Topic: chickens and rats

[greenfists]

I use an old fashioned trap (like a massive mouse trap.) I put it under some mesh and it does the trick. An old bloke said to me if you've got chickens you've got rats. He may be right.

[MissBaritone]

well we found the solution in the end. Back in January we adopted a border collie. At first he wouldn't go out in the back garden as he was scared of the chickens. However about 6 weeks ago he started going in the garden if we went out with him. One day he got a glimpse of a rat and that was it. Turns out he's the world champion at ratting. He killed 2 and we've had no problems since. It's funny now. He begs to go out in the garden and will spend hours lying where they used to come through the fence in the hope of catching another

[lanaki]

One answer to eliminating rats near your chickens is to simply get a feeder that will keep the rats out and then the rats will soon go somewhere else to find food.

I got a "rat-free" chicken feeder from "thecarpentershop.net" and it uses a treadle bar where the chickens step on and the door will swing open, then when they finish and leave the treadle the door will swing shut and rats can't get to the food. You will see the rats disappear.