I have kind of turned a blind eye to the amount of rats i have living around my chickens. I think i have ignored it because i knew i would have to set traps and i dont like killing. at the weekend i noticed too many to ignore and thought i best do something about it. I have tried a humane trap before but never caught any. I set some killing traps on sunday and have caughed 9 so far . does anyone else have problems with rats?
No rat problems that I am aware of though I know they will be around the place. I have no problem with killing rats if I did have any concerns. I have split some clean in half with the spade when I have come across them and would do the same again. I do not hunt for them but if they are there then they get the good news.
I saw one in my shed the other day, as bold as brass. We've got a supply of poison in the comittee hut, so if it's not dead yet it's probably well on the way. I find I have to keep at it with the poison or they soon multiply.
One of my allotment neighbours had a prob with rats taking his chicks he now has a head count of 104 rats to 4 chicks over a 4 week period he used peanut butter on his 12 traps he aint had a rat for 2 weeks now
I found a tunnel into my chickens run. I have used poison along their track into the run and I keep putting poison in and it keeps disappearing - so I suppose I still have rats and mice - don't really know as I haven't seen them!
I have saved a fortune in chicken food though - I was really gobsmacked at how much food the birds were getting through until I found the rat run!
I am shutting them in (my girls) at night now and taking their food home so that there isn't anything there for the rats to break into the run for!
Old Bird
;)
I have now killed 14!! I know i shouldnt but i do feel a little bad. Dont think i could split one with a spade. i have noticed already that the chicken food is lasting longer. its a pity you cant eat rat once you have killed them! not sure i would want to though !
Quote from: PHILMT on October 22, 2008, 21:52:48
its a pity you cant eat rat once you have killed them! not sure i would want to though !
you can
you wouldnt want to
hopefully we will never be in a situation that desperate
lbb
Quote from: littlebabybird on October 22, 2008, 23:49:03
Quote from: PHILMT on October 22, 2008, 21:52:48
its a pity you cant eat rat once you have killed them! not sure i would want to though !
you can
you wouldnt want to
hopefully we will never be in a situation that desperate
lbb
There's a campaign in parts of India to get people to eat more rat... Apparently it's better than chicken! But when your country has over half of all the malnourished children in the world, anything's an improvement!
there are many worse things in the world to eat,
i would rather eat rat than worms or pickled eggs,
or belut.
eel is disgusting and whelks ughhhhhhh
lbb
If you don't want to be killing rats (I don't!) try a "rodent gard" - it's a battery powered rat repeller (so you don't need an electricity supplY). It emits a high pitched frequency that puts off the rats - I've got one in my shed as rats kept eating my daughters rabbit food, it seems to have worked so far! http://www.primrose-london.co.uk/rodent-gard-sonic-mouse-repeller-p-1618.html?cPath=24_25
hiya, debbiep, welcome to the site ;D
thanks for that, I think we'll get one for the chicken shed, didn't know you could get battery powered..will have a word with the other chicken people..also, one for the garage, save my potatoes getting eaten ;D
I hope they work better than the cat ones!
... and it doesn't upset the chickens too!
Old Brid
;D
They upset me - the neighbours one makes me jump every time my cat goes to poo on his lawn! She (the cat) ignores it!
There is this....
http://journeytoforever.org/at_rattrap3.html (http://journeytoforever.org/at_rattrap3.html)
I suppose you could use poison in something the chickens couldn't possibly get to, like an upturned wheelbarrow with a little space for them to get under.
I just use traps like big mouse traps and they work a bit. I reckon I'm going to build the bucket trap above and if that doesn't get them then its poison time.
Quote from: DebbieP on October 23, 2008, 09:38:05
If you don't want to be killing rats (I don't!) try a "rodent gard" - it's a battery powered rat repeller (so you don't need an electricity supplY). It emits a high pitched frequency that puts off the rats - I've got one in my shed as rats kept eating my daughters rabbit food, it seems to have worked so far! http://www.primrose-london.co.uk/rodent-gard-sonic-mouse-repeller-p-1618.html?cPath=24_25
Thanks for that info Debbie. I've got problems with poisoned rats tunnelling under my allotment shed to die! Sick of the smell. :(
Rat meat is supposed to be nice. I'd rather eat that than cowfoot any day.
Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on October 23, 2008, 18:15:26
Rat meat is supposed to be nice. I'd rather eat that than cowfoot any day.
Hmmmm, you know if they were both on the menu you'd know you should've paid a little more attention to the holiday brochure!
The wife likes cowfoot, which comes from the market. It's OK for making stock, but if it gets on my plate, it's headed for the bin!
When I was a child (we lived on a farm) tongue was frequently on the menu lamb's mostly but occaisonally (and this was suposedly special!) calve's. Fortunately my children have never had these inflected on them.
