The Poultry Keeper

sirfrancis · Joined: 16 Apr 2007 Posts: 71 Location: northumberland

whats the best way of deterring or getting rid of these blighters

CP · Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:34 pm Post subject:

Poison in bait stations, unfortunately. Just make sure the bait is safe from your girls.

We've tried snap traps but only ever caught 1.

Keep all food in metal bins or somewhere else that's secure. Try to keep spilled food to a minimum - difficult as chickens are pretty messy eaters! Rolling Eyes

sirfrancis · Joined: 16 Apr 2007 Posts: 71 Location: northumberland

thanks, i think they're living under the greenhouse, will lay the bait under there, girls cant get to

Itsybitsy · Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 1443 Location: Leicestershire

Rats also love a pipe, so you could also put bait in a length - say 3 - 4' of drainpipe, make sure the poison is well away from the ends so nothing else can get it, modern poisons are very good and only take about 2 feeds to do the trick - but keep on putting it down until it stops going.

Itsybitsy

Loudmouth Schnook · Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:35 pm Post subject:

We only had problems with Ratty when the chooks were confined to a run... now they freerange and get scatter fed, so the feed gets gobbled up pretty quickly. Don't keep feed in their houses at night - that's one tip I got. And the feeders if not empty, should be put away at night. We keep our feed in sealed plastic rubbish bins. Keeps the chooks and the horses out too! (yes, the horses have been known to manage to shoogle their latches on their stables and have a wander in the barn! naughty Paddies!)

james419 · Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 6:27 pm Post subject:

One of our french friends came up with an answer - yet to be tried!
take a small bowl and part fill with plaster and cover with flour, close by put a bowl of water, the rats smell the flour and have a good nibble then feel thirsty and have a good drink, they then become internally plastered!! disappear and snuff it.

He has apparently been using this method for a number of years very succesfully, buying some plaster tomorrow to give it a try, it saves our pups from eating a poisoned rat

CP · Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 9:28 pm Post subject:

How will you know if it's worked? Confused

james419 · Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 7:41 am Post subject:

Either by finding more bodies or hopefully not seeing as many rats - the problem for us is that we have 3 puppies and also many choocks and ducks and poison therefore is restricted in the areas that we can us it - also dont want the pups chewing a poisoned rat.

Any results will be posted asap

Fingers crossed please for drastic reduction in Rat population

sirfrancis · Joined: 16 Apr 2007 Posts: 71 Location: northumberland

thanks folks, have found about 12 rat carcasses so far, the pipe suggestion worked really well, havent tried plastering them yet