Washingtonians

[MicMoo]

We're members of the Terry's Berries CSA and always visit with the chickens every week. I don't know exactly what breed their roosters are but the ones I've see are large, pretty much all white, and very majestic.

I hope they find a home for him.

 

[JennsPeeps]

Seriously!! I'm supposed to head up to Seattle today for a BBQ with my former classmates frmo UW. Heck, I co-organized the thing, there are just 7 of 40+ coming, and now the weather is all crappy. How bad would it be if I begged off (I'm in Tacoma)??

 

[lexibrite]

My 3 ladies are 15 weeks old. Just yesterday I discovered some critter had been digging and trying to get in. Later last night my daughter discovered the intruder was INSIDE!!! She didn't know what it was so we ran out there. It was gone. She said it looked like a little possum or a rat!!!!!

Today, I put bricks around hoping whatever it was won't be able to get back in. What do you guys think it could be? I have never seen anything like that. By the way, it was dusk, not quite dark. THANKS GUYS!

 

[Curlita]

I don't think it's possible to keep rats out of a chicken run. They can squish down small enough to get through the holes in chicken wire, under doors, etc.

I wouldn't think they would be the ones digging, either, since they are so adept at sneaking into little spaces. The digger and the intruder are probably different animals.

I have bait boxes out, since we have a recognized rat problem. Part of their little rodent highway ran through the chicken run, although the main draw was not the chicken food, but the bird seed on the other side of the yard (having spilled out of the feeder).

 

[lexibrite]

Ok, I'm totally grossed out to think I have rats around our place! I never heard of such a thing from anyone I know but it seems WA State might have that issue. So thanks for your ideas. Not I must figure out a way to get them gone. I put bricks around the chicken run (it has no floor) for whatever was digging. That leaves the rat issue. Anyone have a way to get rid of them and not hurt cat/dogs/grandchild?

 

[TerrasCritters]

Trust me, the rats dig, mine do, I have them here like stink on poop!
I shot at 9 yes that's right NINE tonight and only killed one, for every one rat you see you can bet there hundreds HUNDREDS more! I killed one in its tracks its hard to hold the pellet gun and a big maglite and try to get a good shot on them in the dark.
Mine were going through the chicken wire at first, crawling all over the top of my coops, so gross we would catch a few in there every once in awhile and always had a shovel in hand to bash them over the head with. We had one try to go through the wire and got stuck and died, I had to cut the wire to get it out.
They haven't been going through the wire now, maybe babies but that's it, now they dig tunnels ALL OVER around the edges of my coops, I put bricks rocks bury them back in and they just re-dig or dig around or dig a little further to get past the bricks and rocks.
How big was the hole? The hole I have a about the size of a large gopher hole, and some bigger, you know how big opossums are, you think that's what it could of been? They do not usually dig that I know of, and I have yet to loose birds to them, but I have found them around, I read one place they eat rats and bugs and eggs, sometimes our birds. I have lost birds to rats and raccoons, they (rats) were eating my quail (not my buttons, my coturnix), that's why I cant have quail anymore (I sold my buttons before they were killed too), and just a few weeks ago they killed my sons show call duck that's the first big bird they have killed and I fear not the last.
I tried putting wire down on the bottom of my quail pen sitting on the floor thinking that would stop them, nope, that just made them tunnel under the pen using the wire as the top of the kennel i used 1/2 x 1/2 cage wire, they still grabbed the poor things through the wire and killed and ate them through the wire.
I keep free choice food out there for my birds and rats now they seem to want the feed more then the birds and that's the only thing i can do right now to keep them away from my birds, i was taking the food away at night and that's when my 5 year olds duck was killed and 3 others wounded by the rats. They kill and try to take the bodies down the holes with them.
I have moved half of my flock out, put poison out, and moving the other half this weekend, making new pens off the ground in hopes i can take out a good portion of these rats and protect my birds when they come home, i am missing them like crazy its like missing my kids almost.
This house has been here over 40 years and it has old sheds up of my in laws, there is an old abandon house next door that god only knows what lives in there, I really hope I can get these under control. I can not live without my birds!!

Sorry for the long post but I hope you can find a way to get the culprit under control.
You can buy bait stations or make your own at some feed stores, put a trap in there and whatever you think they are coming for, I have tried fish, peanut butter, crunchy and not LOL with some marshmallows and number of other things but what gets mine the best is the poultry feed, I set it inside the station in the dishes the rats have to go over the trap to get the food and they get snapped, but they are smart!! They will push dirt leaves feathers and such in the holes to tell others not to go in there, they figure it out that's not a good place to go and will avoid them all together, I have to rotate my traps around every week.

Good luck everyone who's having problems, I feel for you!!

If it was mice would still sick me out, but I do not think I would loose birds to them??

 

[JennsPeeps]

What do those of you on the wet side of the state do for the run bottom? I just saw a thread in the "Coop" area about putting sand in there. Will that make an awful mess in our climate? Right now our run is just dusty dirt. I'm afraid that, come fall, it'll become a mud pit for the chooks.

Suggestions?

Also, is everyone else having lots of flies? I'm totally grossed out by them at our house and have starting putting out traps (which has piqued the chooks' curiousity to no end).

 

[lexibrite]

First about my preditor(s)...we haven't had any signs of them since I put bricks all around the run. When the weather gets wet, I put a blue tarp over most of the run so we don't get a muddy mess. So I have a very redneck looking coop.

We will be making our spare shed into a better coop soon and my 3 ladies will have a much better condo. More room, but I'm not sure how easy it will be to clean. Time will tell. In the meantime, we stay on watch for those preditors, whatever they (or it) may be.

So far, we aren't having fly issues at home. But at work (in a bank), we are across the street from our local fair and we have lots of flies in our office (YUCK!!!).

 

[DuckLady]

Quote:
We have clay so we trenched and put in a PVC pipe drilled with holes. We set it in the trench at an angle, low end to the outer edge of the run. We backfilled with gravel and then laid down landscape cloth and pea gravel over that. The landscape cloth keeps the mud from oozing up and covering the pea gravel. We just rake and hose it off and renew it now and then.

 

[herbandteas]

Quote:
Ya know that is what I have been thinking of adding a tarp or our pop up shelter to keep it from turning into a muddy mess. I have 6 hens and a pair of pekin ducks in my coop and pen.