Patridge bantam chicken poorly foot?

[urbanchick]

Yuck, had a surprise this morning when I saw something floating in the glug:

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/2402682_hxPRd/1/407123583_dSZoG/Medium

 

It's quite small so is it a baby? And it must have squeezed through the bars - I don't know how else it got in.

 

I've put some bags of eradibait around and hope that I don't have a large infestation. The run's on slabs but can they burrow under the slabs to make nests?

I'm definitly going to take the food in at night now.

 

Sadly, my favourite chicken Henrietta, one of our ex batts, died yesterday. I checked on them when I shut the cube door on Thursday night. I found her spread out in the nest box, very weak, and took her inside in a box of straw. Unfortunately she died during the night. She had just been through a moult and had feathers on her head for the first time - she was bald on top when she arrived.

 

I really hope the two events are not related. I want to clean the whole cube out with my pressure washer but can't do it until next weekend. I'll be worming them too, I think.

[Egluntyne]

Yuk....At least it is dead.

 

I'd put some anticoagulant type rat bait down in bait boxes, if I were you. I invested in a massive tub of Eradibait a while back, and don't rate it at all.

 

Sorry to hear about Henrietta.

[aaronmusgrove123]

eggggggr no nice

[urbanchick]

I'd put some anticoagulant type rat bait down in bait boxes, if I were you. I invested in a massive tub of Eradibait a while back, and don't rate it at all.

 

Interesting, I might just do that.

[Cuckoos Nest]

Yes Anticoagulant bait is far better to use on rats, if you can get the wax block ones even better as there is less risk of loose grain bait being dropped/spread around your garden. Please make sure that you place all baits in a plastic bait container as just leaving bags or loose bait lying around is illegal and very hazardous to non-target species like birds, pets and children. The best advice of all is to stick to what the packet says on it's statutory use box, if it says replenish after 3 days then that's what you must do. The miss-use of DIY available rodenticides is probably the biggest factor in bait resistance in increasing numbers of the UKs' rats. Most professional pest controllers will avoid the use of eradibait as it is perceived to be less humane than anticoagulants (eradibait effectively starves/dehyrdates them).

hope that helps.

Steve

[Egluntyne]

Article **here** about dealing with rats.

[urbanchick]

I chose eradibait because it is harmless to other animals, i.e. chickens and dogs. That's why I was happy to put it around in plastic bags, not bait boxes (I only have 1 bait box). I'm worried that my dog might find a dead rat that has ingested anticoagulant and eat it. I will have to look into it further and make sure I choose the right system.

[ruth1]

looks like a mouse to me, not a nice way to go. Theyre really noticeable at this time of year.

[urbanchick]

A mouse? Do you think so? It was grey/black, not brown and I've never seen either close up before.

[Valkyrie]

It's a bit hard to tell from the pic - but it does look a bit like a mouse and it looks quite small in size. Usually the normal rats are a tan colour and the young ones are bigger than mice. If the tail was smooth it would be a mouse, if it was ridged or looked a bit scaley then it was a rat. Either way not a nice thing to find.

[urbanchick]

It's got quite large ears and was quite small so perhaps it is a mouse. I have put some more pictures at the end of my gallery.

 

I have put down some Big Cheese Revolver traps, which catch the mouse inside a trap that you can then dispose of without having to handle (or see) the mouse. I think they are mouse traps and probably wouldn't catch anything as big as a rat, so we'll see what happens.....

 

Are the implications of a mouse infestation any different to having rats?

[stoice]

Are the implications of a mouse infestation any different to having rats?

 

I'm interested too urbanchick as my garage has been mouse heaven lately. Have put down mouse traps and caught two mice so far baited with peanut butter. One was quite big but from their poo around the place I'm convinced they were mice and not baby rats. Have you seen any 'little presents' around to help you decide if yours was a mouse or a rat?

 

This weekend I've noticed the start of a tunnel into the chooks run as well as two into the underside of my compost bin. Inside the bin was also a tunnel. I'm hoping this is still mousey and not ratty but the tunnels looked quite big - a bit wider than a toilet roll. I'd have thought a mouse would make smaller tunnels. Think now I'm going to step it up a gear and get bait. Little blighters. I have decking in my garden too - vermin paradise.

 

So do people on here rate the anticoagulant bait best?

[Valkyrie]

Urbanchick I'm sorry to say that is a young rat by the look of it's face. We used to have pet rats and I recognise the nose!! Lovely chickens by the way - I love the dust bath ones.

Stoice - they are rat tunnels - we had those on the allotment and it was infested with the blighters, so we had to give up after losing so much produce to the hungry vermin (heartbreaking after so much hard work).

[stoice]

Stoice - they are rat tunnels

 

I feared as much. Rah.

I take the food in at night anyway but i guess there are always 'leftovers' Right. ok then. No mercy

[Valkyrie]

Go get 'em Stoice! I take the food in too, but the girls do tip out some. The worst is when the rats get brave enough to come out in the day. I know rats have come to call here now and again because of a stream nearby and people putting out wild bird food (also guilty), and that was before the girls arrived. When I am out in the garden after dark I sniff to see if I get any waft of rat - which is rather pungent.

[stoice]

Just occured to me... the pecka block I'd bought for my girls has been ignored hanging on the side of their run for months. Noticed last week it was going down a bit - I naively thought they'd changed their minds and started to like it. Hmmm more likely to be a visitor now i think of it. Right, that's going too.

 

I think I'm going to set traps and then maybe move on to bait if they still carry on. Been reading up on it and I think i will bait the traps unloaded for a few nights for them to get used to the traps. (May put them inside a lemonade bottle with ends cut off to keep dry. DIY-tastic) That way I can see the bodies to dispose of them. Whereas I'm a bit worried by bait and where the rats will die and start to stink.

