Warm boot recommendations please

[Guest]

My next door neighbour stopped chookiehubbie on his way to work this morning to tell him that he had put rat poison down in his garden, just in case the cats pick one up. He says he has done this because our chickens will attract rats, and he doesn't want them in his garden. Now, our neighbour keeps pigeons, which certainly attract mice - I see them frequently - so surely they would be just as likely to attract rats. Chookiehubbie has declared that the first sign of a rat and the chickens will be away, which would be understandable, but as no one has been on the look-out for rats up until now, how would we know what has attracted them?

 

So, can anyone tell me - will the chickens attract rats?

[AnnieP]

Not the way we keep them. My neighbours ( ) used to have loads of chickens in a tiny cramped wooden shed (read "shack"). It was cleaned out once a year (possibly), stank and the poor chickens looked thoroughly miserable. They attracted rats. Probably because of the smell.

We thought it was a dual thing, as we have stables and horses and donkeys, so couldn't complain. Anyway, they lost the lot to a fox, never replaced them and burnt down the hovel that the poor things lived in. The rats went. So, your neighbour is right and wrong. Yes, chickens CAN attract rats, if they are not kept clean. The amount of mess yours will make is negligable (even though it seems a lot). Their Eglu will be clean, you will not attract rats.

I hate the things, believe me, if I thought that having an Eglu was going to attract them, I wouldn't have had one.

And throwing down poison anyway when you have cats? What a stupid neighbour!

[Guest]

And throwing down poison anyway when you have cats? What a stupid neighbour!

 

At least he has had the decency to warn us - some old, pigeon keeping ******d (cersored for a family audience!) has been putting down poison laced food for the cats here in Newtongrange - it's been a nightmare. We try and keep Mog in as much as possible now, as we have lost 2 cats in the last 3 years. Jimmy, our next door neighbour, is quite a jolly man, who accepts that I love cats, just as he loves his pigeons, and has happily cat-proofed his garden to keep the cats out.

[Alison M]

Hi chookiehen,

 

I might be wrong, but I think it is the food that attracts the rats, not the chickens.

[Louise]

Sounds as though your neighbour is very ill informed. Remind him there is legislation surrounding the use of bait when there are other animals around the specific bit escapes me but I will have a hunt and see what I can find but if he thinks you may have a case in the event he poisons one of your cats he might stop.

 

You are never more than a few yards from a rat chickens or not and they are more likely to be attracted by rubbish - how tidy is his garden??

 

If he is worried he should use traps not bait they are cheap to buy and the snap ones are very effective if a little cruel at least that way he will know whether there IS a problem

 

Good luck Shona

[AnnieP]

At least he has had the decency to warn us, and has happily cat-proofed his garden to keep the cats out.

 

fair enough then, I suppose!!

I agree, it is the spilt food that attracts them, so the fact that the peanut feeders don't do that, should put his mind at rest!

[Gallina]

It's the students who attract the rats where I live. We have to have the council rat-catcher out at least once a year to lay bait, even though we have had no pets until now and I am very strict about what I put on the compost heap and turn it every few weeks. Rats have been seen crossing our road in broad daylight. The rat-catcher (who is a nice man who keeps chickens himself) says that our rats are healthy ones, garden-bred and not from the sewers, but that doesn't comfort me much.

 

I used to use a trap, but couldn't always face dealing with the result. If you have rats, you have no choice but to take action: they are foul creatures who carry disease and fleas. No cats have been killed in our street, as far as I know, either by bait or by eating poisoned rats, or by traps; but there have been an awful lot of dead rats.

 

It is very important to seal up your chicken food container properly, as rats would adore the contents. Otherwise I don't see how chickens can make the situation worse, unless the rats get access to the eggs (which I understand that they love).

 

I don't think cats would be stupid enough to eat rat poison.

[Louise]

They won't eat the poison but they may eat a poisoned rat if they come across it Gallina, it is quite a slow death with alot of rat poison and they make the rat quite woosy so they might be out in the open and an easy target for the domestic (and fairly lazy) moggie.

