Shootin' Rats out in the Coop

[wbruder17]

My Good Ol Georgia Boy just bought a pellet gun to take care of the rat issue. I didn't think he could do it....but he shhot one in the head on the first shot and now he's 2 for 3! Whooduthunk?

 

[Mac in Wisco]

I've tried that before, but I couldn't keep up with them. I had a flashlight taped to the gun and they'd disappear into the darkness before I could target them. Maybe with night vision goggles...

 

[wbruder17]

Dusk and early morning are the best times. We are 3 for 4 shots with 2 confirmed dead and another with a most likely belly shot that got away. Will probably die from the wound. I feel a little bad about not killing them straight off, but the traps aren't working and the poison worries me a bit.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

I could only do it inside the hen house with the lights out, with the birds roosting. Any lights and there would have been birds running around everywhere.

 

[wbruder17]

Yes. I understand that. Our birds put themselves away with about 45 minutes left of light and that's just when the rats get active. We have been researching where they are coming in and Nate set up a bucket iinside the coop with the gun trained on that corner.

 

[Dowie]

Get a cat. My neighbour's cat has picked off every rat and mouse - we have a mouse plague at the moment, and there aren't any on our property!

 

[Mac in Wisco]

We were overrun with rats early last summer. There were hundreds of them. Our hen house is a pole barn with a liner, so the rats were running through the walls. I finally opened up some of the walls to figure out what was going on. The concrete for the floor didn't flow completely around the poles and left some gaps where the rats were burrowing under the pad and coming in and out. I sealed up the holes with hydraulic cement, patched a few other holes in the foundation, and completely framed up some incomplete doorways where the rats were able to enter and exit the walls. In between flocks I laid out pounds of D-Con. They scarfed it down and I was picking up dead rats for days. It's been over a year since I've seen a rat out there. The mice have moved in now. They are impossible to exclude, but I use a lot of Tin Cat traps to keep the population down.

 

[wbruder17]

Quote:
The cat thing we have discussed. However, the DH really loves his wild birds and we don't want the cat to hunt them. Or the other wild animals we have, auch as our ducks and pheasants. The cat would have to be put INTO the chicken run, So a cat is kind of out.

I'm not so concerned with mice. They don't bother me the way the rats do. But we are in a watershed, so I'm afraid the rats will be a continuous issue.

 

[fishnet1971]

ya know.....

they make REALLY good pets!

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
They still carry salmonella. We keep the population down due the chance of contamination. A few weeks ago I caught 80 mice in one week with the Tin Cat traps.

Our cat is a good mouser, but we don't let her in the hen house or the egg packing room. Since the cats eat the salmonella ridden mice, the cat droppings are an even bigger risk for contamination.