 

OMG and i remember hearing a s"Ooops, word censored!"ing noise by our patio door over the decking. It's all falling into place. Urgh, makes me feel unclean thinking of the little critters rummaging about.

[Valkyrie]

If you can get some pellets down the holes, that would help.

[urbanchick]

I've been reliably informed that it is a woodmouse not a rat/house mouse and they are not likely to multiply excessively so if I take in the food every night I don't need to leave bait down. Anyone have a different opinion?

[ScottishMike]

mice may not be perceived to be as bad as rats, but I reckon they are every bit as bad - they will at the very least be carrying fleas.

 

I use mousetraps that are compatible with peanut butter as bait, as I've found it the most effective bait

 

If the trap is outside, put it under cover, and secure it with garden wire to something - nasty though it is, traps don't always kill immediately, and the mouse can pull the lighter traps like the Big Cheese away - mouse then dies and smells, and you can't find your trap! Also, local cats may be responsible for taking the dead mouse + trap??

 

So many people now put out wild bird food, the mice and rats are in heaven! The only way to deal with them is to eliminate as many as you can in my opinion.

 

We don't have chickens (yet...... ) but even so, I keep traps set in my garage as mice sometimes go in there seeking shelter, then cause loads of damage shredding anything they can chew through to make a nest

 

I get an average of 2 a month from the garage, more in Autumn.

 

I store my dog food in the garden shed, and regularly set traps there, yet to this day have never caught a mouse in it - odd considering it has food in it, unlike the garage, and it is way less secure in terms of little gaps than the garage - odd!

 

I have had 2 mice manage to get into the house - both perished very quickly in peanut butter baited traps - you should see the amount of fleas that come off just one tiny mouse!!! Yuck!!

[Puffin]

Thanks for posting this as I found a live rat sitting in our compost heap at the weekend - made me jump. Our compost heap isn't far from the chickens either. We have often had mice in the compost heap which I havent been that bothered about - our cats keep them under control!

However a large rat is a different matter so I will be off to the garden centre tomorrow for some anticoagulant - does it come with a bait box - or can you get these quite easily?

 

Thanks

[blackgold]

Looks like a baby mouse to me and i used to breed pet mice years ago. Mice do not make tunnles but rats do. I wouldnt use any poison cos even if it says it is safe it cant be. You can get a company in and they have bait boxes which are safer and they will dispose of them too. Poor you. How about getting a cat?

[Chook n Boo Mum]

NB THE SECOND PARAGRAPH MAY OFFEND NON-SHOOTERS - APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE!

 

We have a rat problem too. With the combination of a ditch along the side of the garden, a thriving wild bird table (fed by DH every day without fail!) and the compost heap at the top of the garden we wouldn't fail to really! Next-door-but-one have decking too - the joy!!

 

We find an air rifle pellet through the head is very effective (sorry if that offends anyone, but it's quick). There were a pair of young ones outside earlier in the summer, & somehow I managed to reload my single shot rifle & get the second one before it even noticed the first one was dead. The builders were impressed that a) I'd had a go, being as I'm a girlie and b) that I'd shot not one but 2! And for the record, I have never shot anything else that moves, I am usually a paper target girl, and at 86+/100 scored on most of them I felt a good enough shot to take on a rat without causing unnecessary suffering - though why this should worry me so much with vermin is still a mystery! We also do not live in a built up area & the line of sight from the office window to the bird table is always clear, we do not undertake shooting in an unsafe situation - ever. And never advocate the use of a firearm of any kind in untrained hands. ((Steps off of soap box carefully!))

 

We had one die, presumably from neighbours' bait, in the lean-to greenhouse just outside our utility room window, if you have never smelt dead rat, it really is gut-wrenchingly awful I turned the whole of the utility room out, moved each appliance (and cleaned behind them - every cloud has a silver lining!!! ) before I realised the wretched thing was outside. I had sent the children to school that morning, so I could find it, despite it being the only day last year when it snowed here & they wanted to go sledging, I felt so mean .

 

The chook food/water is brought in every night, religiously at bedtime, and I have actually got some dog, bird & children safe bait & box to use, which I have always steered clear of before now due to having the dogs and children. Best I get it out & have a tandem attack on the blighters, as we've seen them again & I'm not always around at midday when they come out to feed - they are creatures of habit & tend to come out at the same time every day.

 

We also on occasion have mouse visitations, from the roof to the kitchen, (DH often flushes the "mouse-trapped" ones down the toilet, which if they are dehydrated isn't easy as they float like corks!) and even in our bedroom one night - it kept me awake until it fell into a very noisy, sturdy carrier bag, from where it could not escape! I gave it a flying lesson out of the window, and slept soundly for the rest of the night!!

 

Yuk yuk yuk, what a conversation for this time of night! Sleep well!!

 

Sha x

[Egluntyne]

Firearms aren't really an option for those of us who live in urban settings.

 

I did once invite old Bert to bring his terriers to visit my garden. They caught three. All over in seconds.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

I've shattered any illusion of being a nice Omleteer now haven't I ....

 

Sha x

[Puffin]

Your garden sounds just like ours - but we have a road the other side of the ditch so I dont think an air rifle would be an option - although my dad does have one...

We had rats before when we were still on bin bags before wheelie bins and got the council out - we also had mice in the roof and the wall cavities... they got in through the air-bricks which OH has now covered in wire mesh. Unfortunately living in a rural area I think rats will always be around I just dont want them actually living in our garden!