I quite like tongue; it has meat, not just gristle!
how on earth did we get from rats to tongue ;D
we've just bought a rat trap, found a run in the compost heap :-\
Sorry Manicscousers that was me...I can connect up the strangest things....it was the thought of eating rats that did it. I've probably eaten rat, a posh Chinese restaurant in NZ that I ate at occasionally was found to be serving up cats and dogs...probably also rats (peoples pets were disappearing!) in place of chicken......chicken was very expensive in NZ at the time.
The polynesian rat was introduced by the Maori as a food source when they immigrated to NZ, replaced later by Captain Cook's pigs.
A guy on my site had 10 (yes, bloomin 10) in his feed bin in one night, he took a photo it was disgusting. he killed 4 more as i stood there. I couldnt believe it I thought he was making it up until I saw it, OMG.
They are truly disgusting creatures. but I am such a wuss. I freak out when i hit a pheasant by accident. I cant kill anything. Going to have to soon though as i now notice my chicken feed is going quickly and there is what appears to be a rat run down the side of my chickens. Horrible things.
I have done what i can to try and disuade (?) them, no food about, raised up coop etc etc. but they have come. i dont like the idea of traps or poison. Other things can get caught in them, my neighbour caught a bird in his, and if anyones cat got caught i would not forgive myself. i just hope the man upstairs dont mind too much when i am forced to take out Mr Rat.
Rats are just dirty *fatherless children* get rid of the srekufc,
I am starting to get used to the killing now!! 43 rats in under 3 weeks of laying traps! its crazy how many are about and i hardly noticed. I opened my shed the other day and one ran out straight over my foot - My dog caught it - she's a lab and made short work of it cos she shook it for a second and then just dropped it dead - it was propably more humane then the traps.
a hole appeared inside on the floor of my compost bin a couple of weeks after emptying it around mid august there were what appeared to be rat dropping and my neighbour agreed with me. so i got some poisen and put it in the bin.
it sat there for weeks with nothing taken, then early September all the poison was taken, so i put some more in the tray and that was taken too. a third lot was put out and nothing was taken so i assumed the rat was dead.
then about three weeks ago the poison disappeared again, so i put some more and that disappeared. didn't get round to topping it up again and yesterday there were two large runs one in each side of my compost bins ( i have one of the wooden slat together bins) see the link:
http://www.recycleworks.co.uk/images/D/twin-composter.jpg (http://www.recycleworks.co.uk/images/D/twin-composter.jpg)
i hope the dumb thing hasn't chewed through the wood separating the bins i would be most pissed. anyway on my discovery i put some more poison bait down, and since the packet is almost finish I'll have to get some more.
how long does it take to get this under controll using poison?
You killed the first rat, then after a bit another moved in. There are always more out there.
yes you have a point but this is the third year of my bins no problems before, anyway ho hum :-\.
try not to put any meat or grain products in (bread/flour)in, just veg matter, they'll soon go and look somewhere else!
being vegan no animal products go into our bin, nor cooked scraps, and any bread type scraps are stored in a basket in the kitchen then tossed out to the birds in small enough quantities to be finished before night fall, plus the bird feeding station is about 100ft away from the compost bins.
went and checked the bin again today still signs of a run but the entrance hole hasn't changed for a few days so maybe its dead or gone lots of rat poo though :-X, so i will need to remove it as the side its done all its droppings on is the cooked compost side which has to be used in the spring :-X :-\.
will be getting yet more poison this week, will see if its taken. if this fails we will have to get a trap.
A friend of mine has pet rats, they're lovely creatures, highly intelligent :) :) :)
pretty sure a rat's in residence in my new dalek & I asked on the ferreting thread if ferret poo would be a deterrant - anyone know? I met someone last night who's got 4 ferrets as pets, so if it might work I've got good access to loads 8)
I dont know about a deterrent for rats, but it does work with rabbits. You wont lose anything by trying, but if you dont see the blighters anyway it may be hard to tell if its working or not ;)
I'll know, oh yes I'll know >:(....something to do with the tunnelling under the dalek holes which I keep stamping down and keep reappearing? :-\
Ferrets were once used on ships as rat control, hence my question whether the scent of rat droppings (quite pungent I believe ::)) might spark off some awareness for them that Ferrits Iz Bad News - and bugga orf :D
It's worth a try, Hyacinth
I've got mesh under my dalek, no holes underneath but the tunnelling and mixing of contents inside indicates a rat he been in (based on past experience). ???
When I get round to sorting Kea, I'll get round to meshing it as well.....3 thicknesses of wire mesh-on-a-roll from Wilkos be OK do you think? Won't the rats makes short work of gnawing through it tho?
i soon kill a rat no problem.if oneday you see what they do to one of your birds as i did then you to will be like me and kill a rat just as soon as i see one no prob.