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Okay, night before last i saw something small and then something larger scurrying around the pens. i put a sticky trap and two large snap traps inside that back aviary. Then set up our rat zapper right where i saw them running. In the morning, we had caught a mouse in the rat zapper. So...

Quote: We actually had some guineas for a while. My friend gave me hatching eggs. They are so darn cute as kids, but not super friendly. You can't cuddle them like chickens. Anyhow, as they grew, they started getting louder. Sounded like a really obnoxious squeaky door, and they would go...

Well, actually, our feed store had metal chicken coops this past year. Metal everything, including roosts. i thought to myself those must be very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer.

Quote: i've heard that. But a couple nights ago i put steel wool in the holes in the outside of that aviary they were chewing through. Next morning the steel wool was completely gone. i'm assuming they just pulled it inside. Maybe i should have glued it in place. At this point, though...

Quote: Rats can chew through concrete. They can even chew through lead pipes. Wow, what's left? Titanium?

i was just thinking about that. i have several kid's playhouses converted to coops. i put in wooden floors, then the whole thing sits on concrete pavers. But clearly rats can chew right through wood. Maybe if the bottom wood had sheet metal hammered into it? Or maybe the metal needs to come...

i'm finding holes coming up inside another pen. i suspect there is an entire subterranean rat village under our chicken area.

Oh no, i am so sorry! That's horrible! Pretty amazing that they were carting off 3-month-old silkies. i've heard of rats taking babies, or quail, or nibbling on the feet of chickens roosting. i know they are opportunistic eaters. Before i could throw away the first round of dead baby rats...

Well, sorry to change the subject back to something unpleasant. i put down two more sticky traps in that aviary last night. i caught what i think may be the last baby. Didn't catch mom. The sticky stuff was smeared on one of the traps. i think mom is too big to get stuck in one of those...

i guess it just got caught up in the moment.

Okay, so i need to know - what did you do? Did you give it some treats, too?

i would love to see a video of that!

i shoved rat poison under our shed once. Next day saw a rat writhing around on the ground by our chicken pens. Although i've used it successfully, i am very uncomfortable with it. i would feel terrible if one of our chickens or ducks, or a stray cat accidentally got poisoned.

As much as i hate sticky traps, i laid down two large rat sticky traps last night right outside that hole they chewed through in the aviary floor. In the middle of each, i dabbed peanut butter, chicken feed, and cat food. Went out this morning and could see movement. As i got closer, i saw...

Quote: i've never used the bait stations. i will look into those.

Well, i have 8 chicken pens and coops, then another 2 for our ducks and geese. i always keep the food inside their coops, which get locked up at night. But there still seems to be spillage outside the coops, and then some grains of leftover scratch from the morning. It's hard to pick up every...

i keep my cats inside, but we have neighbor cats in our yard all the time. i found one right up by the pens this morning, which is just fine with me. i'm not sure if they've caught any yet, or maybe they have, and it would be worse if they weren't around. This current rat is living under that...

Interesting feeder. i can see where that would be good for standard size chickens. My fear with bantams would be that someone would get decapitated. So far, the rats seem to only be interested in the chicken feed. But i've heard stories of rats nibbling the feet off of sleeping chickens...

. . . . even more than i hated them before. Our back pen has a large wooden and hardware cloth aviary. i have been seeing chewings around the bottom, holes to underneath. i seal up one, next day there is another one, etc. Then this morning i see they have chewed through the floor to inside...