Help...RATS

[chickenwaters]

How can you be sure that you have rats/mice? We have seen some eggs opened and eaten, but we arent sure whether the hens are pecking them or we have rats?

 

[fastrnrik]

Quote:
I have no idea? I thought the old farmer was crazy, but he had several corn silos with spillage that goes along with it and not a single rat so I figured he knew more than I did. My dads rat infestation was crazy. He cleared a fairly good sized piece of land for his house and killed several large rattlesnakes during that time. After that, the rat popullation exploded. I guess without snakes to keep them in check, they could just go crazy. These were big brown field rats and it got to where they would just come out in the daylight and not be scared of people at all. My dad shot & killed dozens of them and they just kept coming. After the man told us about "winging em" (his term LOL) we tried that & it worked. My situation was similar. I had a hunting lease with several feeders and was buying several pallets of corn at a time. After a while we had spillage everywhere and the rats showed up. I blasted and wounded a few and they quit coming around. Maybe when Minnie sees Mickey come limping home with a leg blown off and a fatal gut wound, she packs up the babies and moves on LOL

 

[Mahlzeit]

How can you be sure that you have rats/mice? We have seen some eggs opened and eaten, but we arent sure whether the hens are pecking them or we have rats?

I would say if it is just some eggs being broken open that it is the hens themselves. Are you leaving the eggs overnight in the coop or do you collect them each day? Rats for the most part are nocturnal.

 

[Birdgirl99]

Put deacon under the coop i had a rat problem and trapped the big ones with live traps then shot them with a BB gun squirrel rifle [i don't kill the squirrels] and the little ones that you cannot trap drink themselves to death with the deacon


it worked

 

[seminolewind]

How can you be sure that you have rats/mice? We have seen some eggs opened and eaten, but we arent sure whether the hens are pecking them or we have rats?

I pay attention to rat poo. Or a new hole. Sometimes I leave some morsal of food out at night to see if something takes it. I put a trap out occassionally to check.

 

[Birdgirl99]

Yes it's a;ways good to put some traps out i use live because the snap traps sometimes miss the small live ones work every time if you put them in the right place

 

[wayne hulgan]

Shoot one, but just wound it and let it run off. Don't kill it. Sounds crazy, but it works. A local corn farmer told me this years ago and I thought he was crazy. I have since done it twice, once at my dads place and then at mine when we had a rat problem and it worked.

We lived in AZ. for a while and we had pocket gophers. They were a big problem and we had to get rid of them. Got me a Wall-Mart pellet gun and started shooting them. after 8 they just quit comming around our house. We know there were more cause they were everywhere in the desert, they just would not get close to our house any more. I think the word got out that if they got too close to our house they would die. It didn't stop the jack rabbits though, didn't mind them much.

 

[Birdgirl99]

well those all like good ways to get rid of rodents i atcualy ave 6 rabbits and we are kepping 2 from a litter we have to 8 rabbits and i like them it's the rats that run aound in our shed to et our salt tank and the decon worked





but they all are very good ways to get rid of any type of rodent

 

[Extra Java]

The best way to get rid of evening visitors is to dump the water. I find that they come for water even more than the food.

Keep it all locked up in the coop with the chickens at night.

There are 2 types of rats:
Norway Rat & Roof Rat

Norway: larger and more aggressive. Short tail, small ears. Shaggy coarse hair. They usually make their homes near water as they drink more water than mice.
Roof: smaller, has a longer tail and larger ears. Smooth fur.

They are both suspicious of change in their environment so, if you place a trap out...it may take a week or so to begin catching them.
We have a black box that looks like a bait station that holds a rat snap trap. That way, the chickens can't get hurt.

 

[denisebwills]

What if the chickens get into the rat poison? Does it not affect them?