RATS !! tell me about them, saw one when I flooded the ground hog den

[Guinea Goonie]

Well, I have been seeing small critters scamper to under the office. The office in the barn has a concrete floor and under it used to house a ground hog family. I saw the critters run for the opening to the den (it was fairly dark in the barn) and put dirt there. The next night I found a hole big enough for the rodents to get out and feed.

I have put the feeders up, left the waterer, and flooded the den.

I saw a big ol' rat come out of the den so I am guessing the last groundhog we had decided to leave. We caught the rest of the ground hog family this summer.

So the little rodents have had a house, food and water for who knows for how long.

Here is my question at long last. Will rats harm my chickens ?
I have a few that sleep on the straw in the wire mesh stalls, the silkie pile.

Please tell me ALL about the little turds and how to kill them without harming my flock.

I know about mice, but rats, Geezz.

 

[chickabator]

yes they will eat them if they can and they will still your eggs and could possibly give them diseases from their droppings if the chickens eat them.

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

if you chickens are in cages rat traps work good ,bait with peanut butter (to bad you can't get the recalled stuff

) I wouldn't do poision with rats they drag it all over, you might kill something you don't want to. close up every hole you can find.take the feed away and clean any spilled keep it out of the rats reach.

 

[Mahonri]

Go to the feed store.

Buy bait tubes.

Fill them with bits of "Just One Bite" slathered in peanut butter (they can smell that from far away).

Continue adding to bait tubes until the bait is no longer eaten. It took us about 3 months.

LOTS of rats... and they ate holes through some of the screens in the windows of our coops.... another job for a free Saturday... unless I finally get my coop wired correctly and I buy a window AC unit. (Gets over 110 here in the summer)

 

[lurky]

I'm sorry to say that its a tough battle

There are young stupid ones that are easy to get.....but the adult Norways are very smart. I like a good challenge.....but this is ridiculous

 

[92caddy]

They can and will kill your chickens, pigeons and so on. I found out they love pigeons. They will only eat the head and neck and let the rest lay.

If you use poison, I use the kind that you can fasten down so they have to eat it to take it back to the den, then I was nice enough to put a small pan of water there for them to have a drink after they were done feasting on the bait. Good luck to ya..................

 

[4 Love of Baby Chickens]

Read my lips........ Get a cat!!!!!!!

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Sure wish i could "borrow" a cat. My DW will not tolerate a cat on the property. Do they have such a thing as "RENT A CAT" ?

I won't go to the shelter and get one then just rid myself of it. I really like cats and that is why I can not have another because they just multiply like well, the chickens !

 

[FarmerDenise]

Someone recently suggested to me that rats don't like mint. Well I raced over to my daughters house and offered to do some yardwork, clearing that mint. I brought home a garbage bag full of it and place it around the perimeter of the henhouse. We had thoroughly cleaned the henhouse the day before and closed of all the holes inside and out with dirt. I also stopped feeding my chickens in the henhouse. We have had no new holes for a week now. I'm going to do some more "yardwork" at my daughters real soon, might need to dig up some of that nasty mint that is taking over her backyard.

 

[Renee]

I just trapped my first rat!
I got it in less than ten minutes.
Yup.
Here's what I did:
Buy big Victor rat traps (3).

Evening one: Put them perpendicular to walls where rat turds are. Rats run along walls. Don't set them or bait them. Rats are wary, smart critters, and they are very conservative: they don't like new things.

Evening two: put a piece of ham or bacon on traps without setting them. Everyone loves bacon! The rat will eat the bacon.

Evening three: Do the same at all traps where bait is gone, once again, getting the rat used to being fed delicious bacon.

Evening four: just before dusk, set traps with ham/bacon tied to the little hook with fishing line. Set traps in the same places, and THWACK!!! Ten minutes later, dead rat.

I couldn't believe it. We tried to get that rat with peanut butter glue traps, poison, etc. with no luck, for months.

I tried this method because I'm afraid of the poison, and I could keep the pets in while the traps were set. But I didn't even need to do that this time! Of course, there are 50 bajillion more rats in the ivy, but one less on the patio.