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emmaw298

rats - any ideas please??

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hi all again and thanks for all the useful replies to my other messages so far. my 4 new ex-batts are settling in well - thanks to a lot of advice from all the kind people on this website. Thanks a million.

I now have a problem with rats during the night tunnelling in under the eglu and into the run. I am removing as much of the leftover food as I can (although they chuck their pellets all over the run so removing ALL food is impossible). We would think about poison but we also have a very inquisitive dog so are worried about her picking it up too, or worse her picking up a dead poisoned rat. Does anyone have any ideas of help please? I think it is inevitable that we get rats in our garden as we live in open countryside and near water but is there any way of keeping them out of the eglu run? Is there anything like a fox-watch for rats that people have used successfully? all advice much appreciated! emma x

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If you can, get some paving slabs and place the run and Eglu on that. The rats will still tunnel, but won't be able to get in. It makes hosing the run down very easy too.

 

Get some lockable bait boxes and put poison in them and place them around the area. The dog shouldn't be able to get at the poison.

 

If you use something like **Eradibait**, it will only harm rodents, so will not poison the dog.

 

If you have a compost heap, n be careful about what you put in it, and try to make it inaccessible, as rats often live in them.

 

I find that I have to be vigilant all year round re rats.

 

Good luck.

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I had 18 months of rat free chicken keeping and then they appeared. :cry:

 

I am unable to bring the food in every night as I am often away with work, so I slabbed the area.

 

Like you, the rats were tunneling under the eglu and into the run. Not any more!:wink:

 

The slabs are fantastic and very easy to clean. They free range most days so can dust bath outside the run. If they are confined to the run most days I would put a premade dust bath in for them though.

 

Hope this helps :?

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thanks for the advice.

they are in the run most of the day when im at work so would slabs be too hard on their feet if all day long? could i put hemcore down on top of the slabs? seems a shame as they so love to dig around in the dirt, but i can't see any other way of keeping the bloomin rats out!

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No, slabs wont be too hard for their feet, in fact they help keep their nails down. :lol:

 

Yes, put a good layer of Hemcore down, and the will enjoy scratching and digging in this.

 

You could put a box of compost or cold ashes from the fire for them to dustbathe in if you like.

 

Mine always tip them over though! :roll:

 

Put a plastic sheet over the run to help keep the rain off the Hemcore....and the hens too of course.

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I've just put one slab under the Eglu itself and that seems to have stopped the rats tunnelling under the Eglu and using it as Base Camp One. Mind you, I've also put a bait box down so that may have been more of a reason for the apparent disappearance of the rats!

 

Having rats makes you feel really yuck but you're in good company :D

 

Jo

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we also had a rat problem - set traps and they just kept on coming and coming.... I hated killing them, but they're so filthy and pestilent.

 

Stopped them tunnelling into the run (although we have a permanent run) but getting some old metal supermarket shelving out of a skip, cutting it down the middle to make about 8-10 inch wide strips, then digging a narrow vertical trench with a spade and putting them in vertically and backfilling with soil to create an "anti-dig" barrier.... It's worked so far.

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