Staggered hatching Hatch-A-Long

[BDutch]

I have one of these that I run in my house and I hatch chicks in the house. I haven't had any issue with it bothering them. I know that they do test them with cats/dogs and other house hold pets and have said they are pet safe I would imagine that would have to include birds as well since people have parrots etc in the homes sometimes. But you can call the company and ask if they think poultry might be effected. I saw on another thread that someone posted putting a trap under a box with a small hole so only a rat would fit no chickens to catch the ones that got in while they worked on making the coop more secure to prevent them from getting back in.

I remember now that my mother in law had bought a ultrasound against mice. It seemed to work a bit for a while, but it didn't work properly.
And I’ve searched here as wel. All say ultrasound devices (for different animals) work only temporarily.

 

[LilyD]

I remember now that my mother in law had bought a ultrasound against mice. It seemed to work a bit for a while, but it didn't work properly.
And I’ve searched here as wel. All say ultrasound devices (for different animals) work only temporarily.

I think like anything they get used to it. Mice and rats are the most resilient animals. Even poison their bodies get used to it and it stops working so you have to switch out what you use. I prefer traps since I have a cat that has moved into the barn and I would hate to poison her by mistake. She's feral so not a fan of people but likes the warm hay barn and keeps most of the mice and rats out. Chickens will actually eat mice so I don't really worry about them but the rats will chew on the chickens toes while they sleep or eat the eggs so I won't tolerate them being in the coop or other outbuildings at all. We always get them trying to move in in the fall to get out of the cold so we use deterrents for them then. The Ultrasonic that we got for the house works well probably because we turn it on around Sept and only leave it on until first snow flies then we can turn it off again.

 

[BDutch]

I think like anything they get used to it. Mice and rats are the most resilient animals. Even poison their bodies get used to it and it stops working so you have to switch out what you use. I prefer traps since I have a cat that has moved into the barn and I would hate to poison her by mistake. She's feral so not a fan of people but likes the warm hay barn and keeps most of the mice and rats out. Chickens will actually eat mice so I don't really worry about them but the rats will chew on the chickens toes while they sleep or eat the eggs so I won't tolerate them being in the coop or other outbuildings at all. We always get them trying to move in in the fall to get out of the cold so we use deterrents for them then. The Ultrasonic that we got for the house works well probably because we turn it on around Sept and only leave it on until first snow flies then we can turn it off again.

We are talking about chicks here. Rats are a real danger for chicks. I’ve experienced the killing abilities of a rat a few years ago. Two chicks of 8 got killed until I repaired the opening the rat came through.

I do hope @Lins_BE takes more precautions than relying on the ultrasound.

 

[LilyD]

We are talking about chicks here. Rats are a real treat for chicks. I’ve experienced the killing abilities of a rat a few years ago. Two chicks of 8 got killed.

I do hope @lins be takes more precautions then relying on the ultrasound.

Oh I know all too well what they can do. I lost two ducklings to them one year when first starting out. They squeezed into the brooder and ate them both. I just got to see the grizzly crime scene afterwards and the camera replay from our security system.

Since having the feral cat in the barns we haven't had any rats around and like I said I don't worry about mice at all because the chickens think they are treats lol and will snarf them up like they are a delicacy.

My husband isn't a cat person but he loves our little black kitty now that she's cleaned out all the barns and coops for us.

 

[Lins_BE]

I didn’t read the whole thread. But since there was no reaction on the ultrasonic as far as I’ve seen, I feel the urge to warn you.

The hearing of chickens is better and different as human hearing. Possibly you're chickens go mad. ?

I would prefer to make the coop safe with hardware cloth to prevent rats coming in. Or buy a new ready made coop for chicks with good hwc .

A chicken actually has a smaller hearing range than a human. Since the noise for rats is lower than our hearing range, they won’t be bothered. They don’t seem to care about it, it’s been there for a couple of days now. The downside is that the rats don’t really seem to care either...

 

[LilyD]

A chicken actually has a smaller hearing range than a human. Since the noise for rats is lower than our hearing range, they won’t be bothered. They don’t seem to care about it, it’s been there for a couple of days now. The downside is that the rats don’t really seem to care either...

Only thing I have found that has worked has been doing traps or getting a cat lol. I also have a pellet gun and have used that as well when we had them. Now they don't come around because our feral cat will eat them.

 

[Lins_BE]

We are talking about chicks here. Rats are a real danger for chicks. I’ve experienced the killing abilities of a rat a few years ago. Two chicks of 8 got killed until I repaired the opening the rat came through.

I do hope @Lins_BE takes more precautions than relying on the ultrasound.

I’m so sorry to hear that. Yes, I will make sure the rats are gone before the chicks go into the coop. I have different arrangements for them untill they are about 4 weeks old, so that gives me 5,5 weeks to fix the problem. If nothing helps I’ll put a concrete floor into the coop. But off course that’s quite the work so lets hope i get them out another way.

 

[LilyD]

Our little baby who is out is photo bombing the camera lol. Egg two has been making quite a bit of noise and is still pushing up where it pipped. Hopefully it does okay until I can get home from work.

 

[Lins_BE]

Any updates?

 

[LilyD]

Baby 2 has made it out and is gorgeous