Chicken bald back

[ChickenPoopGarden]

I thought I'd better start a new thread so that we can concentrate on the problem of horrid Mr Ratty.

last night I filled in the tunnel with some of the extremely sloppy mud that has been building up outside the run in these storms. The stuff is properly goopy and sticky, so i imagine Mr Ratty would have to dig a new tunnel rather than bother with the old one.

I put a bait box under the decking that is directly in front of the run, in the path of the tunnel (baited with those blue blocks that smell like white chocolate). Finally I removed the food and water.

Sadly there were still a few grains of corn from the snack time that afternoon, but I figured that would be a good way of knowing whether Mr Ratty had been to visit the next day.

Sure enough, this morning I put the food and water back in, let the girls out and had a good search around the run. The corn was all gone, so the rat had been, but he hadn't used his old tunnel - that was still full of mud - and I couldn't really find a new hole. Hmmmm.

I used to look after the brown rats at London Zoo (Don't ask me why they keep brown rats, I have no logical explanation) and they would scurry up the wire sides of their enclosure in a panic whenever I went in to clean them out, so I have no doubt that my Mr Ratty could do the same up the chicken wire and out through the bigger gaps in the heras fencing.

I'm not touching the bait box for a while, to give it a chance of losing my scent.

Finally, this morning I went back out after breakfast and took the feeder in again. I'm hoping that the girls basically fill their crops and then wont miss the feeder till later.

I was going to leave the feeder out again in the afternoon for a bit so that they can fill their crops before bed. Don't even know what to do about the lunchtime s"Ooops, word censored!"s...

Has anyone ever done this? Instead of feeding ad-lib, just feeding twice a day?

[Beantree]

It's a sensible thing to do CPG, so that everything is eaten. But it's a system that really only suits free ranging chickens in warm months. At this time of year you need to be sure they all have full crops and with the usual greedy squabbles we have you may get one that doesn't eat enough. We have one or two hens that rely on eating midday, because that's the only time they don't get bullied.

 

Rats can climb quite easily, same as a squirrel as the same family. However you may get mice as well if the rat doesn't visit.

[Hippie Chick]

Have you considered using a treadle feeder? I got one from Ebay for £30 - galvanised steel holding 15kg of feed.

 

The chickens step on the treadle to get access to the feed. A rat wouldn't be heavy enough to operate the feeder so you wouldn't lose any feed to it and it may give up searching for food after a while of not finding any.

 

I did have to show my lot how to use it though

 

It's a lot nicer than putting poison down that may end up poisoning other wildlife or pets. Rats don't die straight away from the poison, they will crawl away slowly dying which makes them attractive and vulnerable to animals that prey on them and get a dose of poison themselves in turn.

[Blackrocksrock]

I second a treadle feeder which goes in my eglu classic run if you out it in sideways till it gets in. No rats at it.

[ChickenPoopGarden]

Yes, I thought I might need to invest in a treadle feeder although I am worried that the little Bantams won't be heavy enough to use it. I've seen a brand called Grandpa's advertised- are there better and worse treadle feeders or are they all much of a muchness?

Sadly, Mr Ratty turned up at our bird feeding station yesterday with Mrs Ratty and six little Ratty juniors so we called in pest control. We have been instructed to keep feeding the birds, to keep the rats away from the chickens and near all the bait.

Meanwhile. No evidence of eats in the food-free coop, but the girls are eating like hogs when the food goes in morning and afternoon. I haven't felt confident to give them corn or s"Ooops, word censored!"s because I can't be sure they'll eat it all and the rats will get it.

[Beantree]

We have a Grandpa's Feeder CPG. I think bantams will be too small to operate the treadle. If you do get one balanced that well (and we have tried) it will open for the weight of a large rat as well I think. You could look at a Trigger Happy feeding system. They should be able to tap hard enough to operate it, but we've had problems with ours because the trigger tends to 'float' up into the feed and stop operating.

 

When we had a rat problem we resorted to Fenn4 traps put well out of reach of anything else. Problem is they will catch hedgehogs as well and also they don't always kill the rat. Cage traps are best I think, but then you have the problem of what to do with the rats, because they bite and carry disease. It is going to be difficult whatever you do unfortunately.

