Cube mk2 and WIR

[debbie26pet]

im am ashamed to say my little visitor they other night, is in fact a very young rat so im looking on how to get rid my run and coop i cant get any cleaner im to fussy on that, i do leave the food out at night but they are all raised up nothing sat on floor.

i try clean up any spills of food my lot do.

so im looking at the little machine that makes horrible sounds to rice mice etc but not to humans and cats etc.

anyone used one did it work or am i gonna have to get the poison stuff? what is afe to use as i have cats and kids

[Guest]

if a chicken can reach the food then so can a rat, I still say the best thing is to bring the food in at night.

[Lisa]

We had pet rats - lovely intelligent pets (not wild ones) which the kids trained easily. They could climb very well up the sides of their very large cage and jump very long distances (2 - 3 feet) with ease. I think that taking the food away at night would probably be the best deterent or if you do not want to kill them then there are humane traps - it depends on how you feel about it!

 

Best of luck!

 

Let us know how you get on.

[debbie26pet]

i dont want to kill them well thast the last resort, but i dont want them either, how do others do, i leave my coop open so the girls can get up when they want etc if i take food away wont they make a noise? at min with no school they would have to wai till after 9 how do others do that?

[Guest]

our girls get locked in the coop after they've taken themselves to bed and the food goes into the shed. One of us gets up early, around 8am, puts the food back out and lets the girls out.

[Egluntyne]

Have a look at **this article** debbie.

 

Rats carry disease and are destructive and the best idea is to get rid of them.

[Lisa]

Thanks Egluntine,

 

That was a really interesting article. I have only come into contact with pet rats and I didn't know that you could not release wild rats if caught - (not that I ever have or would!).

 

I wouldn't fancy hitting or shooting them but I agree that they do cause a serious health hazard and need to be got rid of.

 

Thanks for the information - Much appreciated.

 

Lisa

[debbie26pet]

have no optionbut to put something down, i want the stuff that they go away and die, there is no signs in my garden of htem and we dont have a compost, we have hedges down and around the gardens splitting nieghbours up im sure they coming from there,

will locking my chickens up alter there laying? also if i take food away ?

my girls on some weeks can be let out when hubby goes work when he on the 6-2 shift, but will need to talk nicely to him

gonna have to rethink my chickens routine out me thinks

[Sheilaz]

Debbie, I've just noticed the size of your flock. I have a large metal feeder that the hens have to tap to release pellets, so they can do this at 5am if they want but there is no food on the ground at night. Might be worth it if you have room in the run.

Mine was from here having seen one at a fellow Omleteer's, and I'm really pleased with it.

[debbie26pet]

thanks so much gonna look more at them, as the tub i got once it has the feed in its heavy,

can i ask can they get feed out easily? hubby looking at the kits as at work they loads of the barrels. a couple of mine have got funny beaks, one being the end of her beak is missing, will they be able ot get feed out?

looks really good thanks

[Sheilaz]

When mine first arrived it only took a day for the fist couple of hens to work it out & others copied.

At first I thought it was the bright ones that worked it out. But no, the bright ones let the first ones knock the food down for them waiting underneath.

It is easy for them to learn. I stood & tapped it to show them the first day, then I was nervous in case they were thick so I tied a shoelace to the coil, klnowing that they'd pull it. After a couple of days I knew they'd seen the food coming out of the coil so I took the shoelace off (was prob unnecessary anyway!) and they were fine.

I have 9 hens in a large run together & I'm not sure if all of them actually tap it themselves or not. But, plenty gets knocked down throughout the day & not even the meekest ones go hungry. The last bits are always hoovered up by the hungry ones so the ground is bare for bedtme.

The other advantage is that the 50kg size holds a lot of pellets so I don't need to store a spare sack anywhere, quite useful.