Single hen

[MichelleP]

let the dog out last night into the garden and a rat scurried away from the eglu!! It's the first time I've seen a rat since having the girls nearly 20 months ago and its freaked me out a bit. Ive just read the article about the Rats on the forum and I'm very worried about my gals. I leave the sleeping/laying section of the house open at night but the actual run door is closed, just incase of foxes but it has never crossed my mind about rats hurting chickens

 

I'm goint to start removing the food each night but would really appreciate if anyone has any tips or advice on what to do to get rid of it?

 

best wishes

michelle

[peanut12]

we had a rat (or several) in the spring. We lifted the food at night and put down bait stations, also put the Eglu on a large paving slab.

 

Then, having gone to all that trouble - turned out the compost bin was the draw - not the chickens. So we got rid and bought a wheelie bin wormery. Not seen ratty since -touch wood

[MichelleP]

thanks for the reply, Im really hoping its only one rat Im dealing with and not several but I will look into those bait stations you mentioned and also check out our composter as thats quite close to the chicken run!!!

cheers

michelle

[Gallina]

Keep inspecting all around the Eglu: rat tunnels are quite small and discreet.

 

And look on the inside of the run, to see if there is a hole coming out from under the Eglu.

 

Fill in the holes immediately and put a heavy brick on top so the rats have to work from scratch each night.

 

But the answer is to put the Eglu on slabs. I have never had a rat get into the Eglu run since I did this. They don't seem interested in digging into the run except from the Eglu end: I think they are planning to make a cosy nest under the Eglu, where it is very snug from the warmth of the hens.

 

I am afraid rats never come singly: they have a mummy and a daddy and brothers and sisters, and are always looking for somewhere nice to start off a family.

[Egluntyne]

Definitely put the Eglu on slabe. We ooccasionally have rats and evidence of tunneling, but they haven't got into the locked run yet.

 

Article **here**

[susanbb]

Egluntine...Has your super trap worked yet

[Egluntyne]

Not yet. We seem to be ratless at the mo, fingers crossed. It is set up and ready to roll.

[darthwenger]

We had to get rid of our composting bin as it was attracting rats and it looks like they dug under it to get into the the compost bin.

 

Haven't seen any signs of tunneling in or under the Eglu but I know mice/rats are around as I have signs of tunnelling under the fence and sometimes a new one pops up so I've been taking their feeders in at night.

 

Trouble is, I live right out in the country, my house backs onto a working farm (hence loads of bales of hay for the rats to live in) also I have chickens, my neighbour has 2 pigmy goats and my other neighbour has stables with horses so mice/rats are impossible to get rid of.

 

We all have traps down and we do sometimes catch one or two (my neighbour had trouble with rats trying to get at his goat pellets, he bought a mean looking metal rat trap and caught 2 straight away!)

 

I am thinking of placing the Eglu on a paving slab though to do away with the risk of nesting/tunnelling underneath. Though, I'm afraid any source of food is attractive to rats so keeping chickens is always going to risk attracting vermin.

[MichelleP]

Many thanks everyone for you advice. Ive decided to put the eglu on slabs so hopefully this will sort them out. Think I have found where they are living, under my fishpond!! we saw some signs of digging and holes around the pond last weekend but thought the chickens had done it when scratching around. Will test it tonight by filling in all the gaps with soil and see if any holes reappear tomorrow. Trouble is I don't want them to knaw through the pond so can't fully block them off with stones but at least I'll know where they are and can then think about putting down some bait boxes near them

 

thanks again

 

cheers

michelle

[David_M_Thomas]

We found a young rat in our Eglu run last week and the chickens were attacking it!!! There is evidence of tunelling from the Eglu end as a previous poster has mentioned. Our rats are living under some decking and have already knawed through the cable feeding the decking lights (unfortunatly only the low voltage cable else they'd have got a nice shock).

 

We've stopped leaving food s"Ooops, word censored!"s in the garden (which we used to put out for the chickens when they were free-roaming) and have called the local environmental heath (Birmingham City council get rid of rats for free). If the rats return I think we too will also try placing the eglu on slabs.

 

Thanks for all you advice!

 

Dave