Just curious

[ksandvig]

So I am just curious if at night when you put your kids away(if you do) do you put the food away? or just leave in run? I have been leaving mine in the run and they girls are locked in coop, but have noticed that the scraps I give them are disappearing and maybe some of their food not too into feeding the rodents haha, so thinking I'm going to have to start locking it up in extra coop at night? I have rat bait boxes i can set outside run just wondering if I should....
thanks in advance

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Leaving food out is an invitation to rodents (which I know already proliferate in my urban location). It's one of the reasons I'll be using a treadle feeder (I know I'm too lazy to pull the feeder in every night and want something in place so I can go away for a long weekend if I want to).

 

[pdirt]

Yes, we use a treadle feeder as well. Depending on the kind of feed we use in it, the chickens do mess some of the feed onto the ground, which will attract rodents, but at least it's limited and they don't have access to the Endless Supply of Food. I did fashion a thin wooden insert with 1.5" holes in it so that the chickens have to poke their heads through each hole to get the feed...this has dramatically cut down on the beak shoveling of feed.

Be careful with your rat traps...if they're poison traps and one of your chickens catches and eats the rat (or mouse), they could also be poisoned.

 

[ksandvig]

I ended up putting a caribiner (sp?) Hook on it so I can just unsnap at night! I have to go put them away anyway so no biggie I DID NOT know they q ould eat rats/mice :/ well I guess I won't be putting them out!