Rats - City Chickens

[AirsoftTeamChick]

Before I Get Chicks Are Rats A Prob?

 

[chickens egg me on]

Not if you kill the rats.

 

[greekbioguy]

when i was a kid i had some mixed bantam chickens . had them for a year and then in the spring i had 30 babies in a period of a week . i was very happy but the next day i found 5 of them with no heads on ,i tried to find out what killed them but i could not, the next day all remaining baby chicks were found around the coop with heads missing or partly eaten and a large rat under the roof ,i was so angry i graped it (it bite me to the bone) but i slammed it on the concrete until nothing was left of it , i used to have mallards free in my yard (before i got the dogs)and every year i had maybe 1/3 of the babies taken by rats. i normally like all animals (i am a biologist so its my job ) but i feel no remorse about killing rats or mice ,i really hate them for the losses i had to suffer over the years .you cant even call rats wild animals they are just parasites that follow humans and thrive . they will kill any young bird they find

 

[Nat123]

Yes, rats are a problem here also. They come out from the sewer, as big as a small cat. So disguisting.

I found one in the brooder one time since I placed it in the garden so the baby chickens could get the sun. Fortunately I was at home so I could hear the baby chickens made such a loud noisy sound and saw this big rat inside the brooder and it ran right away. It didn't get any of my baby chickens. I tightened the wire on top of the brooder after what happened. Rats should just all be terminated. They aren't good for anything except to be fed to the snakes

 

[chickens egg me on]

After what I've been through here, I have a hard time believing anyone could build a rat proof cage. We have eagles and hawks here in Seattle but not enough to keep the rat population under control. If you leave waterers and food out overnight, it's just like having rat feeders out. You might not know you have rats. I've heard of a man that came out to find his chickens feet chewed off. He had to put all his chickens down and was heartbroken to find them in that kind of shape. It is very important to control rats in the city. I have a little cage that I put poison in so that no cats, birds, etc., can get to the poison and about once a month, all the poison disappears.

 

[greekbioguy]

you can definitely built a rat proof coop, but i don't think that a mouse free coop is possible.small mice will even get through 1/3- 1/2 inch wire mess , rats will not. just put double layer of wire mess and nail it every 2-3 cm 0n every wood and use concrete mixed with tile glue to stick the wire mess to any surface you can not nail it on. of course you either need a 30 cm wall buried round and under all the edge of your coop or you need wire mess on the flour too (concrete the edges on the edge of your coop. rats cant chew metal and the cant open any holes on strong cement (mix 1/2 cement with 1/2 sand ad some strengthening polymer and it will last for centuries).of course remove all feed every night so you don't temp the rats. if the bottom of your coop is just wood siting on the ground then you just constructed a rat cafeteria. the only way you can get a rat through the new coop i made for my chickens is if you cut it in pieces. if i put mosquito wire on top of the chicken wire not even flies will be able to get in, maybe that's the only way to get rid of the occasional mouse creeping in , metal mosquito wire on top of the chicken wire will stop any mouse no matter how small it is. having your flour very clean helps too .both my aviaries are lined with white river sand and completely clean , i would be able to spot any mouse or rat droppings if there were any and no rat or mouse can make a hole on sand without it becoming very obvious to me. i check every corner once or twice a week. i am a little paranoid with rats and mice but i lost many chicks in the past so now all my my constructions are like fort Knox

 

[chickens egg me on]

Thank you, bioguy. Some great ideas for building that rat-proof coop!