Poorly chicken

[Mercedes55]

I wondered what the noise was this morning when OH went to let the girls out. It would seem that a rat had got inside the WIR sometime yesterday and when OH locked up the tunnel that connects the run to the back border, which only has soil on the surface, he had locked the rat inside the WIR

 

Despite trying to clobber it with a spade he couldn't get the rat and had to open up the back so it could get out. Obviously that means if we keep leaving the back open it will come back. I guess it shows the run is rat proof when it's all closed up, but now I am worried about letting them out the back as obviously that run isn't rat proof. Our guess is that the rat probably dug under the fence as there is no other obvious way it could have got in. I'm wondering now if we should dismantle the back run and just leave the girls in the main WIR. However the main WIR is all slabbed, for the purpose of making it rat proof, and not sure if the girls would be happy not having soil to dig around in.

 

I know rats come with the territory when you keep hens, or so it seems, but right now I just feel like giving up with it all as I've got a real problem with vermin and the germs they bring into the garden. I don't recall anyone ever mentioning rats when we looked into keeping hens

 

I'm just glad that we lock the Cube up at night otherwise the rat might have gone inside that

[Bantambabe]

I shall probably be very unpopular for posting this, but I've found rat poison is the only way to go. I had a rat tunnelling into the eglu run and stealing the eggs.

 

Our shed stands on batons so there's a 1.5" gap under it. I push blocks of rat poison into these cavities. The gap is large enough for a rat, but too small for a cat. Haven't had any trouble with them since. Could you put some out in drainpipe sections or something?

[Snowy]

Unfortunately rats are all around us, you only tend to see them if there numbers increase, and they do that if there is a steady food supply. He may have been a single opportunist looking for food, or part of a bigger problem.

Make sure no food is left out overnight. May be worth keeping the hens in the cube run for a few days and putting some traps in the main area to catch any that may back. You can get proper bait boxes for the poison if you are worried about your hens getting it. I have several stationed around the garden - haven't seen a rat in ages.

Also do a search on the forum, there are lots of threads already about rats

[Mercedes55]

Thanks for all the advice. We are very careful about not leaving food out at night, it's brought in every evening from both parts of the run.

 

I have a real fear of germs, to the point of being a bit OCD'ish about them and things that most people don't worry about will worry me into a state of panic unfortunately.

[Bantambabe]

Bringing the food in is really important even if you have the poison out. I was told that the vitamin "supplements" within the chicken pellets can act as an antidote to the rat poison so if they have access to that the poison won't be vey effective.

I don't think it's OCDish - rats are really not nice and can carry some nasty bugs.

[The Dogmother]

I'd bring in the food and lay some bait boxes along the runs.

[Mercedes55]

I have the man from the Council coming on Tuesday to put some bait boxes down, so hopefully that will sort it out for now.

[Snowy]

Thats good news and hopefully it will ease some of your anxiety about it