[Louise]

Shona, here is one of the bits of Legislation I know this is an English website so the document in fact is the Protection of Animals Act 1912 in Scotland but the text is the same

 

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/welfare/domestic/

 

Basically if your cat gets poisoned he has to prove he had good reason to put the poison down. If no-one has actually seen a rat then he has no reason at all. If you were overun it would be good reaon.

 

Useful tool if all else fails

[Gallina]

Oh dear, I will have to dig the trap out again, I suppose, next time I see a rat.

 

My neighbours laid bait before going on holiday a couple of weeks ago: I am looking after their garden, but have only had two rat bodies to deal with so far....

 

It's a pity our urban foxes don't catch the rats, but they prefer the left-over student takeaways as well.

 

The rat-catcher comes free of charge in Oxford, unless you are in a student house. This is so shortsighted, as the student houses are the cause of the problem, and is something I complain about to our local councillors.

 

Anyway, the rodent operative (as I suppose I should call him) stated that there were rats everywhere and that keeping chickens made no difference.

[Louise]

I feel for you Gallina, I stayed in Oxford (New Marston) for a number of years and I remember what the students did to the area.

 

You obviously have a rat problem and the poison may be required and as a proffesional your rodent man has to follow strict guidelines about how he lays bait and what sort of bait boxes he has to use but anyone else may not do it carefully. As you have a problem you have just cause for the stuff but do beware that anticoaggulant poisons will kill other animals and birds of prey if they eat the rodent. Even a small amount can do damage.

 

Fortunately cats etc can vomit so it may only make them ill if they get it out of their systems it works on rats because they CANT vomit. Just be careful with it

[Guest]

What concerns me is the pellets the chickens spray around the eglu run. Impossible to get them all up properly although we have resorted to a tray underneath the peanut which cuts it down a bit. I'm sure this will attract rats in the end no matter how clean I keep the eglu house!

[AnnieP]

A rat would not find enough to keep them occupied with the few pellets your chickens spill. Rats eat tonnes!! I am sure they could get more from people's bird feeders, rubbish sacks, compost heaps etc.

As a rule, I do not keep my peanut feeder topped brimfull, as the girls do then tend to throw it around. I take it in every night to stop it attracting other creatures, and I let it get quite empty before I fill it up again: Thus the girls will often do a pretty good job of vacuuming up when it starts to run low.

[Guest]

I only put about 200-250g in the feeder each day and they tend to have just about finished it by the end of the day. No luck with them hoovering up what they have dropped though. I will have to train them harder. You are probably right, thinking about it, that bird tables would be more bountiful than my leftovers!

[Guest]

Thanks for all the speedy replies!

 

The problem is that HE keeps pigeons, and while they are kept very clean, and we rarely smell anything, if we do get a couple of dead rats, the chickens will get the blame when, I would hope, it isn't really their fault. I keep the eglu as clean as I can, because I don't want a smelly hen house in the back garden, and we keep food off the ground, as much as possible, in the peanuts. They do spill quite a lot on the ground in their search for wheat, but most of it is hoovered up by roosting time. I rake over the ground every day to disperse smelly poos in the run, and poos in the garden get put in the compost heap.

 

I'm not sure I can do anything else!

[Louise]

Speak to the pest controller from the council they may be able to do a survey or something try to be proactive to both put his mind at rest and to get in first

[AnnieP]

Great idea Louise!

[Cinnamon]

I live in the country, & rats have often been seen in our garden. We have a stream running along one boundary, & that seems to attract them.

We do have a cat who is a fantastic hunter, & although she has never caught a rat, for the past year or so we have not seen any.

 

However, at 4am this morning I was woken by some rustling & banging outside my bedroom window, & although I couldn't see any rats I could hear squeaking!

 

They just make my skin crawl. I am so not cut out for country life!

 

My hens are due to arrive next week & I am concerned in case the rats have decided to move closer to the house again.

 

Also, I still have to fully convince Hubby on how wonderful it will be to have Chickens...rats around will not work in my favour.

 

I will have a sharp word in my cats ear about what her duties as house rat catcher are, & how we expect her performance to improve right away.

