I *thought* we had rats, but now I'm not so sure. The poo around the coop and cascading out of the hay bale tunnels is made of little round balls - looks like rabbit poo to me, but do rabbits dig tunnels through hay bales and steal eggs??? When I googled for rat poo pictures, none of them showed little round balls like these.
The silly girls carved out a cushy nest in one of the bales, and I found a tunnel leading right up to it - as if they layed, the egg just rolled down the chute to the rat nest. I have found tunnels alllllll through the coop bales, and we are lucky if we get one egg total from the 5 girls each day. Someone is living the high life and it aint me!
I made a bunch of peanut butter bombs and pvc traps as well as 5 gallon bucket traps with pb bombs and Just One Bite - but so far after 2 days, nothing - and that makes me wonder too if it's rats... or what? voles? Do voles steal eggs and make little round balls of poo? Will rat poison and pb balls work on other critters? When I googled rat poo and vole poo, neither look like what we have.
We have a coop this is a remodeled tool shed - lots of room, but we have only 5 chickies. This year to insulate it better, I filled in the extra space with hay bales inside, and some on the outside as well as over the top of the shed. It worked great for insulation - they were so cozy and warm this winter - and it was a doozy this year compared to years past.
Unfortunately, I was free feeding them and they would toss feed all over the place. I had to fill that bucket up at least once a week! I think that was more of a neon beacon of VACANCY light to some little critters! It's still too snowy here to clean up the outer hay bales which are rotting behind the shed, but our beagle tells me SOMETHING is living in there!
So, I quit free feeding and now we feed them outside the coop where the snow has cleared a bit. I dusted the hay on the coop floor with red pepper flakes and planted pb bombs in pvc pipes and places where the girls can't get them.
Any insight and suggestions are well appreciated!
Patsy (aka MsBee) and the gang
The silly girls carved out a cushy nest in one of the bales, and I found a tunnel leading right up to it - as if they layed, the egg just rolled down the chute to the rat nest. I have found tunnels alllllll through the coop bales, and we are lucky if we get one egg total from the 5 girls each day. Someone is living the high life and it aint me!
I made a bunch of peanut butter bombs and pvc traps as well as 5 gallon bucket traps with pb bombs and Just One Bite - but so far after 2 days, nothing - and that makes me wonder too if it's rats... or what? voles? Do voles steal eggs and make little round balls of poo? Will rat poison and pb balls work on other critters? When I googled rat poo and vole poo, neither look like what we have.
We have a coop this is a remodeled tool shed - lots of room, but we have only 5 chickies. This year to insulate it better, I filled in the extra space with hay bales inside, and some on the outside as well as over the top of the shed. It worked great for insulation - they were so cozy and warm this winter - and it was a doozy this year compared to years past.
Unfortunately, I was free feeding them and they would toss feed all over the place. I had to fill that bucket up at least once a week! I think that was more of a neon beacon of VACANCY light to some little critters! It's still too snowy here to clean up the outer hay bales which are rotting behind the shed, but our beagle tells me SOMETHING is living in there!
So, I quit free feeding and now we feed them outside the coop where the snow has cleared a bit. I dusted the hay on the coop floor with red pepper flakes and planted pb bombs in pvc pipes and places where the girls can't get them.
Any insight and suggestions are well appreciated!
Patsy (aka MsBee) and the gang
