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Abbey Road Girl

are rats a problem?

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I should be getting my Cube and three Miss Pepperpots on 17th April and am hoping that the rain will stop so I can prepare the site in time! :?

 

About a year ago I saw a huge rat (it seemed as big as a medium-sized cat!) in the back garden mid-day. Later I was told that I should have reported this to the council :oops: . Now that I'm expecting chooks, should I ring the council belatedly?

 

I read in one of the forums that rats aren't interested in chickens, only in their food. Can rats get into runs? I have a brick store for the bag of pellets so that should be secure.

 

I looked in FAQs and didn't find anything about Ratty there.

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Dont worry too much -people get very hysterical about rats but they dont carry any more diseases than your average garden bird, you can get Weils disease from them but only if you drink stagnant water they have peed in. They are destructive to wood and mine have burrowed through a garden wall(!) but really rats are everywhere, the best solution is to get a ferocious cat.

I wouldnt worry about calling the council tbh, if I did that every time I saw one I'd never be off the phone :lol:

They come into my chooks' run during free-range time and nick pellets, I have a baited humane trap down in the supplies shed and a bonsai ginger sabre-toothed tiger who goes to work on them every night.

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To minimise the risk you can clear any bits of garden debris that accumulate, as they love to hide, and be careful with your compost bin.

 

To prevent them getting into it you could place it on slabs, or on a base of weldmesh or treble thickness chicken wire, and check the base for gaps where the rat could get in.

 

Remember not to put meat or fish in the compost bin, and any other food stuff, cover with a shovelful of earth as it disguises tasty smells, and introduces useful bacteria into the bin at the same time.

 

A few bait boxes around the place help, I find, and some poeple advocate bringing the food in at night.

 

It is also a good idea to store the hens pellets in a metal bin too, as rats can gnaw through plastic bins.

 

If you keep on top of things, there shouldn't be much of a problem, if any.

 

Good luck.

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Thank you for so helpfully responding, Rhapsody and Egluntine, just what I needed. :)

 

These forums are so helpful. My grandparents kept chickens on their upstate New York farm when I was a kid so I know from personal experince that chickens, dogs and cats can co-exist quite peacefully and really how easy chooks can be to care for.

 

There's also something deeply satisfying about the bond between us and our chickens, sort of connects us with a very long line of ancestors.

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at are allotments we have a stream which is riddled with rats ( my friends ducks went missing down a tunnel the stream runs out of and decided to push himself down in a bath to get them....but didnt get a baths width down before the number of rats scared him too much!).

 

the only time to worry is if you have chicks, the rats will kill them, they will also steal your eggs, or at least they do mine! if youre worried about that you can put bricks into the ground, only two or three bricks down, it helps a bit, though they will possibly burrow in, but it makes it harder! also helps with foxes

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I think you should be OK, as the cube is raised off the ground (some eglu owners have had them chew their way in through the base :shock: ), but as Egluntine says, you might be wise to put the run on a layer of stout mesh to avoid them burrowing in.

 

If you want any on-the-spot advice after they arrive, let me know and I'll pop round for a cup of tea one weekend ;)

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I've just seen a rat in my compost bin this morning :shock: saw his tail disappear as I lifted the lid, but I know he's been in residence at least 2 years , I've seen the tunneling under the bin, just never seen ratty or any evidence of him until today. As I've never seen him , it's been easy to 'ignore' him, I decided as long as he stayed out of sight and didn't stray beyond the bin I'd pretend he wasn't there. BUT now I've got my chooks - and the bin is about 5 ft from the run, I think I have to take action, was about to jump in the car and go get some rat poison, but I hate the thought of what it doers to them, so I've decided to try flooding them out instead. I know I should move the bin and put it on a solid base - but not sure I want to see what I'll find underneath ! :?

Peop0le on here have said it's likely many of us have rats , but just don't know about it until we have chickens, think this proves it !

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The sun is out so I'm going to drag myself away from the 'puter and haul the green bin into back garden to do some decluttering as advised by Eglutine.

 

There's a big pile of woody clippings which is a bit scarey :( but a hen keeper's gotta do what a hen keeper's gotta do.

 

I do have quite a few big storage heater bricks which can be used to reinforce the edges of the run.

 

And I will invite you for a cuppa, Anne! :D

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