Rat Warning

Danp

Hatching
May 2, 2016
1
0
7
Last year my wife decided she wanted chickens so I found this site and did a lot of reading about them and building a coop. After all said and done I had about $1000.00 into her setup and chickens. My wife was very happy. After about six months we started noticing holes in the ground in and around her coop, I set out my trail cameras and found what was making the holes was rats. They even moved into my garage a few feet away from the coop. After a few months of trapping them and putting out poison I admitted defeat and sold everything. So here is my warning to all if you live in an area where there is a possibility of rats don't get chickens if you don't want rats.
 
Hi :welcome

Sorry to hear you gave up your chickens because of rats. I'm afraid they can be a downside of keeping them but I've found various measures keeps them at bay. We had rats though before the chickens as they live outside of our perimeter but still came in.
 
My cousin has an amazing barn cat, and I have an outdoor cat too they really help and they can't get into the coop or chicken yard.
 
They're probably coming for the scattered feed, poisoning is dangerous in the event the chickens kill/eat the rat or some farm cat gets the rat. I prefer the "snap" traps that kill! Tried the cage style but then I got to kill them (stick trap in plastic bag in the chest freezer overnight).

I've done FF so there's no feed scattered & I pick up their dish in the evening, put out in the mornings. Feed them only in their enclosed run, a rat did get in their run one day, I leave the door open for the hens to come & go. That was hilarious! Chickens had it cornered, if it weren't me seeing them staring down in the corner don't know what they would have done. Got Hubby, got the chickens out, closed the door....Then the fun began! Should have taken a video of of DH chasing the rat around. Finally got it.

Anyway, did sell the chickens (not because of the rat) a month ago & I'm still trapping/killing rats. It's not the chickens, I had rats before I got chickens & don't have any, still got them. It's the neighbors with their dog food & trash not secured.
 
I have bird aviaries and now 3 areas which house chickens overnight. I've never noticed a rat problem, but we do also have a cat and our neighborhood has some roaming cats. My dog, who guards the dog door at night, probably keeps the neighborhood cats away and rats too. We also found a large Barred Owl sitting in the oak tree over a aviary one night. It did not impress the cockatiels, but it's also another reason we probably do not have rats.

With the owl around I do have to be careful and make sure all small chicks are put away before dark. It's a trade off which I'm pretty happy with. Neither the cats or the owl have had a chick or chicken.
 

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