Chicken questions

[red]

*ahem*

time out.. and things like that.... c'mon guys... lets keep it friendly

[Andy Hamilton]

Yep, fair enough to disagree and have a bit of a debate, but please lets not get personal here. It is not often that I get alerted to posts but this time I have been.

Remember folks there are no rights or wrongs just differences of opinion and also treat each other with some respect. We have only banned spammers so far and really don't want to start having to take any action against our members.

So come on group hug.

[fenwoman]

*ahem*

time out.. and things like that.... c'mon guys... lets keep it friendly

I'm friendly. Everyone says so. I smile at the neighbour's children, distribute free pots of jam and marmalade to anyone who calls and shows an interest, I chat to anyone and everypne and give away eggs to someone I know with 4 kids. I'm one of the most friendly and open hearted people I know. However I do not always agree with people and feel free to say so
Even when I'm really tired like now, I'm still friendly.Roll on the time when I can go to sleep but I can't as one of my cavaliers is whelping right now and I won't go to bed until she is finished. 6 so far and I think she still has one to go. Better dash downstairs again to help out.

[Millymollymandy]

Sadly, Fenwoman, you don't come across as friendly on this forum. You seem to delight in being provocative, which is a shame, because you have plenty of knowledge and experience to share with the members, if only you could do so in a friendly manner!

I would like to ask Maggie what to do about rats in the hen house, as we've just seen evidence of rats tunneling into it - it has a beaten earth floor. We never had rats before, only mice, but know they are now around as my cat brought a dead one in last week. I'm a bit worried!

[maggienetball]

Rats!

Although I am organic in every other way, I don't use green measures when it comes to rats. I have tried "Eradirat" (organic version) and it did kill some rats but it was prolonged and I don't like to see any animal suffer.It also did not wipe out the colony and so was not effective.

I can only speak for what has worked for me but I use a professional indoor method which I use outdoors in special containers.

Spoke to a pest control expert and was recommended the "box and block" method.

Bought a couple of bait boxes at Mole Valley Farmers (about £5 each in plastic). Also bought a tub of Rodenticide blocks (about £35 for 200)

The boxes are completely inaccessible to chooks and lock so can't be opened accidentally. They have an inner chamber where the bait is fixed inside on a spindle and so has to be eaten off and therefore can't be carried away with any chance of the chooks getting it. As it is extremely poisonous and lethal to all animals I only put the bait boxes out at night and not in the hens roosting area. (didn't want to take any chances). I put the boxes by known runs and holes. Once they've found it they fight over it. They love it so much! At least they die happy (ish)

I had a colony of about 30 rats which had made a home under the shed. Had tried other methods without success. All rats dead in 7 days (and after 30 blocks).

My hen house has a wooden floor and we cover the underside with double chicken wire. However, when we had a rat colony, they used to sneak in the pop hole and try to hide there for the night. I knew when they were there cos the girls tried to roost outside and were reluctant to go in.

Anyway hope this helps. This is what I did and it worked for me. However it is a very strong poison and anyone who uses it should be very careful.

Oh and cos most hen food contains Vitamen K which is the antidote to rat poison, you should remove all chook food at night!!

[Millymollymandy]

Thanks Maggie, I'll print this out and give it to my husband. He's got the name of some rat poison from a neighbour who has used it effectively but it is more the question of how to 'administer' it without the chooks getting at it! (I can't do anything myself as I'm currently hobbling around on crutches recovering from a broken foot!).

[red]

as i am not a fan of poison:-

something my parents use if humane traps.. baited with peanut butter.. then despatch the rats with air rifle..

another stragedy that helped was raising the hen house (which has a wooden floor) onto blocks.. now the cat can get under the house...

[Martin]

when we had the chicken farm we were plagued with rats - you're in the awful situation of the poultry food containing vit K (the antidote) to the only legal poisons. I can't remember the name, but I used to buy a bottle of the concentrated poison with which you laced a sack of grain as it was far cheaper.
I don't think you can completely eradicate them, you just have to try to keep them down to manageable levels - I permanently had an air rifle at the ready, and a Jack Russell who hated rats!
Once when we mucked out, the local lads came round with their terriers, and took over 350 rats in an afternoon!
(ps, if a cat can get under a henhouse, so can Charlie Fox - I once had the unedifying site of a coop full of marans, still alive, minus their legs - pulled down through the slats, and eaten by the fox! )

[red]

should say the house in question is inside a run, and does not have slats but a wooden floor.

[Martin]

thank heavens! - it's not a pretty sight!

[maggienetball]

I tried a humane trap and releasing them in fields a few miles away but I found them hard to catch that way and it was all a bit hit and miss. I also got told later that they home!! Tried putting tippex on them to see if I caught the same one twice but then I realised that I was spending more time with the rats than the chooks.

Try lining the house floor with chicken wire. Rats can gnaw through wood easily enough but would take longer with the wire and you'd notice it before they got in.

You could also put the bait boxes outside the run and then the chooks wouldn't get to them.

I understand opinion on poison. I felt like that too. But for me it came to a choice between the chooks and the rats.

I have near neighbours and live in a residential area. If they thought there was rats there would be a mass outcry. I don't want to go shooting them in my back garden given the likely public response.

.....Also my husband has banned me from having a gun as we have noisy neighbours and he worries I may be tempted!!!

[the.fee.fairy]

The only thing i have to say about poison is please be careful.

My dog came from a farm where his mum caught rats. One day, she caught a poisoned rat, adn it killed her too, so please be careful that there aren't dogs about who like to catch rats.

[maggienetball]

I'd like to echo that warning again.

The pest controller who recommended it did say that a cat could need to eat more than 8 dead infected rats in a row before it would become ill - but I wouldn't like to risk it.

[Martin]

nor me! - the other thing to watch out for is that some farmers are not beyond bunging something like a rabbit laden with "cymag" out for troublesome predators - that kills quickly!

[fenwoman]

Sadly, Fenwoman, you don't come across as friendly on this forum. You seem to delight in being provocative, which is a shame, because you have plenty of knowledge and experience to share with the members, if only you could do so in a friendly manner!

I am provocative. I enjoy debate and if I can provoke debate then surely that is good? BTW provocative does not =unfriendly. Unfriendly would be if I never entered into debate at all.I may be confrontational, opinionated,blunt,provocative, but never ever can anyone say I was unfriendly. The problem with internet forums as the only part of a person you get to see is a few words on the screen in front of you. In my case, nobody sees that I am soft hearted, very funny, friendly, helpful and easy going because all they may see is me being blunt and straightforward in a reply. I must admit I have no patience at all with the blame culture which seems to have been imported from across the oceaon whereby if someone has an opposing view or states a view in a straightforward and down to earth manner other start yelling about rudeness, nastiness etc. I think in the whole 8 odd years I have been online and subscribed to various forums on lots of different topics, I have never called anyone rude or mean or nasty simply because they disagreed with me. I have invited the disagree-er to debate why they think that thy are right and I am wrong and have enjoyed the debate and hoped that those reading both sides of the argument can form a balanced view even if they choose not to join in the debate. That, after all, is what debate is supposed to do.

I would like to ask Maggie what to do about rats in the hen house, as we've just seen evidence of rats tunneling into it - it has a beaten earth floor. We never had rats before, only mice, but know they are now around as my cat brought a dead one in last week. I'm a bit worried!