RATS!!!

[4 Georgia Hens]

Recently, I discovered that my garage beheld not only my junk (LOL!) but 2 bothersome rats. Chicken feed bags were torn apart, rodent droppings were EVERYWHERE, and a few wires from my car were eaten! I went out and bought a few traps that were too small, but then hubbie went out out and bought 2 Tomcat poison traps. Basically, its a black box with some rat poison inside. The rat enters the box, eats some poison, climbs out and the effects start kicking in. Both mice were dead a few days later. I DEFINITELY recommend those traps! If you are having rat\mice problems, GET THESE TRAPS! Good luck to all!

 

[Lazy Farmer]

I dispatch rats too often... They go hand and hand with livestock feed...

 

[Naser]

I use 4 inch sewer pipes, blocked in one end and tied carefully with cable ties to something, labelled rat poison and the open end is covered with something to protect it from rain. I found this is cheaper, safer and very effective
You should always keep topping up the rat poison, if you see one there are many more.

 

[4 Georgia Hens]

I use 4 inch sewer pipes, blocked in one end and tied carefully with cable ties to something, labelled rat poison and the open end is covered with something to protect it from rain. I found this is cheaper, safer and very effective
You should always keep topping up the rat poison, if you see one there are many more.

Nice! I'll remember that for the future.

 

[RonP]

Posted to another query.
Hope it helps.:

My understanding is that rats/mice are everywhere.
They will congregate and breed where there is available food, water, and shelter.
Look closely around any fast food restaurant and you will see rat bait stations.

They will eventually come, the idea is to prevent them from establishing a colony.
If you see 1, there are probably fifty.
If you see two or more holes, expect dozens.

Keeping a rat trap/bait station baited 24/7 hopefully keeps the population from establishing near your food source. Once established, they are very difficult to eliminate.

Remember, chickens don't attract rats, food does.

That said, I fabricated black 4 inch circular x 18" long drainage plastic pipe as a bait station.
Placed along the outside of my coop, looks like drainage pipe (not unsightly).
I put a t fitting in the center, capped, for easy viewing once a week.
Inside I maintain commercial rat poison.

My run has food scraps 24/7.
My coop has food access 24/7.
Water access 24/7.

11 years, no sign of rats or mice...

Hope this helps.

 

[4 Georgia Hens]

Posted to another query.
Hope it helps.:

My understanding is that rats/mice are everywhere.
They will congregate and breed where there is available food, water, and shelter.
Look closely around any fast food restaurant and you will see rat bait stations.

They will eventually come, the idea is to prevent them from establishing a colony.
If you see 1, there are probably fifty.
If you see two or more holes, expect dozens.

Keeping a rat trap/bait station baited 24/7 hopefully keeps the population from establishing near your food source. Once established, they are very difficult to eliminate.

Remember, chickens don't attract rats, food does.

That said, I fabricated black 4 inch circular x 18" long drainage plastic pipe as a bait station.
Placed along the outside of my coop, looks like drainage pipe (not unsightly).
I put a t fitting in the center, capped, for easy viewing once a week.
Inside I maintain commercial rat poison.

My run has food scraps 24/7.
My coop has food access 24/7.
Water access 24/7.

11 years, no sign of rats or mice...

Hope this helps.

That is VERY helpful! Thanks!

 

[Machineryqueen]

Can rat poison if consumed by a mouse, which is then consumed by a chicken cause a chicken to become ill?

 

[Smuvers Farm]

We recently found out that our beautiful tortoise shell coloured adopted cat, named Ocean Twinkles, is an EXCELLENT mouser!! Freaked us all the way O-U-T!

 

[4 Georgia Hens]

Can rat poison if consumed by a mouse, which is then consumed by a chicken cause a chicken to become ill?

Probably. Make sure the poison is in a spot that is chicken proof! And monitor the chickens to make sure they don't eat or peck a poison infected mouse/rat.

 

[TexasSam]

Recently, I discovered that my garage beheld not only my junk (LOL!) but 2 bothersome rats. Chicken feed bags were torn apart, rodent droppings were EVERYWHERE, and a few wires from my car were eaten! I went out and bought a few traps that were too small, but then hubbie went out out and bought 2 Tomcat poison traps. Basically, its a black box with some rat poison inside. The rat enters the box, eats some poison, climbs out and the effects start kicking in. Both mice were dead a few days later. I DEFINITELY recommend those traps! If you are having rat\mice problems, GET THESE TRAPS! Good luck to all!

I use rat traps and feed them to my chickens