[Trish]

Just to add rats are possible anywhere. Our council seems to take great delight in informing us that, statistically, you are never more than a very short distance from a rat. We have a cat who hunts rats, funny as she weighs little over 3.5 kgs herself, and despite having chickens and backing onto waste ground, train lines etc, Roxy, afore mentioned cat, brings us four or five rats per year at most. If you do see any, there are some good rat traps out there

[motherhen]

Hi Shona

your neighbour needs some men in white coats!!!

I've never heard such bombastic dangerous ignorance.

 

Rats are far more likely to nest in a rarely turned compost heap than anywhere near hens. A few facts you might like to offer to ignorant idiot. First you keep (or will be keeping ) your sacks of hen food in a metal feed bin or dustbin with lid. For every hen keeper with their hen food safely kept in a metal lidded bin there will be 10 dog or cat owners with bags of food lying around garages freely available to rats.

 

The eglu is rat proof

 

The peanut feeder minimises food scattered on the ground and in anycase if he really knew any facts about rats rather than his unsubstantiated bias he'd know that the tiny bits of food that do fall to the ground are so insignificant as to be ignored by rats - they are after bigger offerings.

 

Rats only nest in places where they will be undisturbed. you and the hens constantly round the eglu means the chances of rats nesting underground anywhere near the eglu are remote. He might like to check any old compost heaps he has or under his shed/garage. That is a far more likely place for rats.

 

there will be rats within 10 feet of his house (I think that is the latest figure for the urban southeast.) Before blaming your hens he might like to put his own house in order!!!

 

Unfortunately you can't choose your neighbours and sadly you seem to have a top class ignorant misogynist in yours. I can only send you support and wish you all the best.

[Leigh]

I'll put my twopennies worth on this one (then I really must get on and do something ). It saddens me the fact that anyone would use poison to kill rats - I think traps are much more humaine. And Gallina, your neighbour sounds like a nightmare! My husband saw a rat in our small composter once - he hates them, and although I'm not keen, I said what did he expect living where we do? (Very close to woods and a stream!) He helps me turn the compost more now, and that is the main reason for getting the wormery. neither of us have seen another rat since.

[red]

We live in rural hamlet and we have a water garden with a natural pond and a stream at the bottom but (fingers crossed) we've not seen any rats - although I'm sure they must be around. I do as AnnieP does and bring the peanut feeder in each night - and they seem to clear up any spillages. I don't give them bulk treats either to avoid rotting food - I give them treats a bit at time - they can't have more until they hoovered up all the first lot.

 

We've got two cats who seem to bring in lots of little mice and shrews/voles but so far no rats

 

I like the look of the Green Cone (see Eglu on TV thread) but I was wondering how that may attract rats? We haven't sorted out the water garden since moving here 2 years ago but when we do (this autumn hopefully) I'd like to put a compost bin or green cone or similar down there.

[Guest]

First you keep (or will be keeping ) your sacks of hen food in a metal feed bin or dustbin with lid.

 

I'm actually keeping the food in the house at the moment - we do get mice from the fields and I wasn't sure if there was anything I could keep it in outside that wouldn't let them smell it. I take it a metal dustbin with a well fitted lid would do the job, so I can get my hoover back in its cupboard?!

[Gallina]

I don't think it would be a good idea to keep the dustbin outside, however: if you only have two chickens, the sack lasts for a long time, and I think the food might get damp. Other people may be able to confirm or deny this: I may be quite wrong, as I haven't tried this. If the lid is virtually airtight it might be all right.

 

I keep mine pellets in a small wheelie bin in my shed. I bought a wheelie bin for two reasons: (1) so that it would be easy to push out of the way, as my shed is getting cramped, and (2) to keep the food off the ground, to avoid rising damp (again, I may be worrying too much).

 

Although the wheelie-bin is made of food-grade plastic, I leave the feed in the sack, as otherwise getting out the bits at the bottom of the bin would be very hard.

[motherhen]

Sorry - I wasn't very clear there. The metal dustbin with lid is inside a nice dry garage

The choice of metal over plastic goes back to when I started keeping hens in the '60's and everyone said you need metal because rats and mice can chew through plastic. I'm quite sure plastics are quite different now, so the need for metal may no longer exist.