) Keep your traps in same place all the time..rats are very suspicious for anyting 'new' in their area..and if kept in same place they get used to them and you have better chance of success with trapping.
If you catch couple..keep trapping, as if there is one or two..there will be more.. 

[jimtheworzel]

Would a cat, as a preditor  help in keeping the rats under control ?

[Mr Smith]

I would love to keep Poultry in our back garden, but I'm afraid I have to consider my neighbours and the problems associated with Poultry, we had a problem earlier this year which was a rat in our back garden but rats travel so it would be up and down the back gardens of all the properties, consequently I discovered that someone at the other end of our road keeps Poultry in their back garden, I now keep a baited poison box down but since the first episode the poison as not been taken, personally I think you know what to do if you want to get rid of the rats, :)

[goodlife]

Cats are usually no good with rats..unless you are lucky have one that is real hunter.
Terriers are really good with ratting..We've got one little terrier and is she start to stand in corner of the garden staring back of the chickens shed for hours if left it to her...usually that is sign of mouse...

[MissBaritone]

The chickens are fed from proper feeders which are hung up.  I'm not aware of any neighbours feeding the birds.

Rats are a huge problem in the area anyway as we do live near a railway embankment with a large allotment  area backing onto it . most of the people down there do keep pigeons which does attract the rats. Neighbours  have reported them in the past but they've never been a problem in my garden before. I've had the chickens 2 years and there have never been any signs until this month.

I do have 2 cats and 1 is a hunter but the trouble is he's scared of the chickens so he only brings me rabbits from the embankment instead.

I was worried about putting traps where the chickens are but if that's the only option we'll have to try it

[goodlife]

You can keep the traps set on just during night when the chickens are not about..but if you are in 'rat area'..you might have to do trapping regularly..if you are not catching that many, it may deter some away. But those that are coming to your garden during day are now so used to your area that they need to be get rid of.
If you have some concreted/slabbed areas..give them a wash with Jeyes Fluid. The smell of the cleaner will get rid of rat trails..they follow their own sents trails into your garden and it may be enough of a 'treatment' to keep them away. Some of the solution in spray bottle and spray around perimeter of your garden would be good idea too.

[gazzaroo]

we use rat bate blocks on the allotment we put them in old drain pipe so hens cant get at them.. i get lots of deed rats.. ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

I use rat poison regularly. It's not the best of ideas as they build up immunity, but it works, and the only alternative I can see would be several Fen traps. That might deal with the rats, but not the mice. When I tried mouse traps, they disappeared, attached to rats. Poison is much simpler!

[willsy]

I had to give up feeding the birds in our garden as the birds throw out more of it than they ate. Rats appeared so had no choice.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Were you using a seed mix? They'll throw out a lot looking for their favourite seeds. I found it worked better to offer a single seed in a feeder.

[digmore]

You will always have rats around, both in town and country. We have several Warrens in the back yard, they wander round the garden when we are home, otherwise in their run.

The other week we had a visit from the council man, rats seen running up the street, being a local lad with rural knowledge, he and I had a quiet laugh.

When the fields are harvested behind us, you get every year a scampering of long tails.

It would appear that our new neighbour had rung the council to complain about our rural habits of chicken keeping. Needless to say, jog on.....

But I digress, rat traps with peanut butter as bait are the best. Caution, put trap safe. Make sure nothing else can take the bait.....put under a cardboard box with access holes cut in.

Check trap each day, put gloves on and bin dead rat.

Digmore

[mue]

Had a major problem a few months with rats.  We were in over drive.  What we did was to bury roof tiles 18 inches below the soil all the way around the hen run.  We also placed the food on string in the coop.  At night water and food was removed from the areas.  A strict cleaning regime was followed morning and night.  Things were moved we were noisy.   Anything to disturb the rats.  We watched and found where they were entering and cornered off the area from hens and wildlife.  Since everyone refuse to clean out dead rats from a trap we bought a plastic bait trap where the rats go in and eat the food then go away and die. Cannot believe how many rats I had to pick up and dispose of each morning. so we new the poison was working.   The rats were absolutely huge.  Went through 2 tubs of poison as there was no help on our allotments for this had to tackle it ourselves.  Kept throwing rat poison down the holes they made until the poison was no longer taken.  Then I threw glass and sharp stuff down the holes covered with soil on top and jumped on the holes until firm.
They had managed to nibble the hen coop though.  I have not seen any lately but I no they have not gone so keep my site very clean and tidy.

