RAT question

[violetsky]

I've been waiting for a special hen to lay an egg and she is waaay over due. I know there are rats around, is it possible they are
eating an entire egg nightly? The hen sits quietly in the same box, same position nightly and there is never an egg. The hen gets
a good mixed diet and daily commercial feed. I've tried poisoning the rats, using snap traps and even a havahart trap, but can't seem
to erradicate them. I even try to feed just what the chickens eat in day. During the day the hen runs in a small fenced enclosure without
any kind of harrassment from predators.

 

[dadsdeercamp]

If you see rats you have A lot of them try a barn cat.

 

[violetsky]

Oddly enough, I'm surrounded by neighborhood cats. Only one hunts and its after my frogs and koi!

 

[1 hen and 1 roo]

I'd sure like to know the answer to this question as well.
We have mice too and they are annoying me and probably the chickens as well. Not to mention the diseases they carry.
Do not know how to get ride of them. We have a cat and 2 dogs and do not want to poison them.
We have put out numerous traps in the garage room and caught many mice but still see many.
What is the best plan of action for ridding them from the coops?

We also see holes in the ground (tunnels I guess) where they get in and eat the chicken feed.

I have wondered if they take eggs as well. Seems like I should be getting more eggs than we do.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
Mice won't take the eggs or break them, rats will. You can exclude rats with a very tight coop. It's almost impossible to keep mice out.
You'll never get rid of the mice, the best you can do is to control them. Pick up food at night. Don't spread any more scratch than the birds will eat before bedtime. Use lots of traps. We've had good success with the "Tin Cat" mouse traps. They can catch about 10 mice at a time. It is a live trap though, so you have to do something with them. I usually empty them into a five gallon bucket with some water.

 

[rosegal]

I ordered and haven't used it yet The Coop Sentry. It is a stone that is soaked in awful smelling stuff that will repel critters. You might want to look into this product cuz I can tell it will probably work....it smells really bad and I haven't opened it yet.

 

[pamperedpoultry]

They sure will, I had a problem with that not too long ago, I've also had friends have chicks and smaller juvies get taken by "larger rats" Good luck getting rid of them. I think I get mine under control and then they'll show back up.. We have 2 cats and they never have killed any but maybe a baby or two.

 

[hallerlake]

Buckeye chickens are supposed to eat mice. There are electronic rat zappers that kill rats without poison. They're not cheap.

I agree about bringing in feed at night, and not over feeding.

 

[violetsky]

I've seen my dorking and ameraucana tear a baby rat up and eat it. I was hosing out the coop and a fuzzy baby rat rolled out. I was actually going
to rescue it since it was so young looked away and it it disappeared. I thought it had run away, looked down a minute later and the chickens had mutilated and were
almost done eating. I have a hard time killing things, but did set out those blue cubes of poison. The first night all of it disappeared and later I found
just 2 dead rats. I thought a larger animal must have eaten it so I don't like setting out poison. I can't believe I'm so dumb I didnt think of an obvious test
to find out if rats are eating my eggs, tonight I will leave an egg from
the refridgerator in my hen's box and see what happens.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

so your pullet is sleeping in the nest and not on a roost?