Moodleroni
Songster
We live behind a "lumber yard" sort of deal and have rats in our yard, they go for the leftover chicken food at night, as they do, but have thankfully had no chicken injuries/deaths due to said rats as of yet. All my chickens roost in their coop, which the rats have found their way into. I'll be working on filling in the holes I've found throughout the week.
I've been reading up on different threads where rats are mentioned to eat/maim chickens when aggrevated or are desperate for food. We do have a large amount of stray cats, we have dogs in our yard, and there are tons of fruit trees through the neighborhood for them to eat (which they also do), but they still go to my coop/run.
My question is, will I need to worry about them hurting my chickens if I spend the time raking up the leftovers and still putting up their feed at night? I'm concerned I will be making them desperate/aggressive but I also don't want to attract more.
I've been reading up on different threads where rats are mentioned to eat/maim chickens when aggrevated or are desperate for food. We do have a large amount of stray cats, we have dogs in our yard, and there are tons of fruit trees through the neighborhood for them to eat (which they also do), but they still go to my coop/run.
My question is, will I need to worry about them hurting my chickens if I spend the time raking up the leftovers and still putting up their feed at night? I'm concerned I will be making them desperate/aggressive but I also don't want to attract more.