[Robert_Brenchley]

You'll need to put more poison down periodically. You've created a hole in the local rat population, and nature abhors a vacuum. More rats will soon move in, if they haven't done so already. If they don't find food around the run, at least they're unlikely to start hanging around there!

[Stedic]

We're currently having a rat/chicken issue.  Sort of.

We've got a 12 x 6 run at the bottom of the garden which has an earth base.  My neighbour has reported seeing rats in his garden and of course the chickens are being blamed.  But, looking in our run I can't find any evidence of rat holes or runs, and there are no other gaps for them to get into.  I put down bait boxes around the edges of the run, and none of the bait has been touched.

The problem is that my neighbour has a wood burning stove and a wood collecting obsession.  So the other side of the fence to my run he has stacked about 40 pallets, and piles of wood offcuts.  Perfect rat territory!

He has a terreir and we have two cats, plus some huge stray cats and a fox that visit the garden.....but the wood provides a perfect haven for the rats.  To make matters worse, he says he can't afford to keep buying poison.

Am going to have to have a chat to him about all the wood, but he's a good neighbour and helps us out a lot, plus he's not a well man....so need to tread carefully!!

[Paulines7]

We are always getting rats.  They come off the field at the back of us as soon as the corn is cut.  I also have chickens.

I have two rat traps.  One is a cage and the other one is supposed to kill them with an electric shock.  We have never caught a single rat with these devices and they were costly too. 

We put down poison in rat boxes and I also have some which are sold packaged.  I find the packets easier to use as they can be placed down rat holes or under sheds. 

Some local authorities will come and put poison down without charge so it may be worth enquiring as rat bait is expensive. 

[Number Six]

We live in a rural area and have 4 hens. So far, we have only had one incident of rats. I shot one with my air rifle and the rest scarpered. We haven't seen any since. However, appreciate that not everyone can safely use an air rifle. The council has already been mentioned - perhaps also worth checking if your house insurance has any 'pest cover'.

[Hazelb]

We've had rat problems before. They were encouraged in to our garden by bird feeders and the chickens ( we only had 4 at the time)

I put the bird feeders over the lawn, then the chickens ate any of the seed the birds threw out and put bait boxes down under the chicken house and it seemed to work a treat!

I still use a bait station and every 4 - 6 months, the poison level will drop, then stop dropping when all the  rats have died. It will be a few months before any new ones try to move in, then the cycle will repeat. It seems to work well and we haven't actually seen any rats for years.

If there are rats around...don't forget you can always blame it on the councils fortnightly bin collection  ;D

[Dopey]

If you have tried all of that, and your still getting rats and mice, there are only a few ways to go, I know because I had problems with them myself, forget the spring traps, there not sensitive enough to work like they should, the 3 best ways to kill them is to first (will take a week) is bated poison, if you want something fast working with intimidate results, then a glue (or sticky) trap (you will then have to kill it yourself, as it just glues them alive to the board) then there's the electric trap, this will kill it with no blood mess or guts, and it works great, you'll get about 20 kills before you change the battery on it,

I could show you picks of the ones I caught on the glue trap

[Mr Smith]

If you have tried all of that, and your still getting rats and mice, there are only a few ways to go, I know because I had problems with them myself, forget the spring traps, there not sensitive enough to work like they should, the 3 best ways to kill them is to first (will take a week) is bated poison, if you want something fast working with intimidate results, then a glue (or sticky) trap (you will then have to kill it yourself, as it just glues them alive to the board) then there's the electric trap, this will kill it with no blood mess or guts, and it works great, you'll get about 20 kills before you change the battery on it,

I could show you picks of the ones I caught on the glue trap

                    Dopey,
                               Agree with you 100%,  these fluffy back garden Chicken keepers who infest the rest of the community with what they are now doing in saving the chicken population which really should be in a chicken nugget in Tesco's, we  now have the Rat problem, Total knobs