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Suzanne

Rats under the Eglu

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Last week we moved the Eglu and run onto a new part of the lawn and put down Aubiose and surrounded the run with Bark Chips.

It has worked well so far and then as it got dusk early yesterday evening I saw a rat in the run!

We all ran out and lifted the eglu. The Aubiose had been pulled underneath to make a nest.

In the dusk we cleared it all out and put the chickens to bed. They were a bit agitaed by this time with all this activity at bed time.

This morning we found the rat had returned but had now dug a hole, underneath the Eglu.

Husband is not pleased and wants the chickens to go. Daughter and I, we are upset and say NO.

War zone!

Suzanne

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We are very lucky and have never seen any rats around our hens/garden. But I know many people have had them. They are usually attracted to food (s"Ooops, word censored!"s/corn/layers etc. which has been left on the floor).

 

Apparantly you are never more than 20ft away from a rat anyway (and where there is one, there is more).

 

So I wouldn't worry about it too much... Put a few traps down if you can and see what happens.

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There was a recent chat about rats. ...Here... is a link to it.

 

My advice would be to get some bait boxes and put poison down.asap.

 

Or you could go for traps, but then you would have the unpalatable task of dealing with corpses.

 

If possible. I'd move the Eglu onto paving slabs.....it might still burrow under the slabs until the poison kicks in, but I'd put the hosepipe down any holes he digs and give him a cold shock.

 

Bring any food in at night for the time being. Some people prefer to do this every night.......some hen food contains vit k which is an antidote to some rat poisons.

 

The rats would have been around anyway, the hens have not made them appear from nowhere. They have just made themselves more obvious, that's all.

 

Don't get rid of your hens. A few steps to get rid of the rat will do the trick I'm sure.

 

Good luck.

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we had exactly the same problem - it came to the twice-monthly move of the eglu and there was a nice rat run under the eglu, complete with stash of old food and s"Ooops, word censored!"s that it'd nabbed from the run.

 

we've bought a sheet of fine, welded mesh that we now peg underneath the eglu and make sure we pick up all uneaten s"Ooops, word censored!"s when the girls go to bed, as well as taking in the grub and glugs at night.

 

I've also had to start putting less food in the grub as our three like to knock it out with their beaks and eat it from the floor...

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tried that with a tea-tray (with a decent lip). No dice.

 

All they did was 'dance' on it and kick the pellets everywhere. Our eglus is parked on what will eventually be our vegetable patch and the hens have free-range over it during the day. After all the weeding / worm chasing they're doing as a consequence they're getting REALLY good as kicking / digging to the point that whenever they're faced with food the first thing they're do is stand on / in it and madly s"Ooops, word censored!"e away!

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I will try the fine welded mesh under the Eglu. I have done a similar thing with the compost bin, lined the bottom with chicken wire and it seems to be working.

 

I have always taken in all the food and drink containers at night but I guess there are always odd bits around that we cannot see.

 

I keep the Grub low so they do not spill. The tray I did put underneath was always kicked over.

 

:( I know that rats have to eat too but I wish they would go somewhere else!! Husband is not a happy man.

Suzanne

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