HELP!! Rats eating chicks?

[mamagardener]

good luck! I hope you get rid of whatever it is!

 

[humboldtchicken]

I read about this guy who goes in and takes care of preditors for people. He advises not using any food type killing bait as they go off and die usually in your walls or somewhere and then it gets real stinky. He live trapped some if the owners preferred and also used the snap traps as it killed quickly. He was definately a lot more humaine in his methods than some out there. RATS, I just saw one last night on my porch, he or she cant get into the run anymore so it was looking on the porch where my kids dropped a couple morsels while feeding the chickens. Gonna live trap it. Good luck.

 

[denasfarm]

Something tripped the trap last night but we didnt catch it. This is a big trap for raccoons and fox size animals so what ever tripped it was big.
Maybe tonight we will catch it.

We let the girls out about 630 pm and of all things a huge hawk flies down and tries to take a barred rock...who lunged back at the hawk and it (The hawk) flew up in a tree. Of course I panic and run screaming no no no with my daughter behind me yelling...and our 3 geese running, honking and flapping behind her. I am sure it was a site to see. The hawk left to a horse pasture across the road for easier food.

Its must be predator time of the year cause I know hawks dont steal chickens at night.

 

[M@M@2four]

Quote:
The rats do trip the traps! They are extrememly intelligent. I would use the, "Just one Bite." Good luck!

 

[bigtooks]

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Owls will kill at night tho

 

[laughingllama75]

I HAVE seen rats do exactly this. So gross, but true. I started noticing chicks going missing, thinking what the heck? how the? and then I saw one. A rat that is......
get the clap rat traps, they work somewhat. I ended up getting barn cats because the poison want really an option and the rats were not getting trapped quick enough for my liking. they are so smart, good luck.

 

[chubbydog811]

We have had a horrible time with rats for probably the past 5 years. Last spring, we put down some awesome rat poison(I dont remember what it was called, but they come in yellow wafers - 3 accross and break off in bars)...Killed them all with in a week. Every time we start seeing signs of rats, we put the poison back out, then we are good for a few months.

We have dirt floors in our stalls, so it is easy access. The horses kill them also if they get in there.
They are by far, the nastiest critters we have had in the barn. They eat everything, chew through bags and walls, and ruin wiring/insulation.

 

[denasfarm]

I still havent caught anything and I am afraid to put out poison because of my free ranging rabbits.
If you go down to the barn at night it looks like a horror movie!!!!
I am going to try some snap/kill type traps next.
The babies have learned to perch so they are safer off the ground. The youngest and smallest bantams I moved back up to the garage untill I get some control.
I thought about cats but I was afraid they would eat the chicks too.

 

[chubbydog811]

Haha...I remember that...It is worse than a horror movie...One night when I went out to the barn, I saw one about the size of a small cat, climbing the stairs...I thought I was crazy, so I looked again, and sure enough, it was a rat...EWWW...

I hate to say, but traps wont do much, unless you have hundreds of traps, or more time that you think you need...We tried trapping, and it didnt get us anywhere...They are to smart!!!

 

[purpletree23]

I free range my chickens and a while back I found an excellent way to kill rats and you don't have to worry about anything getting poisoned by eating the dead rats.

Mix 1 part plaster of Paris (cheap at craft stores)
1 part peanut butter
Stir in vegetable oil until firm consistency DO NOT USE WATER

Roll mixture into balls and place where rats might lurk. The rat will eat the mixture and the plaster of paris will form a concrete blob in its stomach. The first night I did this all of the balls were gone in the morning. The second night none were touched.

This is cheaper than traps which don't work (someone already said that) and it's very effective. Let me know how you make out.

To the poster who said there was a rat as big as a cat climbing the stairs. If it were me I would have dropped dead right there!