Birds of prey

[MsDejesus1]

We Have two medium/small Hawks or Falcons roosting right outside our property. They've been hanging around for about 3 weeks now. No Bueno! As if the rats weren't enough to deal with!

Sorry Not a good picture, I'll try to get a better one.

 

[centrarchid]

Two things I would try on area in picture below hawk. Mow closer to remove rodent cover. If possible reduce the abundance of grains / chicken feed rodents eating. Efforts will reduce rodent abundance.

You do not have a lot of cover for chickens so rooster approach employ will not work for you. Do you have a dog that can be kept out among chickens? Even a confined dog close by will make most hawks like pictured move on.

 

[MsDejesus1]

Thank you for your advice. Its much appreciated as Im fairly new to all this and rather clueless.
The post its on is in my middle of my back neighbors looooooong driveway entrance. I'm going to check if its ok with them for us to mow it =)
I do have 5 dogs. I think we will start leaving two of them out near the coop.
We also will be setting out poison and traps to control the rodent population.
I didnt want to kill them but the suckers are super smart and none of the humane traps work. They even went into the 74 gallon bucket trap, ate the food and somehow got right back out. Leaving me some nice rat poop in the bucket just to let me know it was them!!

I also found a non domestic (wild) rat pup or small field mouse drowned in my pool this morning.

Also, thanks to all the awesome info on here we will be working this weekend on a larger coop as well as securing the current one better. Its insane how much I did not know about predators and their ability to get to the chickens. Its a miracle honestly that we hadn't lost one of the adult hens!!


I am now officially addicted to BYC lol

 

[Folly's place]

I was able to drown a few young rats in a bucket trap with water. It wasn't actually my plan, but the juveniles got in a horse water bucket. Lots of rats by the time you see any! I never caught one in a live trap, and finally locked all my critters up and set out poison. After about a week, no more bait was eaten, so I picked it up, waited a few more days, and let everyone out. I never actually found a dead rat, either, but all signs were gone. My coop is pretty rat proof, and the birds only have food available there. I stopped feeding the wild birds this summer too. No food of any sort is left outside! Mary

 

[MsDejesus1]

Yeah I had to put poison out last night too. The other traps weren't working and I didn't want to give them time to breed. They poisoned bait is gone this morning so I'm guessing they took it. I'll put some more out today & see what happens.

 

[centrarchid]

Yeah I had to put poison out last night too. The other traps weren't working and I didn't want to give them time to breed. They poisoned bait is gone this morning so I'm guessing they took it. I'll put some more out today & see what happens.

You may inadvertently take out hawk if it consumes a rat loaded with poison.

 

[MsDejesus1]

That never even occurred to me. Not sure how to feel about that

You may inadvertently take out hawk if it consumes a rat loaded with poison.

 

[centrarchid]

I only use rodenticides in enclosed environments. Advantages two-fold. First you are much less likely to impact non-target ornanisms. Second, rodents consuming pesticide do not have the ability to go out and consume green plants that can negate the anti-clotting factor.

 

[Folly's place]

I hate using rodenticides too, and only had that one episode when it was necessary. Having lots of rats isn't good! My other choice was getting a little rat terrier, who would also have liked chicken... Mary

 

[MsDejesus1]

So it seems that we are rat free lol. Im not taking my chances yet though, giving it a few more days to make sure wethey are truly gone and no longer a threat to my babies. This has been a crazy experience to say the least. No more breeding any type of anythign for my kids!! Lol.