Am I facing a rat problem???

[MakNat]

Have a coop... Big birds roast hi. Mommas and babys are on the floor or in the low nest boxes, which are on the floor as well. All winter I kept just a regular light bulb in one of the corners down low. The coop was still very very dim at night, and was not a 'heat' lamp. Sometimes a bird or 2 would hunker under it to warm up a bit. Ok so since I've taken the light out, I have found dead chicks... A pile of 15 this morning.

They all just have a small wound near their neck. Not eaten at all. Just dead and a little bloody. Was thinking weasels. But from what I remember don't they sever the heads. I'm sickened. Appearently, whatever it is hates any type of light.

 

[zatsdeb]

unless you have an enclosed area rats can get into your chicks. We keep ours in an enclosed area until they are big enough to get on the roost and but still worry about rats. we lost a full grown guinea to a rat last week, It was on the ground under the roosts, where we raised 50 guineas through the winter, never lost one, had traded someone for 2 white guineas and locked them in our second chicken house, went out to check on them and lock up the other birds, and it was on the ground under the roosts, I thought it was just stuck cause it was moving and pulled it loose, and it was not alive, neck was eaten around an head chewed on, bloody spot on back, I didn't know what was going on, saw tunnel where its head was pulled through, I moved it 4 feet from that tunnel, went inside to get a flashlight, and when I came back it was back in the hole, I pulled it out, something pulled back, and when I got it out, shined a light and it was a big rat. We lost a turkey a few weeks prior, it was one that was sitting on eggs in he other chicken house, something had chewed big hunks out of its back, my husband thought maybe an owl had flown into the chicken house early in the morning but now that I think about it, I think it was that big rat. we put poisen down so hopefully it is dead now.

 

[Trunkster]

Sounds like blood sucking weasels to me.

 

[bobbi-j]

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