AIBU- Neighbour repeatedly complaining about rats near our chickens despite pest control

[Becnextdoor]

Do not have many neighbours, only 4 on our street. I live next to this lady, detached houses but our garden is seperated with a hedge if that makes sense. She has lived in that house for 4 years and we used to get along in a good neighbour way - as she lived alone I would often do garden work for her and she came round for a family barbecue once a year, normal neighbour stuff.
We (me and my wife) have had pet chickens for about 7 years now, they are located near the connecting hedge, out of her sight, and she’s never had a problem with them, however the chickens have randomly just now started getting rats, and as a result some of them have gone in her garden, she has messaged to complain, and came round twice to complain, all in the same week, after the first complaint we told her we were dealing with it - as we were, however rat traps take time and don’t work instantly, however, she kept coming round and telling us it was our problem and we need to sort it, and getting progressively annoyed, even though we were managing with it. We payed for pest control to come today, and they even went and spoke to her about how it was getting sorted - as we were tired of her continuous complaints, I didn’t even get a ‘thank you’ or anything, and even after the pest control she is still complaining. She is about 40 years old and a lot of her money is “mummy’s money”, private school and parents brought her a nice house in a nice area, so especially with knowing that, we really think she’s just acting abit entitled now. We are probably going to fall out with our neighbour over this, are we in the wrong for being annoyed? edit: The rats only started coming the same week she got a new cat and dog, she’s also recently had an oil spill - which apparently can attract rats, I don’t know if that’s relevant but.

Get rid of the chickens, or at the very least move them so they are nowhere near her boundary

I accidentally re posted it. I think this one was the original one actually.

Thanks for your reply, the chicken food is in one of these - attached photo. It’s not my photo, I googled it, but it’s the same feeder.

I actually added a poll on one and thought I deleted the thread. This is my first time posting so I’m not too sure how to delete it properly.

She may have a phobia of rats/mice. In which case no wonder she is distressed.

Did the poll on the other thread not go your way then?

That’s what stood out to me ,he/she wanted a thank you .

Well rats can get in that feeder, not sure if there’s such a thing as a rat proof feeder.

But what I actually meant was your storage of food in the shed, not the feeder. Do you use metal bins? How often do you sweep the floor around where your storage bins are to clean up any spillage?

or do you just put all your food in that feeder when you buy it and never have any sacks, etc of food anywhere else?

I googled, there are rat proof feeders. https://www.daltonsupplies.com/products/treadle-feeder-5kg-capacity-feed-o-matic?variant=42241756856542&country=GB&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&tw_source=google&tw_adid=&tw_campaign=21205249175&tw_kwdid=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21198110613&gbraid=0AAAAABZA39jSZ-1eRwB32EE65H5NLjMJu&gclid=CjwKCAjwt7XQBhBkEiwAtStpp43OTQJfJtVLggvMNncZJTsyn2kbMDUulVVprVTqav-0C6wmViDU2hoCkUYQAvD_BwE

We have a ratproof feeder. We had a real problem with them prior to using it. It’s called Grandpas feeder. The chickens learnt to use it really quickly and so far (a year later) the rats haven’t sussed it out. Would highly recommend.

Oh and food stored in metal bins

I think honestly this is why chickens don’t belong in tiny town gardens. I have chickens. I live on a farm. We manage rats well with raised coops and rat proof feeders and a dog. We do get them, but not a ridiculous amount compared to just what any rural property would have. But chickens in a semi urban environment is just asking for trouble, not enough space and you will attract them in from all the other properties where people aren’t managing them properly.

We used to fill up their feeder and only refill it when it was close to running out, but since we've started bringing the feeder inside during night. Will look into the feeder, thank you 👍

Our garden neighbors a Forrest and our garden is a lot bigger than the average garden, a few of our other neighbors have chickens and ducks however they live further down the street, so not as close to my neighbor that's complaining about the rats.

If you’re by a forest you’ll inevitably get wildlife around. The treadle feeder linked above is what we have. It works great. The weight of a chicken will lift the cover so they can feed but a rat won’t.

Then only other thing I wonder is whether your garden is big enough to move them further away from the properties?

Is all the chicken food secure? Jump on the issue as fast as possible. The neighbour has every right to be annoyed.

Why on earth should she say thank you for you sorting out the problem you caused?

Perhaps they are responsible and take care not to attract rats, that’s why no one’s complaining about them.

I think there are more rats around in gardens. I visit a lot of domestic gardens and I’ve noticed more rat holes under shrubbery etc, I think it’s the two mild winters that have lead to an increased rat population. This is all non fact based and purely anecdotal, but it might explain why there is a problem this year that wasn’t there a couple of years ago.

None of these houses have chickens, but several of them have bird feeders.

She is about 40 years old and a lot of her money is “mummy’s money”, private school and parents brought her a nice house in a nice area, so especially with knowing that, we really think she’s just acting abit entitled now.

Arh yes, she deserves rats on her property, then 🙄Where did her parents bring her house from?

Where there are chickens there are rats.

You clearly don't like her, and the added extras about her home, finances and family are completely irrelevant. You need to deal with the rats, you shouldn't be in this position of an infestation as you should have been preventing them all along. Don't leave feed out, don't throw scraps out etc. She's absolutely right to be pissed off, rats don't come in 1s and if you see 1, you can guarantee there are many more. If you want to keep chickens, be responsible because currently you sound like the arse!

Even without the rats I’d hate to live next door to you. You come across as a patronising, entitled, self-centred bore. We know how garden hedges work, you should be apologising profusely for the rats not expecting to be thanked for addressing a problem you’ve created, and why should the fact that she lives alone mean that you’d do gardening for her?! And her and her family’s financial situation are completely irrelevant.

ya both u

rats are a fact of life.
they are all around us, never more than a couple of meters away (I have read somewhere).

that doesn't mean you not doing anything you can to avoid atracting them. apart from anything else it's good animal husbandry.

We had problems with rats for a while in our chicken coop. They made tunnels all over the place and we regularly saw them running about. The coop backed onto the garden of the Airbnb we rent out, and we didn't want guests complaining of rats! We sorted the problem by temporarily moving the chicken coop/run and filling in all the rat holes. We also purchased a metal treadle feeder which has eliminated the rats as there is no longer a source of food they can get to. After we were sure the rats were not coming back, we moved the chickens back to their original location and haven't had any issues since.