4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[kerrie]

Hi, we picked our girls up yesterday and they seem happy in their eglu and in the run on the back lawn. I've been looking trhough the forum and seen a lot of posts about rats YUK. Is there anything I can do to stop this before it starts? Put the eglu/eglu and run on concrete slabs?Make a special area with wood chippings? Or just leave it as it is?

Thanks

Kerrie

Ruby

Isabelle

Daisy

(not forgetting the kids Jennifer, Megan and Josh, cats Alfie and Ollie and cavalier king charles puppy Oscar)

[Egluntyne]

I would put the Eglu on slabs. It will stop them tunnelling into the run.

 

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

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Congratulations on your new and girls, Kerrie .

 

I've not been bothered with rats (yet ) but do have slabs as a path down one side, the eglu on slabs and broken bits of slab under the skirt down the other side. Not sure if that's helping prevent rats or not - so far so good .

[rosalyndavies]

Hi, I also think that clearing away any food will help deter the rats. Don't worry too much about it as if you did get a problem then you can get help very easily.

[Olly]

I may just have been lucky, but I've never had a rat problem (rushes to touch wood). Lots of people have been tormented by them, I know, but it's not inevitable that you'll get them, so don't lose too much sleep over it.

[Matthew]

its more about your local environment and your approach to hygiene than your eglu set up... we have the run on bark and/or lawn and do not have any rat issues......

[Forge Cottage]

If you make sure there is nothing left out to eat, there will be little incentive for rats etc. Just make sure there is no food left spilled on the floor as you shut them in...

 

I tip out their water and pour any remaining pellets back into the sack (so I know how much they are eating each day) and I keep the grub container and feed sack in a metal dustbin. So in the morning it is all ready and dry.

 

According to our Environmental Health Officer, there are 3 main things that attract rats to gardens: Dogs, compost heaps and bird feeds. Luckily we have never seen them here - and I hope you don't either.

 

Good luck!

[Egluntyne]

its more about your local environment and your approach to hygiene than your eglu set up... we have the run on bark and/or lawn and do not have any rat issues......

 

Not sure I agree with the bit about one's approach to hygeine.

 

Mine is rigorous.

 

Also food is in a treadle operated feeder, compost bins well managed, food only composted in a Green Johanna, a vigorous baiting and trapping system in place and I am still troubled with a very determined rat.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

According to our Environmental Health Officer, there are 3 main things that attract rats to gardens: Dogs, compost heaps and bird feeds. Luckily we have never seen them here - and I hope you don't either.

 

Add to that a wet ditch running along the side of our garden and next-door-but-one's decking and I don't stand a snowball's chance of getting away without them do I ?!!

 

Sha x

[stoice]

I lay baited boxes around my garden now. Wish I had before I even saw signs of a rat. Just spotted my first ratty casualty typically right where I can't reach it - right between my shed and the concrete base of the neighbours fence. I'll try a rake to bring it closer and scoop it into a bag. Vile things. Thought they were meant to die inside their nest? I'm worried the neighbours cat will tuck in and get ill from it's poisoned body.

 

Anyway, Kerrie, I'd recommend putting the eglu and run on slabs with a lovely layer of aubiose or something for your girls to s"Ooops, word censored!" in. My run is attached to my shed (A home made shed conversion and hand built run) with a slabbed path on one side and fence to the other. The rats have been living under the shed and burrowing into the run. I can only back fill them so far so have put down some buried chicken wire to stop a few more tunnels from the shed side. Your eglu should be pretty rat proof as long as it's on slabs. (I've heard on here they could get in from a weak spot underneath) I have a compost bin on soil that had tunnels into it too. Have baited in those and will put the bin on chicken wire so worms can still work their magic but Roland will be stumped hopefully. I also have decking leading to my garage (I've made a ratty heaven haven't i?) So I've lifted a side plank and put a bait box in there - hopefully out of the way of doggy's nose. If I were you and maybe you didn't want to go down the slab route then I'd remove food at night and put down a secure bait box as a precaution as it'd be easier to keep them at bay than to try to get rid once whole families establish themselves.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

Just spotted my first ratty casualty typically right where I can't reach it - right between my shed and the concrete base of the neighbours fence. I'll try a rake to bring it closer and scoop it into a bag. Vile things. Thought they were meant to die inside their nest? I'm worried the neighbours cat will tuck in and get ill from it's poisoned body.

 

 

I found one like this in the greenhouse lean-to, which stands outside my utility room . Given that the temperature outside was freezing and the utility room windows were all closed (and the door to the GH was open), the stench inside the house was phenomenal I was really surprised and relieved that the dogs hadn't discovered it before me...I'd turned out the whole UR, thinking that there was a dead mouse behind the washer/dryer/fridge/freezer

 

I had also sent the children to school on the only snowy day of the year so I could find the blighter - I'd have much rather been out on the Trundle with the sledges

 

Good luck getting it out, if they haven't gone stiff, they pour like water off the side when you try to pick them up with a shovel etc - sorry but they do! - and they are very solid too, the ones I've had to scoop up have been quite heavy! They are creatures of habit, so I'm just off to see if "ours" has shown up at the birdtable, wish me luck!!

 

Sha x

[stoice]

if they haven't gone stiff, they pour like water off the side when you try to pick them up with a shovel etc

 

 

THAT is so gross!!!!!

 

Hmm, not sure a rake-and-scoop-into-bag is going to be a pretty sight. Hope it works. Haven't smelt anything yet. Hope it doesn't attract foxes either

 

*Edited for dodgy spelling!*

[Chook n Boo Mum]

Sorry, it was the best way to describe the action!!! Will try not to be so graphic next time

 

Sha xx

[stoice]

No problem, at least I'm prepared!!

[Matthew]

its more about your local environment and your approach to hygiene than your eglu set up... we have the run on bark and/or lawn and do not have any rat issues......

 

Not sure I agree with the bit about one's approach to hygeine.

 

Mine is rigorous.

 

Also food is in a treadle operated feeder, compost bins well managed, food only composted in a Green Johanna, a vigorous baiting and trapping system in place and I am still troubled with a very determined rat.

 

This wasn't meant as a criticism... clearly the rats have a suitable nesting place in your vicinity (neighbours decking... boundary water course etc etc) if this wasnt present then hygiene etc would be the factor...

 

The key issue around rats in my experience (having lived near a ditch running through our orchard when I grew up) is the local environment... and with that in place the prescence of chickens/feed etc is too much of a lure....