Speaking of rodent stories.....here is mine.
I had known for a while that I had a rat problem in my chicken area when I went to check for eggs one night and to my surprise found a small rat under the nesting box. AHHHHH! I got my rodent trap out and managed to shoo the bugger into the trap. I decided I would introduce my barn cat Morgan to a rat since obviously he had overlooked the problem on his nightly patrol. Maybe if he spent less time on the hammock snoozing and more time killing, we would all have been spared the upcoming story. ( I swear, he gets on that thing all on his own)
Anyhow, after speaking to a friend, they said that the nest would more than likely be under a coop that had a floor in it. Well my silkie coop is the only one on the ground w/ a floor. So one day I decided to prop up the coop on some bricks so I could check it out. Upon inspection, I noticed way too much hay and shavings under it for just normal bedding being flung around the pen. Not to mention the rasinetts. Well I found just the perfect stick that had a nice thick nub sticking off the side of the end. I knelt down and jiggled it around under the pen. Out ran like 4-5 rats. I jumped back and screamed at the top of my lungs which then set off the chicken alarm system. Every single chicken in the yard started "bak bak baaabaaak! bak bak baaaabaaaaak!' When I say every chicken, I meant every single one of my 60+ chickens. Once my heart settled back into place, I knelt back down and repeated the jiggling process. Out came like 6 more! AHHHHHHHH "BAKBAK BAAAABAAAAAK!" I then got the bright idea after seeing all the rats running to the neighboring sussex coop that I would find Morgan and get his fuzzy butt in there. I found him and tossed him into my sussex pen. Now my roo is mean as a snake but for some reason he didn't go near the cat. Anyway, Morgan look at me with a "What the hell are you thinking" look. He learned very quickly why he was in there when I jiggled the stick under the coop again. He caught and killed 7 rats that night. He even went in and caught another rat while carrying a rat head in his mouth. He even had to fight one of the hens for one of the rats. I was chasing her trying to get it away while he was chasing her as well. I didn't want her eating that nasty thing. Well Morgan make sure he patrols the chicken pens on a regular basis and I no longer have a rat problem.
I had known for a while that I had a rat problem in my chicken area when I went to check for eggs one night and to my surprise found a small rat under the nesting box. AHHHHH! I got my rodent trap out and managed to shoo the bugger into the trap. I decided I would introduce my barn cat Morgan to a rat since obviously he had overlooked the problem on his nightly patrol. Maybe if he spent less time on the hammock snoozing and more time killing, we would all have been spared the upcoming story. ( I swear, he gets on that thing all on his own)
Anyhow, after speaking to a friend, they said that the nest would more than likely be under a coop that had a floor in it. Well my silkie coop is the only one on the ground w/ a floor. So one day I decided to prop up the coop on some bricks so I could check it out. Upon inspection, I noticed way too much hay and shavings under it for just normal bedding being flung around the pen. Not to mention the rasinetts. Well I found just the perfect stick that had a nice thick nub sticking off the side of the end. I knelt down and jiggled it around under the pen. Out ran like 4-5 rats. I jumped back and screamed at the top of my lungs which then set off the chicken alarm system. Every single chicken in the yard started "bak bak baaabaaak! bak bak baaaabaaaaak!' When I say every chicken, I meant every single one of my 60+ chickens. Once my heart settled back into place, I knelt back down and repeated the jiggling process. Out came like 6 more! AHHHHHHHH "BAKBAK BAAAABAAAAAK!" I then got the bright idea after seeing all the rats running to the neighboring sussex coop that I would find Morgan and get his fuzzy butt in there. I found him and tossed him into my sussex pen. Now my roo is mean as a snake but for some reason he didn't go near the cat. Anyway, Morgan look at me with a "What the hell are you thinking" look. He learned very quickly why he was in there when I jiggled the stick under the coop again. He caught and killed 7 rats that night. He even went in and caught another rat while carrying a rat head in his mouth. He even had to fight one of the hens for one of the rats. I was chasing her trying to get it away while he was chasing her as well. I didn't want her eating that nasty thing. Well Morgan make sure he patrols the chicken pens on a regular basis and I no longer have a rat problem.
