Holy cow! Rats!!

[spook]

Yes, poison can kill more then rats/mice, but I should hope that anyone would take that into consideration when doing such. I should have printed out a disclosure and legal pages to prevent people from doing everything that someone writes. But I'll tell you, they sell huge boxes for rats, my hens are in a protected area where no rodents can get into for many reasons. So to the one I wrote this to, use the method you choose, this is about you and I certainly hope you have a mind , free will and choice.
Good luck to you!
I would no trust my own cat with my birds of any type. Bird + cat = lots of missing feathers!

 

[cmom]

I use Decon under my wood piles that are on pallets where I know they like to go and other creatures really can't. I have found quite a few dead rats. There are pictures on my BYC Page.

 

[Mr. Frizzles Hen House]

I think I have the same problem. Suddenly it seemed like I was going through a heck of a lot of feed. I know we have mice, but the guy at the feed store said it was rats. So, I purchased a bait station like our exterminator uses around our house. We are on five wooded acres so our rodent population is high. I put the locked station under our coop with the hope the little buggers will take all that bait home and share. Does anyone know if rats are messy? Since all this started there is feed all over the coop floor like someone is throwing it around and digging it out of the feeder. The water has a lot more crud in it too. Could it be something else. My rooster does not roost and nests on the floor. What ever it is they are not bothering him.

 

[Zola]

Quote:
Well, we have Buckeyes and they're pretty big, and we also have 12 cats. They chickens especially like the cats that share mice with them, I'll have to find the picture of our big elderly cat peacefully lying in the grass with four or five chickens around him, neither species the least bit concerned.

I'd keep a good watch on them at first. We haven't seen any real aggression, just chickens chasing cats that are too close to a favored area or cats swatting an inquisitive chicken. My cats only exhibited predatory behavior when the chicks were quite small (of course at that time we supervised the chickens at all times) Now they treat the chickens like they treat the skunks and groundhogs--not "us" but nothing to get excited over. The chickens are the same way with the cats.

My neighbor adores our cats, they did wonders for her rat problem as well. We let a couple of them stay in her barn overnight when the weather was warm, and it helped a lot.

Do remember if you keep a hunting cat, you have to make sure you worm regularly, and you want the kitty to be just as protected as your girls at night in case of predators like coyotes.

 

[oldmac]

If you can see where they like to run put the sticky traps down that are made of plastic and glue they step in it and there stuck, no poison and no smashed fingers.