Rats in Run

[Folly's place]

Rats are a health risk for you! Wear gloves, and be aware that their urine is NOT safe, and will be spread everywhere.
Rat fleas carry plague in some locations out in the SW USA; are you in a plague area?
Mary

 

[Countrydreamin]

Looks like after reading this post I’m off to Bunnings to buy some rat sack!

 

[paneubert]

I had rats in my coop a while ago, and they ate eggs, and killed three nice bantams at night, before we eliminated them. Don't assume that your birds are safe!!!

I had rats eat some of my quail. Even found some birds crammed into their escape tunnel. Not standard chicken size, but a sign that they will kill "birds" when they have the chance (and even try to drag them away).

 

[Tootsie]

Would a rat be able to dismember a wing from a hen?

 

[IamRainey]

I'm thinking about setting up some traps in my hutch (where my very young pullets and cockerel are currently living) and some by the feeder that my adult chickens use (set up in the evening, and then pick them up in the morning). Using poison would make me nervous.

That's what I did when we saw 3 rats in our run. Every night after the chickens went up the coop to roost I cleaned all the food up from the floor of the run and put the traps down. I also set up red lights in the run and went out at night with a pellet gun. The rats had a couple spots they hunkered down in up in the eaves and with the red lights on I could see them to aim.

I never found a rat in the traps but setting them is tricky because you have to know where their paths are and I couldn't see traces of their movement on the dirt floor of our run. I just picked "likely" spots I could get to.

I also set spring traps (unbaited) out on the perimeter of the coop and run. I caught lots of them there. But then I have 8 or 10 spring traps permanently set to snap.

I don't believe I ever hit a rat with my pellet gun either. (I've never shot anything before!) But I suspect I harassed them enough that they found their way out. And then they may have been some of the rats that ended up in my perimeter traps.

Don't forget to make a thorough search of the spots they may be entering through. I stuffed steel wool in crevices where wood joints weren't tight and laid 12" concrete pavers around the perimeter of the run and coop.

Not sure what worked but we've been rat-free for the last 6 months or so.

 

[micstrachan]

Something has been chewing on a towel I draped over an outdoor roost. Figured it was a rat. Saw a couple turds the other night, so we set a trap last night. Haven’t caught it, but hubby saw it last night and says it’s huge. Set the trap again tonight. Fingers crossed. I’m a little freaked out by this.