Single hen

[fluffyknickers]

I currently shut the door each night then go in the run and bring in the food and shut the door again then in the morning put the food back and open the door.

 

So is the whole bringing the food in thing a waste of time or does everyone do it?

[Guest]

I suppose it depends how rat proof your run is? also sometimes the ie layers pellets can swell up if they get damp or wet.

indie

[Guest]

always, I've seen a tiny mouse squeeze thru the wire mesh so I'm not taking any chances. Don't want to encourage any sort of vermin. I've also caught slugs on the pellets so I think best to bring it all in.

[Sunshine]

We don't and never have. We have a wooden house(inside a walk in run) which is on slabs and the wire is tiny so i don't think i mouse would be able to fit through, plus it would have to climb up the wood first. I think if rats/mice could eat the food at night then it would be a good idea to remove it as they could carry diseases(could these be passed onto the chickens?)

[Ain't Nobody Here]

We always do . It's pretty easy though, as the run/eglu is so close to our house. (Once I forgot and found slug trails all over the grub .)

[Janty]

We never bring the food in but with two expert mousers living with us (five if you include the carnivorous hens) we don't have a problem with mice, etc.

[miffy]

we bring food and water in every night, we were late shutting them in one night and it was quite dark when OH went to sort the girls out, he carried the grub down the garden and a mouse ran out of the grub up his arm and then jumped off we always take a torch now if its a bit dark and shine it on the grub before we pick it up

[BarbaraJ]

when i just had the 2 chickens i did every night but at the moment i have 5 feed pots so aren't at the moment but will go back to taking it out when they have settled in together.

[Electricbarbarella]

I leave ,mine out although the grubs are often coated in slugs, extra tasty breakfast for the girls I havent really got anywhere to put them if I brought them in, although I did bring the glugs in when it was freezing.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

I bring ours in, I take a big tub trug bucket with me & load them all in, top them up & leave them indoors 'til next morning, them traipse them back out again. They also have old dog bowls with mash porridge in for breakfast & tea, so they all get brought in & washed ready for next day.

 

DH went out last night to collect the gubbins & found a tiny mouse in one of the mash bowls Apparently we have slugs bigger than this mouse it was soooooo wee, so they definitely can fit through the mesh of the runs.

 

Sha x

[Plum]

I leave my grub out and have never had slugs. The run is covered so it's dry and the food doesn't get damp. It's not there long enough. I'll move it if we get any visitors but it won't be into the house with all that garlic in it.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I brought mine in once and in the morning there was a lovely slug crawling about on the worktop .

[Egluntyne]

Because I have so many hens, I have a rat proof treadle operated feeder.

 

I don't hear it at night, so it must be doing its job.

[mostin]

I leave mine out all night. We don't shut the eglu doors so i like the girls to be able to have their brekky as soon as they get up and out. We have 2 cats who are good hunters and we've had no signs of rodents, so, so far so good.

[chickencam]

We leave ours out all the time and the Eglu door open except when very cold. Our White Star quite often gets up in the night for a snack we know this because she sets off the security light on the summerhouse

 

We only once had a rat problem last winter we had a lone one living in the compost bin near the run. We cleared the bin and got a sonic device for repelling rats. We also have 2 cats and we have seen no evidence since We don't have a slug problem either the girls have eaten them all I think. We have loads of slugs in the front garden.

[jlo]

I bring ours in, I take a big tub trug bucket with me & load them all in, top them up & leave them indoors 'til next morning, them traipse them back out again. They also have old dog bowls with mash porridge in for breakfast & tea, so they all get brought in & washed ready for next day.

 

DH went out last night to collect the gubbins & found a tiny mouse in one of the mash bowls Apparently we have slugs bigger than this mouse it was soooooo wee, so they definitely can fit through the mesh of the runs.

 

Sha x

 

OH went out to collect the grub to bring in the other evening and found what he described as a HUGE rat actually in the run

 

I knew that mice had been in the grub as I had seen them in the past but I didn't think that rats could squeeze in! The girls were standing up in the Eglu and were clearly concerned. It ran around in panic and then he saw it squeeze out of the run and charge off.

 

I am now really worried as I was planning on leavng the door of the Eglu open once I move the run back down the garden but I am worried that ratty might get into the Eglu itself and try and attack the chooks. I think that their beaks may drive him off but does anyone have any experience of this?

 

Mum was worried that we might actually lock him in at night with them if we are not careful and that is an equally awful thought!

[Chook n Boo Mum]

OH went out to collect the grub to bring in the other evening and found what he described as a HUGE rat actually in the run

 

I knew that mice had been in the grub as I had seen them in the past but I didn't think that rats could squeeze in! The girls were standing up in the Eglu and were clearly concerned. It ran around in panic and then he saw it squeeze out of the run and charge off.

 

I am now really worried as I was planning on leavng the door of the Eglu open once I move the run back down the garden but I am worried that ratty might get into the Eglu itself and try and attack the chooks. I think that their beaks may drive him off but does anyone have any experience of this?

 

Mum was worried that we might actually lock him in at night with them if we are not careful and that is an equally awful thought!

 

OMG, I am now worried, we have rats in the ditch along the side of our garden & am fighting an ongoing battle with them and the compost heap.

 

DH shuts the doors of the houses without even checking the chooks are in them! I'd have thought if there was an invader in the house before they went to bed, they wouldn't go in at all, if they were already a-bed...... I don't want to think about that!

 

Our weldmesh is the opposite way round to the Omlet one (1in wide & 3 in tall holes) as it made a bigger run with what we had bought and been given, perhaps the rats would find it difficult to squeeze through that gap ?

 

Sha x

[tania]

I was only thinking this morning about whether I should bring in their feed at night, as I haven't been doing so. Now I am certainly am going to. Hate rats

[Gallina]

A handy tip if you get fed up with bringing your containers in and can't carry them all at once:

 

Just tip all the food into a large container to bring in, and leave the feeders upside-down in the runs ready to refill the next day.

 

You wouldn't believe how long it took me to think of this simple solution! At once time I was bringing all the feeders in on a large tray.

 

Every time I get lazy and start leaving food out, I get rats. And I don't like slugs and smelly damp food either.

[Helly Welly]

We've never had a rat or slug problem so i don't bring ours in. In fact, i haven't seen a single slug in the back garden since we got the girls. We used to go out at night and see hundreds of them all over the grass which we would scoop up and then sling as far as possible. You wouldn't believe how much noise a slug makes as it impacts against someones fence four doors down. We were naughty people then If we started having a rat problem then i suppose we would start bringing them in, but using Gallinas brilliant suggestion

[BarbaraJ]

We don't and never have. We have a wooden house(inside a walk in run) which is on slabs and the wire is tiny so i don't think i mouse would be able to fit through, plus it would have to climb up the wood first. I think if rats/mice could eat the food at night then it would be a good idea to remove it as they could carry diseases(could these be passed onto the chickens?)

if you have mice in the vicinity they will get through the wire, anything wider than a bic biro they can get through