Recent content by Al Gerhart

  1. Al Gerhart

    Chicken eats rat poo, any treatment for chicken?

    Eight is a lot of feeders.... You know though, Howard E.'s advice on the sanitation method was more than a treadle feeder. Cleaning up the pathways to force the rats out into the open for travel makes them far more likely to be taken by the fox and the owl. The problem is that then you have...
  2. Al Gerhart

    WOW! Al Gerhart Feeders

    Everyone's experience will be different on the time needed for training because it really is up to the temperament of the flock. The best source for an opinion is to hit the product page and read through the reviews, then google the name of the product and find the independent blogs that have...
  3. Al Gerhart

    Chicken eats rat poo, any treatment for chicken?

    Forget the pine bark or any other old wives tales about smelling stuff, hot pepper, dried potato flakes, baking soda, ultrasonic, all of it of it is given by well intention-ed people that have heard it worked from the third cousin of a college roommate who heard it from their brothers mistress's...
  4. Al Gerhart

    Rats? A Cat? Something Else? What killed my chickens?

    With respect, I'll argue with you on that one. Chicks, yeah, even with plenty of feed available the rats will go after chicks. That is what started me on the road to creating our feeder which you can find the original origin thread here on BYC. But after installing the first plywood, inward...
  5. Al Gerhart

    Rats? A Cat? Something Else? What killed my chickens?

    Rats cannot survive without a source of food and it is always from humans. Clean up the food and the rats cannot hang around. In the wild, rodents always have territories and small ones at that, which they have to defend. Just not enough food for a rat colony in most situations.
  6. Al Gerhart

    WOW! Al Gerhart Feeders

    Absolutely and thank you so much for sharing the video.
  7. Al Gerhart

    Rats? A Cat? Something Else? What killed my chickens?

    Check the feed level in the lower feed hopper of the treadle feeder and if it is too high, use some cardboard to choke off part of the throat that the feed flows through so there is just a small pile at the bottom of the angled feed hopper and a thin layer of pellets or crumble flowing down...
  8. Al Gerhart

    Red pepper flakes and Guinea hens?

    Stormcrow posted an excellent response on that thread that ought to put the issue to rest. When Stormcrow post something, best not disregard it as they are very careful with their advice and highly repected. At best, pepper flakes colors the eggs. A 2% addition rate doubles the cost of your...
  9. Al Gerhart

    Rats? A Cat? Something Else? What killed my chickens?

    Any idea on what is feeding the stragglers? That is the key to getting them to leave. Some treadle feeders are more rodent proof than others too so maybe the stragglers have learned to use the feeder? If so, can you increase the pressure required to operate the treadle?
  10. Al Gerhart

    Rats? A Cat? Something Else? What killed my chickens?

    While you should deal with feed sanitation by using a proper feeder the rat isn't likely to be the culprit here. I'd vote for a mink or a weasel from the description you gave. You are on the Eastern seaboard, correct? BTW, you are not likely to build a rat proof coop. Deal with the feed and...
  11. Al Gerhart

    Red pepper flakes and Guinea hens?

    Ditto, save your spices for cooking chicken. Doesn't do a thing if it is on the inside of one. ;) Be very leery of taking advice without at least Googling it or using Gemini. People parrot what they heard and they are just trying to be helpful but a lot of it is just useless old wives tales...
  12. Al Gerhart

    30 chickens 1 rooster, 29 hens all bantams disappeared at once

    Two legged rodents. Probably politicians although they usually steal chickens by passing laws and ordinances.....
  13. Al Gerhart

    Ground predator? Hubbby saw a rat the size of a kitten.

    There are only two ways to successfully deal with rats. First, control the feed, clean up the pathways they use to travel between food and burrow so natural predators can get them. That is the sanitation method. Plan on spending $200 or less and it works as long as you practice the...
  14. Al Gerhart

    Mice eating feed and getting into coops

    I did some more research using Gemini which is becoming a lot more accurate. They pointed out that other studies found that less than 20% might cause problems for a rodent but that none of the studies considered baking soda an effective rodentcide. The average amount of rodentcide to kill a...
  15. Al Gerhart

    Mice eating feed and getting into coops

    This guy is a regular joe but he did some real life testing using cameras. If you believe that baking soda will kill rats with normal eating portions after reading this I know some politicians that are trustworthy..... https://bobseyes.net/baking-soda-doesnt-kill-rats-2/
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