Chicken bald back

[alion]

Hi everyone, I was hoping to get a little advice about rats.

 

We have 2 (at least) constantly feeding around our run. They're coming in from someone else's garden, there's lots of composts and sheds around. They're pretty cheeky and you can get most of the way up the garden before they casually walk off and they always head into the corner of the garden and out into someone else's.

 

I've put two bait boxes down (ones that the chooks can't get at) on their route to and from the garden but I know it can take a while before they take the bait.

 

But what can I do in the mean time? Every time I look out they're there and I'm worried there'll be hundreds of them before they start to take the bait. The chooks are terrors for spreading their food around so we're putting as little as possible in but also don't want them to starve. I know the rats are feasting on fresh food they've kicked out their run every day - how do I stop their food supply? Could I use some plastic sheeting round that part of the run or something? Or would the rats/chooks tear that apart?

 

It's not a massive garden and as such the rats are quite close to the house. I have a tiny baby and am afraid to leave the door open and next door have two small boys who play at the end of the garden, it feels like I need to do everything I can to fix it.

 

Thank you in advance

[Egluntyne]

Welcome to the forum.

 

There is some advice about rants in the FAQ section. click for link

[sjp]

raise the feeder up to about chest height of the chickens or a little higher so they have to stretch slightly to feed and not see the food that way they can't see to sort through it. p.s. the feed tray part of the feeder should be at that height

[Chickabee]

Put peanut butter in with the poison. They can't resist it

[redcharlie43]

I bought some treadle feeders that were supposed to be rat proof but ended up being the best traps I have ever used. They were able to push themselves through the door but then couldn't get out. I then tipped them into a wheely bin to be disposed off by my lovely OH and his pellet gun. On a more serious note I had the same problem. I cleared away any compost areas in my garden, laid some baited boxes but also spoke to the neighbours. It turned out they were living under their shed and they had already had pest control round. After catching 7 rats alive and finding one dead I have never had a problem but I do keep topping up the bait in the bait boxes. It seems to disapear over time but I have not seen any rats sine the initial infestation. Unfortuntely it may mean being a bit patient. Believe me if you see them in the daytime then the nights are worse. I set up a camera and was shocked about how many rats were around at night as well as the day Good Luck.

[alion]

Thank you all. I've raised the feeder and I've laid tiles around the run so that we can sweep up any food that gets out the run a couple of times a day. I'll get some peanut butter this week (can't stand the stuff so don't have it in the house) to sweeten the bait boxes as well. I think the rats are living in one of the gardens to the back of us so I may wander up and talk to those people. I dread to think how many are up there right now. I haven't seen any today since I put all those tiles down but I know they're not great with change so maybe changing stuff every day will disturb them for a bit.

 

I was watching the chickens whilst feeding my son the other day and I saw one peck at a rat through the run - the rat jumped about a foot in the air but was back scavenging within minutes...