Eep! Rats!

[JenniferC]

Rats seem to be flocking to try and eat my chickens' food. Yuck! I have been brining in their food during the day when the girls free range, but I keep seeing them around the yard. Do I need to worry about my vegetable garden bringing them around?

 

[LynneP]

I'm sorry to be the messenger, Jennifer, but rats will attack and kill chickens of all ages and will take your eggs, too. The feed may be satisfying them for now but as they reproduce they will need more sustenance and will go after your birds. The vegetable garden is not the problem, and you need some extensive predator control immediately.

 

[mmajw]

Not only will they do all that but when they leave there poop behind and your chickens eat it they can get Salmonella and die off faster than you can imagine. You need to set traps where your chickens cant get them or a poison mix where your chickens cant get it either. If the rat eats the poison and goes off to die it will probably go where your chickens are not and if it dies where they are remove it.

I can only tell you this from experience.

Good luck

 

[warcard]

Traps, Terriers, and a .22-handgun with shot shells (check at Walmart, just ask for shot shells for a .22)

Man the dogs had fun that day

But seriously get rid of them, they are nasty, will eat all your food, and what they miss will be spoiled with feces and urine.

 

[purr]

I personally would shoot them. Me and dh used to duck tape a flashlight to a rifle and go out at night when they are very active. And this way the chickens are safely in bed. We used to sit on top of the coop and shoot them.

AHH Good times!

 

[laughingllama75]

use poison that the chickens cant get into. Shoot them if you can, but they ca get weary of people in a hurry. took me a year, no joke......to get rid of the rats we had. Killed and ate chickens (bantams) chicks, eggs, and wiped out my homing pigeons. Someone had suggested soaking cat/dog food in anti freeze to kill them, but I didn't do it. Now I have 2 barn cats and that really helps too.

 

[craker]

i have had the same problem. one way i figured out is to take a steel trap and put right around where you feed your chickens, but make sure you find an old milk crate and set it over it. the rats can get through hand holes and you dont have to worry about your chickens getting in it. and it helps to put just enough feed for your chickens to eat at one time, oonce in the morning and once in the evening. doing this helps some what. but there hard to get rid of.