Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[OllieNLucys Mum]

Ok it's the dreaded rat topic again.

We have a small stable yard with stables barns outbuildings etc. We also have a feral cat and a dog who is out quite a lot.

Having had a rat and mouse problem around the stables a few years ago we are now very strict with food of any kind. No human horse cat dog chicken food etc is left out at night.

 

 

So why oh why are rats digging massive long tunnels to come up inside the cube run. There is no food in there ever, not even during the day. The cat lives in the barn right by the chooks and hunts around the paddock they are in.

 

The entire paddock floor under the extended run has been completely undermined. Aside from the disease point of view it makes such a muddy mess. We have moved the whole thing several times to a different area of the paddock but within a few days they find it and start again.

 

We are completely surrounded by large farms who do have animal feeds out so why come to us. It just doesn't make sense. We could not possibly hope to control them with poison either ( not that i would ever want to inflict such a tortuous vile death on any living thing) as there would always be more coming from the neighbours.

 

I am at a complete loss, if they were seeking warmth or shelter i could get that but its just a mud patch.

 

Ideas anyone?

[craftyhunnypie]

I believe rats use the same run? So perhaps block their exit with a paving flag or something. Apart from traps & poison, I don't know how you would ever beat this. Ultrasonic repellants maybe?

 

Emma.x

[OllieNLucys Mum]

At the moment the entire home paddock looks like a building site with stones, breeze blocks etc all over it blocking the tunnels. I do have ultrasonics in some of the buildings but have found mouse droppings on top lol

 

Does anyone know if the chickens can actually catch things from rats?

[C&T]

I wouldn't just be worried about the Chooks, I would be worried about the humans as well.

 

Some of the diseases that Rats carry are potentially really really nasty if not fatal - Weil's disease is one that springs to mind. Touch the wrong thing, and then wipe your face, or take a sweet from a friend and you could end up feeling very very sorry for yourself. Which is why I use poison.

 

If you don't want to use poison, then you will need to find another way of getting rid - a load of traps that can be set each night?

 

I'm not sure deterrants alone would help very much when you already have the problem - probably better as a preventative? If they are breeding in and around your stables, the problem is only going to get worse as they get bolder and bolder looking for food, water and shelter.

 

Good Luck!

[Redwing]

Could you put the cube on the yard instead?

[Mercedes55]

Could you slab the inside of the run so that the rats can't get into it? I am hoping that is a rat deterrent as that is what we have done in our WIR.

[scarlettohara]

I would get a specialist pest company in - we used one on our yard and the rats all but disappeared. Good Luck

[Egluntyne]

Could they be stealing the eggs?

 

They are also very partial to chicken poo.

[Wolfie]

Ferrets? I had a small horse yard which had rats - sounds very similar to your set up. I asked a neighbour's lad to run his ferrets down the holes every so often. I also put the blue bait poison round. My little Cairn & Jack Russell did their best, but obviously until you dig out the earths, the rats know they're safe! Until the ferrets! Very quick death. Do remember to tuck your jeans into your wellies tho .....

[enpekt]

Until the ferrets! Very quick death. Do remember to tuck your jeans into your wellies tho .....

 

Hahaha! ROFLOL!

 

We use a CO2 carbine rifle to get rats. Very powerful yet lightweight and no recoil. Called a Ratcatcher.

But the best thing to keep the blighters out of the run is to slab the floor.

Our WIR is completely slabbed, and although a rat can squeeze in and out of the mesh, there's no food in there so they get the message. (We close the cube and eglu doors nightly year-through)

 

Sometimes there's a bit of food left in the wildbird feeding area (fenced-off from the hens) just the right distance from the bathroom window for the ratcher...

Neither of us like hurting any animal, not even rats. But vermin is vermin for all the reasons given above...

[OllieNLucys Mum]

Ferrets sound like an excellent idea I do know someone who keeps them to show but I guess she would have to sit out in the paddock all night wait or them to run across from the farm into the tunnels then put a ferret in. Sounds a bit monty pythonesque.

 

Yep weils disease is always a worry. When we first moved to this yard as liveries whilst it was still part of the farm there were rats everywhere we even used to see them during the day.Masses of poison was put down and the farmers son and his mates used to shoot loads but it never made a dent in the population. I used to make the kids wear gloves all the time.

 

Since owning though we have kept all animal feed locked in steel bins and with the aid of Pushka (cat) kept them off the yard completely, except this one paddock where they come streaming in from the huge farm next door. We were able to identify exactly where they were coming from last winter. As we had snow and frozen ground for several weeks you could see blood trails in the snow

[C&T]

Since owning though we have kept all animal feed locked in steel bins and with the aid of Pushka (cat) kept them off the yard completely, except this one paddock where they come streaming in from the huge farm next door. We were able to identify exactly where they were coming from last winter. As we had snow and frozen ground for several weeks you could see blood trails in the snow

 

Is it worth asking them if they have changed their storage etc to make it more rodent proof - hence them coming to yours?? Appreciate it might well not be, and probably is just a natural population spurt in the population - but could be worth a check.

 

If they have, it may influence how to solve the problem...