Southern NY, Dutchess county and below

[smkchick]

I get an occassional rat in spring & fall & have no problem getting rid of them. You get the green/yellow poison blocks. You pit it in the rat hole, cover it with a brick so chickens don't eat it and keep replacing block until you see it in there and no one's taken it. Voila! I just had to do it a couple of days ago. Only takes 2-3 blocks (if you're talking one rat) and they're dead cause I think they take it back to the nest. And I've never seen a dead rat out either for anyone to eat. Try it...it works!

I do the same thing for rats. I had one in my garage that could lick the peanut butter off a trap without springing it. I used the blocks. Done.

Then when we got the girls, one came through the back fence from my neighbor's nasty shed/deadfall pile. I put a few blocks out of reach of the chickens and now he's gone too.

If you can find it's pathway in, you should be able to set something up that the chickens can't get to.

Or Caleb could come down and shoot it!!

 

[stoopid]

Caleb needs to spend a week at Veras house.

 

[Cheeky Chick]

Caleb needs to spend a week at Veras house.

"Caleb goes to Lawngislan" sounds like a fun adventure movie.

 

[queenchick16]

Welcome Littlecritters... You've come to the right place.. Your close to Al

 

[highpointfarm]

I didn't feel that you minimized the situation, Al! I know you all understand. It's funny how most people do understand and are outraged by this whole thing. And yet, the powers that be continue to act as if it's no big deal.

But anyway, I've started marketing a tutoring business. I really do enjoy the one to one rapport of private tutoring. No bureaucrats, no politics, no bs.

With any luck, I'll be able to support the family with that and a little supplemental income.

And now my list has expanded to include Exchequer Leghorns, Dorkings and Coronation Sussex. I bumped the Swedish Flowers - the plumage is not that interesting on the females.

You should check out Alohas.... A lady in the US breeds them... here is her page =] And sorry for you rough few days

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-aloha-chicken-project

 

[highpointfarm]

Good morning all, I got up at 3:30 and realized I'd left the coop window open. A raccoon could easily get in. So I go downstairs to close it. I go in, close it and a huge rat almost runs across my flip flopped feet. UGH! He ran straight for the hen's door which was of course closed for the night. He kept running back and forth trying and get away from me. Now I am worried about Mrs. C and her chicks in the other room. So I take my flashlight to go in and check on them and the battery in the flashlight dies. So now I'm in the coop and I need light so I turn on the big overhead light and Mrs. C takes the opportunity to get her and her chicks a drink of water. Noooo, Mrs. C, get back in your nesting box with those chicks, there is a huge rat hiding somewhere in here and he can't get out. I get her back in her box, turn off the light and finally leave, hoping the rat went through the people door I left open.

Now it's 4:09 a.m. and I want to go back to sleep but I can't stop thinking of the rat. He was eating the feed I left in there for the chicks and Mrs. C.

Anyone else out there having problems with rats? They were here before we bought the house and now they are getting big and fat from all the chicken feed they eat. I've tried poisons (the hens got to it once but were thankfully ok), traps, exterminators, you name it.

I have a treadle feeder on order which should be coming soon and I'm hoping that will work as part of a solution but the rats are so big, I think they could probably figure out how to open it. It stinks, I don't like this part of chicken keeping for sure. If I didn't have the chickens and dogs, poison would be a better option. But poison kills everything.

I have found a .22 or a 10 pump works wonders

 

[highpointfarm]

I have found a .22 or a 10 pump works wonders

Wow, I put that before everyone said I should come and shoot it LOL hehehe I guess that means i should? hahahha

 

[goldeneggtees]

Oh, I wish you could Caleb! My friend has chickens too and has pellet guns which they've tried to use on the rats. But I think you have to have pretty good aim to get 'em and quick too!

 

[goldeneggtees]

Good morning! I'm up this time just about every morning!

Rats are VERY hard to get rid of. Poison is the best solution, but, it would have to be well out of chicken reach, and chickens reach everything. Glue traps, regular traps, you honestly have to kill them to get rid of them, you can't chase them away.
I hope you get some sleep! I'm packing for my camping trip tomorrow!

Wow, you are up early, 6:00 is my normal waking time. 3:30 is a bit too early for me.

I know poison will work if I shove it down the holes but having my dogs eat it is another fear. I would go crazy if they were harmed in any way. We had poison in the large black traps and the hens must have tossed the box around and got some poison out, I found little bits scattered all around their run one day.

Before we put poison out last year, we used to have chipmunks and now the chipmunks are gone. I have to wonder if they ate it. Probably. I used to love seeing the chipmunks.

We got filmed to be part of an animal series on rats, but our segment never aired. They weren't able to film the rats at all and guess we weren't exciting enough for them. Now it seems we are overrun. These were the guys who came to our house. The film crew was here for about 2 months on and off. http://animal.discovery.com/tv/rat-busters-nyc/about-the-show.html

 

[smkchick]

You should check out Alohas.... A lady in the US breeds them... here is her page =] And sorry for you rough few days

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-aloha-chicken-project

Wow. I really enjoyed reading that link. Definitely going to check into those. Thanks!

I'd probably get busted if I discussed some other "rats" you could get with your .22, so I'll just leave it there...