Rats!

[BRsRock]

I have a duck nest on the floor of the hen house with a dozen eggs in it, a feeder full of chicken feed, and the girls are starting to lay. I've caught a couple of rats sneeking feed from the feeder and I even found a dead rat one morning inside the hen house. I discovered a fresh pile of dirt on the floor this morning, a sure indicatior that a rat was digging under our feet. Time to do something about the problem.
I was thinking about putting a new floor in the hen house. Right now it's this thick kind of rubber material, 3 sections of it, over a dirt floor. I was thinking about raising the floor about 4" with 2x4's, hardware clothe fastened to the underside of the plywood I'd lay for the floor. Then I'd have to do something about the run. I'm afraid that I may have to resort to poison, though.

 

[purpletree23]

Poison is (my opinion) not the way to kill rats. Use a trap or one of those rat zappers. You have plug in a rat zapper (not sure if your coop has electricity but I run a cord out) but when the rat walks through it electrocutes them. If you use poison and one dies in your coop the chickens could start eating the rat and will get poisoned themselves. Plus if the rats walk away and dies anything that eats it could also die.

Sounds like you need lots of rat traps. No only for your flocks safety and health but the health of you and your family as well. They carry all kinds of diseases.

A wooden floor built over hardware cloth is perfect.

 

[BRsRock]

My chickens are not at my house, they are on a friends farm. There are lots of barn cats around, but they don't seem to do anything about the rats. Your concern about the poison is the same as mine. I would only use it as a last resort. I am preparing a "nursery" run for our future chicks and ducklings. I just checked out hardware cloth at the hardware store. It was over $60 for 4'x25'!!

That's more than the joists & plywood combined! That's a lot of money for me to spend right now. If I can at least protect the young birds, I may have to settle for that for now.

 

[purpletree23]

There's no rule that says you have to use a big piece of hardware cloth. I know money can get tight. Ask around to your friends and neighbors or even put an ad up at your farm store. "Looking for hardware cloth and/or scraps" When you get enough you can piece them together with wire that will not rust and fall apart. Our local dump has drop off areas for different materials. Ask someone if you can look for it or maybe someone will do it for you.

When I wanted a cold frame the prices were crazy. Well maybe not for some people but for me. I asked the guy at the dump is he could save me two or three windows. He saved some for me and actually gave me some hinges that he salvaged from some cabinets people were throwing out. He also gave me broken 2X6's that were the perfect length once the bad ends were cut off.