How often to feed laying hens because of rats

[pwand]

I am having rat problems. They go into the hen house during the day and feed on the girls foods. How often would it be suggested to feed the girls and put the food away as to not feed the rats.

 

[redhead83402]

Can you let your girls free? They will likely eat the rats if they can get at them. We don't have a mice issue anymore now that our ladies are able to run around the yard. Also, I have 9 layers, and during the winter, we would give them 2 pints a day of layer feed, with some oyster shell here & there, plus a pumpkin once a month. But during the summer, they maybe get a pint every three days or so, because they are out in the yard scratching & eating bugs & mice, and once in a while some leftover this & that from the house, and basically anything they can get their beaks onto.

Also, we have some good old metal garbage cans that we store the feed in ~ won't go bad, rats & mice can't get to it, moisture ratios are pretty stable, and they have lids. Just leave a one pint jam jar in there to serve them up, works pretty good.

We used to leave their feed in one of those galvanized metal feeders, but we found the ladies went through it so ridiculously fast, it wasn't worth it. Yah, we have to go out & spread some feed around every day, but they sure do go through it less, and my ladies still produce almost 7 eggs a day, & they are on their third year of laying, & there's only 9 of them. Trick there is fresh water all the time. They can scratch & scrounge the food, but they need the fresh water.

Hope that helps some.
~Red

 

[natrgatr]

You might build a self-closing feeder. The chicken steps on a bar to open the feeder (like a squirrel proof bird feeder). I saw a video of one once but can't find it right now.