Solving Omlet Smart Auto Door Timing Issues with Alexa Routines

[MillyJude]

We had a chicken killed yesterday, neck and head damaged while they were out free ranging, i thought it was a hawk,

 

But then this morning we had another chicken dead, in the cube, head chewed off and a big rat hiding in the straw,

 

The cube door was shut so how could it have got in? Are they rat proof? Could it have been waiting inside?

 

Dont know what to do, we are very rural so there will always be rats but didnt think they would attack like this

 

How do i control the rats? Poison, council?

 

Sorry if this is rambly im pretty upset and dont know what to do

 

Thanks

Edited November 1, 2013 by Guest

[kinsk]

so sorry, we had a rat kill our two quail a few weeks ago, same thing with heads chewed off. Husband has been out with his air rifle each night since, touch wood they haven't tried the chickens yet.

[Olly]

I'm really sorry to hear of this, it must have been very distressing. Rats, like mice, can get through surprisingly small spaces - I haven't heard of a rat attacking a chicken before, they are usually more of a problem with eating the food and spreading contamination. Do you think it could have been a mink or a stoat - perhaps the rat wasn't the culprit?

 

Either way if you have rats you will want to get rid of them, poison in secure bait-boxes, so that other animals can't reach it, is the best bet.

[MillyJude]

I have got three bait boxes this morning and put them down there

 

I know the rat seems unlikely but i have never seen a rat anywhere near there before and it was hiding in the straw right next to Dusty's body, so it just seems too coincidental doesnt it?

 

The chicken killed yesterday was different, her neck and head were pecked bare, but the bones were not damaged, thats why i thought it was a hawk. But we have had no attacks from anything for 16months since we got chickens so surely two different predators would not have arrived in the same 24hours?

 

I'm thinking about getting a cockerel,cos it might offer a bit of protection from predators generally, what do you think?

 

Thanks

[Luvachicken]

Awww I'm so sorry to have read about your poor girls.

I hope you get to the bottom of whatever is causing it.

[Redwing]

Rat attacks are nasty, I'm so sorry

 

The outside kill was probably a rat and sounds like classic rat injuries - chances are that the other hens will have pecked at the wound increasing it's size. I would imagine the hen was lying down originally when she was attacked

 

Hopefully the bait boxes will work, you could cover the run in a finer weldmesh if it comes to it though (1 inch x 0.5 inch max)

[jackian]

We had rats coming from a nest under a neighbours decking a few weeks ago ..After I had seen it in our garden a couple of times I called our local council . They were brilliant ,They came and put 3 bait boxes down away from the chickens and also in the neighbours garden ,they also knew exactly where the rats were coming from and going to. They came back 2 weeks later and checked the boxes and nothing had been taken from mine but the neighbour had no bait left .We were seeing the rats every day but since the council had been not one.

The service with our council was free of charge ,I am not sure if it is the same with all.. When I rang up the chat in the beginning was talking of price but that is for wasp nests and other things so don't be put off.

I was also concerned about them being attracted by the chickens but he said although any food left around would attract them it was no different to a bird table or next doors wind fall apples .

I would not hesitate to ring them again .

[heth1986]

How sad

 

i had a rat problem last year, admittedly they didn't attack the chickens but they were so bloomin blatant about coming into the chicken run and didn't even run away when i went outside! Needless to say, I set about getting rid of them and to be honest, it was trial and error for a good month or so until we found a solution...

 

Bait boxes didn't work at all for me, maybe i didn't give them enough chance, maybe my rats were just too clever? i don't know.

 

I bought some of those snap traps, like the old fashioned wooden mouse traps but much bigger. They did work for the younger, smaller rats but only once i'd started putting peanut butter on them rather than cheese, chocolate etc... Mice seem to like chocolate, rats love peanut butter. Strange. i put these out at night and brought them in during the day time, other than one that I managed to secure out of the chickens way.

 

For the older, seemingly more intelligent rats, the only thing that worked was an air rifle. Not for the squeemish. But the rats just sat there waiting to be shot! We only shot 2 really large rats so it was either a really small colony (unlikely) or they were just scared away.

 

Touchwood, i haven't had a problem this year but i am now oh so careful about dropped food, s"Ooops, word censored!"s etc and NOTHING is left out at night.

 

I hope this helps, good luck!