[Mars]

I found Trigger happy chicken feeder doesn't float when the plastic is thin, I used hard plastic bin, make a big hole at it's bottom and put a sheet of thin plastic in it with 20mm hole in the thin plastic

I also found the below bait station works well.

 

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/946846/lightbox/post/14623271/id/6607806

[ChickenPoopGarden]

Well I like the look of the trigger, and it's cheap, so I bought one. What would count as thin plastic? An old milk bottle? I guess I'll have to see the trigger to figure out how it works and therefore how it might get stuck...

I just feel sorry for the girls not having access to their food.

Now they'll need to figure out the nipple drinker and the trigger feeder! But I suppose it will make them work for what they want - more entertaining for them, eh?

[Beantree]

Took 3 weeks to get ours to use the trigger feeder. I spent ages tapping the trigger but they wouldn't learn. In the end we left them starving and that gave them the incentive to learn. Now they seem to enjoy it and are actually eating more feed. None left for the sparrows certainly. Our container is a plastic bird fat balls tub, so it's quite thin.

[ChickenPoopGarden]

oh cool, I have one of those! Thank heavens I don't have to spend any more money. My husband is despairing about these expensive chickens!...

[Mars]

What would count as thin plastic?

I use the red lid of the container below

It is working great, for a month or two now no problems

I use 80 litre dust bin with it so rats can't chew their way in.

 

http://www.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/ODAwWDgwMA%253D%253D/z/5HAAAOSwrklU~His/%2524_35.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Westland-Garden-Health-Fish-Blood-Bone-All-Purpose-Plant-Food-10kg-tub-/160838126800&h=300&w=300&tbnid=d9Qnpm-fZbRbWM:&docid=BxmswNPZ6FyRXM&itg=1&hl=en&ei=4W5PVo3iFMHEPdTMnGg&tbm=isch&ved=0ahUKEwjN1pft2J_JAhVBYg8KHVQmBw0QMwggKAQwBA

[Mars]

Took 3 weeks to get ours to use the trigger feeder.

Same happened to me in the beginning, I covered the tip of the feeder with red tape it helped.

also painting with red paint will do even a better job. just I didn't have red paint. may be red nail varnish will do

[Beantree]

You have reminded me Mars that initially red insulation tape was wrapped around the end.

[ChickenPoopGarden]

Red nail varnish? bleh. This is when being a tomboy is so regrettable. i will have to find something red to tack on the end there...

[Mars]

Just notice yesterday, as the red led is visible to the hens through the bigger hole, few of them tend to peck at the "base" of the feeder. and they get pellets. may be that is helping to prevent "floating"

[ChickenPoopGarden]

red LED?

[Alis girls]

Well you have Mr Ratty I have mouse babies 3 (sounds like a new boy band) hiding under the roosting bars this morning. All cosey with hen central heating from above. Two escaped and one was ruthlessly gobbled up by Maggie May who looks like an oven ready chicken due to moult from hell. The others fought her for a leg but down it went not something I care to witness too often.

[mullethunter]

[Mars]

red LED?

Sorry

red lid

[ChickenPoopGarden]

Red lid makes more sense! I thought you had some fancy electronic set-up going on!

Cool that your Chickens ate the mouse... wish they'd attack Mr Ratty..

Haven't seen hide nor hair of the little family since the pest man came, though. don't know if that's because He's killed them all or because they've decided to scarper and avoid the bait.

In further news, my stupid chickens are digging themselves out of their WIR! Well, not really, but they are so desperate to get out in the garden that they are scratching dips into the edges of the run - Don't help the rats to get in, you dizzy bints!

We have some sort of conifer in the garden that dumps huge volumes of long needles, so I gathered up a couple of wheelbarrow loads, tipped them into a big pile on the floor of the run and sprinkled a handful of seeds on top. The girls were most entertained scratching about in the heap so hopefully it will keep them out of mischief. At least until they've flattened it, anyway...