Chickens and Rooster roosting under Hen House!?

[greendykes]

Hi 4 of my girls and the Rooster have started roosting under the Hen House. The house is on legs and has a ladder up to it, 1 of the girls goes to bed in the house but the rest settle down perched on the rung of the Hen House, which means I can't shut the hen house. I know all the girls can get up the ladder as they lay their eggs everyday in the nesting boxes. My concern is will it be warm enough for them during the winter and safe? I can shut them into the coop, is this safe enough? I have never lost a chicken to predators yet and hopefully this will continue. I have had a problem with rats and at this moment have a professional rat man in to eradicate them! Discovered lots of holes around the coop. Plus lots of dead rats and mice now, due to the poison, which is a nightmare trying to find them before the chickens and Rooster! What should I do? Any advice appreciated.

 

[Judy]

I think I'd finish up dealing with the rats before I approached dealing with where they sleep. Is you exterminator using a product containing bromadiolone, or can he? It is not supposed to be toxic when another animal eats the dead rat or mouse. Of course some poison is transmitted but generally it is not enough to harm the secondary animal. You can Google it and get a better idea about this.

You'd have to tell us a lot more about your setup before we can help assess its safety. Usually that kind of setup is inside an enclosed run which can also be made predator proof. As for warm enough, chickens do fine in cold and need only enough ventilation high in the coop to let the humidity and ammonia out, and being free of drafts on the roost area. In general they don't need heat.

 

[greendykes]

Hi thanks for the reply. I asked my pest control man and he said the poison does contain bromadiolone and a chicken would need to eat at least 10 dead vermin to become ill! Thankfully there has not been as many dead vermin found this week and the poison hasn't been touched. I think the bad weather here has helped change some of the girls minds re going into the coop, 3 were in there tonight. The other 2 girls are the oldest and have always slept under the coop, now they have Rory for company. I will post some pics of my coop and enclosed run. It did have netting over it but when it snowed it got top heavy so I had to remove it. I have been doing a major clearing of overgrowth this last few weeks, next is getting the compost heap removed. It is right next to chicken run, not a good idea I realise now.