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

[i_want_the_good_life]

My wife and I had decided we'd do it... Defo buy an eglu and start living "the good life" but have been reading about rats in forums and now quite frankly - I'm freaked out! Are rats a problem for most owners? I know you're never far away from one but I don't fancy meeting one face to face!!

 

Adam

[Hen Watch]

Welcome to the forum Adam.

 

I can say I have never had a rat problem in the 2 years I have had chickens. Some folk on here do have problems but equally find solutions in managing this. There is a good article at this link.

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=25900&view=unread#unread

 

I guess, if your area already has a rat problem then keeping chickens may highlight this more. But I have to say for me personally, I have had no problems.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Hi Adam, welcome to the forum .

 

I've never seen a rat in over 18 months of chicken keeping . If you are pre-disposed to rats (if you know what I mean!) you can take steps:

 

If your hens will be able to freerange a lot, put your eglu & run on a concrete base or, if they'll be mainly confined to the run and you want them to have soil to dig in, at least put slabs where the run skirt sits, to lessen the likelihood of rats digging their way in.

 

Also, make sure you take your feeders in every night and keep all their feed in a metal bin.

 

Don't let the fear of rats put you off having chickens. I'm sure there are more Omleteers who don't have rats than do .

[Chickvic]

I'm another one who hasn't seen a rat in 12 months of keeping chickens. Although I do have 3 cats as well. I've not seen any evidence of rats ata all.

[stoice]

I had thought I had any rats either... until the winter came and my compost bin and under my shed was just too tempting. If I'd have thought about it I should've made sure the compost bin sat on wire mesh and always have a bait station set down in case they swing by. Come think of it, the wild bird table didn't help either!

 

Don't let them put you off. Keeping chickens is great and with clean and tidy husbandry (And maybe pre-emptive bait boxes or traps) you may never encounter them.

[Guest]

When i had ducks i thought oh rats..yep i put the bait boxes down and did see the odd one probably 2 a year out in the garden(we back onto fields etc) and when i lost my ducks i still saw the rats on odd occassions.

 

I realised the rats live under the old concrete base that my green house stood on and were their anyway!!!

 

When i had a garden shed i had more mice etc knawing at anything destroying sunbeds/cricket pads etc

 

I think prevention and keep an eye out...v simple solutions on this site

 

I bet more people that feed wild birds have equally rat infestations

 

Get some chickens i am so pleased I did (2nd day)

 

indie

[chick1]

as Indie999 said above about bird feeding,well yes we have had a problem in the past feeding birds which led to quite a lot of rats coming in the garden,we do live direct onto the fields so mabe we would expect them more Never had any problems where we lived before though.

So we did have to take measures to kill them off.

I am going to have to put some sort of hard standing down when we get our chicks(OH still hasnt approved yet so rats are the least of my problems)but it hasnt put me off chickens in the slightest.

[C&T]

Simple preventions, like putting at least the Eglu on concrete, if not the whole run, will solve most problems.

 

A couple of bait stations, and fingers crossed, you shouldn't be bothered by the rodents.

 

Your local environment will give you an idea as to whether you will be susceptible. Overgrown gardens, with collapsed old sheds or decking would be a rats idea of heaven, so you may have more of a problem then lots of neat tidy gardens. The house next door to us is vacant, and I think that is where our "friends" came from when we had them. Went very quickly though with the aid of poison....

 

Don't let them put you off chickens! They are brilliant, and I hate the thought of Rats "winning"!!!!

[LJ's Chooks]

we have a rat in our compost bin.... and so did the mother in law!!

 

we now have a rat trap in our bin waiting for the offender!!! Dont think it will work on the mother in law though just joking she's lovely!!!!

 

I think compost bins are far more attractive than chooks... so far, but need to catch the rat before i can move my compost bin onto slabs.

 

We have never seen it, no traces near our chooks.... the crows are more interested in their food than the well trodden route to the chooks dropped feed (they are such messy eaters), but we are watching out for it.... and hope the trap works.

 

dont let it put you off!

[Guest]

Ljs chooks I think mum in law just disinherited u

[Willow]

I've had my chickens for 2 years now and never seen a rat even though we have fields at the back of us. I know we have plenty of mice in the area although I'd never seen them until we got cats

[Chucky Mama]

I am genuine rat phobic and was worried about the whole rat and chicken senario. We have had a rat in our garden pretty much every year before we had chickens drawn by a bird feeders (particularly a neighbour who feeds at ground level as well as hanging feeders. Each year my husband or neighbour managed to shoot them didn't (want to use poison). I thought that there was no reason why the chickens should cause any more of a problem that the bird feeders. Since having chickens we have made sure that the children don't scatter food for the chickens that wont we eaten immediately. We have had 3 rats, mostly drawn again by bird feeders but also by our compost heap. We now have a rat bait box in the compost heap all the time. I saw 1 large rat sitting in the grub in the Eglu last month which horrified me, it then ran up the steps of the cube and into the laying area . As our chickens free range during the day I now remove the grub feeders during the daytime and feed them from a standard feeder under my office window so that I can enjoy watching them eat and monitor whatever else fancies a feed! I then put the grub back in late afternoon. There has been no sign of the rat in the Eglu since (although another neighbour said that he had shot one that was sitting on his fence eating from his bird feeders). I have the cube run pegged down with a handful of tent pegs and dont take the grubs in at night, to date we have had no tunnelling in by rats to get at it.

[i_want_the_good_life]

Many thanks all for your replies. And the outcome... well... i've done it! I've ordered my Eglu. Now all i have to do is find the chickens to go in!

 

A very happy Adam

 

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Well done . When's it coming ?

[Olly]

Ooh well done! You won't regret it. Just to add - another one here, 2 years + of chickens and never seen a rat.

[Guest]

Many thanks all for your replies. And the outcome... well... i've done it! I've ordered my Eglu. Now all i have to do is find the chickens to go in!

 

A very happy Adam

 

Congratulations..isnt it a relief when u have finally placed the order!!

 

You can start planning now what birds to get..I got some birds on tuesday this week and already am enjoying them immensely...what great characters & they are no bother to look after at all... arriving next week but I still fancy getting an eglu too in the future

 

Am certain u made the right decision...when is arriving?

[i_want_the_good_life]

Delivery hopefully next Friday/Saturday.

 

So excited!!!

 

Now we have to choose chooks!

[atsw]

Delivery hopefully next Friday/Saturday. Now we have to choose chooks!

.... and charge the batteries in your camera. Photo's are a 'required element' of chicken keeping - as you may have noticed, we do like our photo's on the forum!

 

Andrew

[i_want_the_good_life]

Will post pics as soon as! This could be the longest week of our lives!