I know that the chicken feed attracts rodents and I deal with that by just feeding what the hens will eat BUT NOW the ghastly beasts are gnawing open the eggs and eating them!!!! I am grossed out by this and want to get rid of the hens. Can't stand the thought of eating eggs that rats have touched, ughhhhh!!! Any ideas? Does anyone else have this problem? I obviously worry about disease that rats carry, ick!

-- Chris Allen (cfallen00@hotmail.com), April 16, 2000

Answers

I hate rats and mice! I would rather come across a 10' rattlesnake than a mouse. Where do store your grain? It should be in a metal trash can with a secur lid. No wood or plastic containers they will chew right threw it. What type of feeder are you using? It is better if it is suspended off the ground 4 or 5 inches, the chickens can't scratch the feed out and it makes it harder for the rats to get to (not fool proof but helps). Don't place feed on ground or feeders that sit on ground. Is the aerea around the hen house free of old wood or brush piles? Rats like to maqke homes in them. Is the litter in the house deep? Rats will make home in deep packed litter they will have tunnels going everywhere. Keep the aerea clean of all trash and wasted feed. Try to pick eggs out of nest several times a day, rats seem to be more active at night so leave no eggs over night.

Now to get rid of the rats you already have. Place 3 or 4 5 gallon plastic buckets around the hen house fill them 1/3 full of water and float a small dish with some feed on it in the water. Make some ramps out of some scrap lumber to place aganist the buckets sprinkle a little feed on ramps. The rats will climb ramps jump in bucket and drown you can trap several at a time sometimes. It is not a pleasent job to empty buckets but it is a lot safer than pioson less messy than leg traps. It may take a few weeks to get rid of them, you will probaly never get rid of them all but it should help. GOOD LUCK!

-- Mark (deadgoatman@webtv.net), April 16, 2000.

Chris, you should check out the older messages in the Hen House catagory. "Rats in my chicken coop" lots of good ideas there.

-- Mark (deadgoatman@webtv.net), April 16, 2000.

How can you tell it's rats eating the eggs?

-- Pat (pmikul@pcpros.net), April 16, 2000.

We to have had those nasty Rats getting into our hen house. Here is what we did, a bit of work but worth it. Dug about 1 inch of soil out of the Hen house floor. Nexted we bought Heavy duty 1/2" Hardwear cloth. Sewed it together with medium weight hot wire, so there would be no way for the Rats to get through. Then rolled it out onto the Hen house floor, 1 inch up the inside side walls. Attached it to the walls and studs every 1/2". Put some soil in and packed it back down. No rats now!!!

Good luck with what ever you try. :O)

-- Bergere (autumnhaus@aol.com), April 17, 2000.

Bergere, I'm a virgin to E-Mail, please be gentle. We used the hardware cloth when the rats first began gnawing on bantams in a small ground-level coop. It worked great,we thought, until we moved the coop and discovered Momma rat nursing at least thirteen, (actually very cute), rat babies. They no longer had access to chicken eyeballs, apparently a delicacy, but they were protected from the cats, dogs and other predators. We were providing them with cover, food the chickens scattered, and warmth. RAT WELFARE. All of our coops are now raised, with metal bottoms or hardware cloth, and metal trim on the doors. The raised floors are nice when you have a small flock if the wheelbarrow fits under for cleaning.

-- Rollingrocks (sisyphus@stargate.net), April 18, 2000.