To bump off next doors chickens

[jkl0311]

Sil has 4 chickens next door to us in the garden in a hut... she can't seem to get the idea of tucking the feed away in a plastic bin, leaving it open in the garage and now the bin which half the time she uses has a massive hole in the top of the bin for a rat to get in... we have attached garages and now the place is living with rats now matter how much a bait them more appear for the good living.... I have mentioned this to her several times and she's not slightly bothered....

aibu to release the chickens and say the Fox had them??

Four free roast dinners...

The chickens aren't the problem here.

Have you considered bumping your SIL off?

Yes, she will just get more chickens! Your SIL, so married to your brother? Or?

She's getting bored of the chickens so I'm hoping if they got bumped off they wouldn't bother again. I don't mind the chickens but if they can't keep the food stashed away (not rocket science) I can't bear rodents. They just laugh about it!!

Catch one of the rats and sneak it into her house. She'll quickly do something about it then.

Buy her a metal dustbin to put the feed in, about £20...that will sort the feed problem, then get to work on the rats.

Bump off the chickens one at a time. Leave scattered feathers and the hacked off head in your garden and exclaim loudly about the fox. Some of the rest will make a lovely dinnet

Phone the council. I’m willing to bet she doesn’t have the relevant permit for keeping farm animals in a domestic dwelling!

Can you report to environmental health?

At least they don't have a rooster. Cfn I'm looking at you

you just need a metal dustbin with a metal lid. buy one for her as a Christmas or birthday present and then its sorted. she does also need to make sure she doesn't over feed the chooks or any food left on the ground uneaten will also attract rats.

when you get the metal bin make sure you bait yours and her garage at the same time as the rats will want to get food from somewhere and a sudden loss of their food source will make them look to come inside.

remember a rat can get through a tiny hole - the size of hole that you make when you put a pen through a sheet of paper. they are devils once you have them to get rid of.

Thanks for all your replies I'm going to try and get her to buy a metal bin with a bit of added pressure, then tackle it again we baited everywhere yesterday evening but like you say they will keep feeding in the bin

Phone the council. I’m willing to bet she doesn’t have the relevant permit for keeping farm animals in a domestic dwelling!

There's no permit required for a few chickens in a back garden. If she had more than 50 chickens, or any pigs or goats etc she'd need a CPH number, but it's not relevant to this situation, and in any case it's a registration not permit scheme

Ringing the council's pest controller would, however, be a very good idea as they will deal with rats for free.

In addition to the metal bin, if the rats are able to access the chicken food in their coop, she would do well to remove the feeder at night, suspend it from the floor in the day, and use the sort of feeder that has bars to prevent billing out (chickens spilling food on the floor) like this one.

I kept chickens in my back garden for years and we never saw a rat, so there's no need for this carry on.

@AvocadosBeforeMortgages I wouldn't dream of ringing the council to report her! We are on a farm so totally understand about rodents but can't see how you can be so ignorant to not do anything about the problem!!! They don't take the feeder out at night and it's not suspended so will suggest that.