Rats! I have rats.

[rehsanipoor]

Maybe I'll do some amazon research to see if I can do bait and boxes cheaper that way.... wonder if "amazon now" delivers rat poison

 

[rehsanipoor]

@andreanar Did you put the bait stations where the chickens were? I'm having trouble figuring out if people have found them to be "chicken-proof".

 

[Kat2141]

I will look into getting a feeder that they can't make such a mess with. In the mean time I am going to try feeding them twice daily with wet food until we get the problem under control. I forgot to attach the picture above so I'll do it here. I've never given them wet food. Can I just wet this food in a plastic tub? View attachment 1612150


Are we talking wet like the consistency of oatmeal? Not sure how long to give them with it... they are spoiled and are used to eating whenever they like. I guess I'll have to experiment. Tomorrow I'll head out to buy more bait boxes... ugghhhh HATE THESE VERMIN!!!! They are costing me a fortune!

Before I switched to pellets, I used crumbles and my girls preferred them wet... not soupy... just enough so they stuck together a bit... kind of like a cookie dough consistency. They still prefer that over the pellets.

 

[Acre4Me]

I will look into getting a feeder that they can't make such a mess with. In the mean time I am going to try feeding them twice daily with wet food until we get the problem under control. I forgot to attach the picture above so I'll do it here. I've never given them wet food. Can I just wet this food in a plastic tub? View attachment 1612150


Are we talking wet like the consistency of oatmeal? Not sure how long to give them with it... they are spoiled and are used to eating whenever they like. I guess I'll have to experiment. Tomorrow I'll head out to buy more bait boxes... ugghhhh HATE THESE VERMIN!!!! They are costing me a fortune!

I just add water to whatever feed. Some feeds hydrate quickly, some takes 10 min or more to fully hydrate. I usually put in feed, add water to an inch or more above feed, stir and let sit 10 min. Then stir again, usually add more water to a thick pancake batter consistency. Not sure how many chickens you have but one dish might work per feeding. Since I just supplement with wet feed “treats” I just use one container since they have dry feed too. I have 14 adults and 7 chicks (12weeks)

 

[WunnySharbit]

@andreanar Did you put the bait stations where the chickens were? I'm having trouble figuring out if people have found them to be "chicken-proof".

I tied mine shut (sometimes taped) and attached it to a 4 foot long 1x4. Then I put 2 chunks of concrete on each end of the board. The chickens quickly lost interest in it. Although one year, I had to put another board/block over the whole thing because 1 chicken could see movement inside and was trying to tear the bait/trap combo apart! I had to stop using poison while I had her because she would kill and eat mice...... great fun to watch!

 

[cmom]

Maybe I'll do some amazon research to see if I can do bait and boxes cheaper that way.... wonder if "amazon now" delivers rat poison

This is what I bought at Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D8UER66/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[cmom]

I had a possum consuming the bait. I thought for sure the bait would kill it but it would come back night after night and destroyed a couple of my bait boxes. After doing some research I discovered they have an immunity to rat poison. Here is the possum with a chunk of the rat bait in it's mouth.

 

[rehsanipoor]

just ordered these and will pick up tomorrow... THE END IS NEAR(enter evil laugh)!!

 

[Urbanduckfarmer]

I had a similar issue here. I used snap traps with peanut butter, and caught a dozen in two days. They slowed down for now, but will return. I pulled the nests and killed the babies. I didn't use poison for the risks of our dogs or the old owl eating the poisoned rats.

 

[cmom]

That's what I bought. I also bought extra bait boxes.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N6O3IB...r Child and Dog Resistant, Refillable Station