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Chicken keepers

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Original poster

Chckens and rats - does one always attract the other?

27 replies

MollieO · 13/02/2010 22:47

I appear to have been persuaded by ds (5) to let him have chickens. Is it a certainty that we will end up with rats? I can put up with a lot but the thought of those is probably more than I can stand. We would be getting an Eglu Cube so the hen house is raised off the ground if that makes a difference. Food and bedding would be stored in our utility room.

OP posts:
ChasingSquirrels · 13/02/2010 22:48

our rats didn't attract any chickens

ChasingSquirrels · 13/02/2010 22:50

couldn't resist.

We have had chickens for about 18 months, I just started to type that I hadn't noticed we had rats, but actually we did have something in the shed - but the shed is quite away from where the chickens are, and we don't store any chicken related things in it.

Washersaurus · 13/02/2010 22:52

Hmm I'm guessing there are rats all over the place anyway - they only become a bother when you have chickens I suppose. They are likely to be enticed by the bedding and food strewn all over the place .

I don't think we have rats but have had mice in the shed when DH 'forgot' to put the chicken feed into the plastic bin.

Washersaurus · 13/02/2010 22:53

Oh, I should say we have had mice in the shed before - they once nested in and ate all DH's fishing equipment.

Original poster
MollieO · 13/02/2010 22:58

ChasingSquirrels.

That is why I am thinking of keeping food and bedding in the house. I had thought of getting a galvanised bin and keeping food etc in ds's playhouse. I have spent the evening reading the various threads on MN and I am quite mortified by the prospect of chickens = rats. I intend being scrupulous about keeping everything clean but I am wondering if that will be enough. Ds will be heartbroken if we don't get chickens but I'd rather say no now and deal with that than the other.

OP posts:
ChasingSquirrels · 13/02/2010 23:00

our food is in a plastic bin thing in the garage - not had any sign of that being attacked.
also have some in an old 10 litre paint tub which just sits next to hen run, that also unattacked.

ChasingSquirrels · 13/02/2010 23:00

straw also in garage, in plastic sack, never touched either.

Original poster
MollieO · 13/02/2010 23:04

Do you leave food in the run overnight or remove it?

OP posts:
ChasingSquirrels · 13/02/2010 23:06

I have a couple of feeders - but they just kick them over and the food scatters everywhere, so now food is in a big dog bowl that doesn't get tipped. Anything in it gets left overnight - nothing appears to be eating it as it is still there in the morning.

ChasingSquirrels · 13/02/2010 23:07

oh - and our run isn't enclosed, so rats could easily get in if they were about.

Original poster
MollieO · 13/02/2010 23:10

That reassures me a bit. I was beginning to think that the appearance of something large brown and furry was envitable!

OP posts:
ChasingSquirrels · 13/02/2010 23:12

we do have a lot of feral cats about, although at the time that we discovered something in the shed there was a female with kittens also living at the side of the shed - so maybe cats not very useful after all.

Washersaurus · 13/02/2010 23:12

Our chickens free-range but have a run (not eglu) - we cut the mesh a little and fitted the Omlet glug and grub on the run as the chickens kept upturning the other feeders we tried.

We have open compost bins anyway so if we are going to get rats it will be for those...

Plastic bin seems to keep food safe in our shed.

Our chickens seem to chase off unwanted intruders, including seeing off a squirrel who was looking for its buried stash in the veg patch

Washersaurus · 13/02/2010 23:14

I have nightmares about what they did to the frog that ventured into their space to escape the cat...

Pancakeflipper · 13/02/2010 23:16

Our neighbours hens attract rats but they lay food out in the run and in their outside area so it's like a running buffet. They've set up home in another neighbours attic and under their decking.... So they bought 4 terriers.... It's war.

Original poster
MollieO · 13/02/2010 23:17

I refuse to have compost bins because I'm scared they will attract rats . If we get chickens I will be offering the poo to the local allotment holders.

OP posts:
ChasingSquirrels · 13/02/2010 23:18

I put the poo etc from the hen house into the brown compost bags we have for doorstop collection.

Original poster
MollieO · 13/02/2010 23:21

I also refused to have decking when the garden was redesigned because of the risk of rats. My mum has a terrier so that might come in handy. The only time we have had mice in the house is when the cats brought one in. It lived behind the washing machine in the utility room for weeks eating a ready supply of dry cat food. Neither of my two cats took the slightest notice. Both of those died of old age over the last couple of years but we will get kittens later on this year.

OP posts:
stealthsquiggle · 13/02/2010 23:47

PMSL at ChasingSquirrels. We have chickens. We also have rats. I don't actually think the two are particularly connected - when it snowed there was no paw-print evidence of rat activity in/out of the chicken run. Rats are in the garage and the roof and we are conducting ongoing chemical warfare. They don't make any noticeable inroads into the chicken's feed though (feeder in run, rest in plastic dustbin + lid)

Since we stopped putting eggshells in the compost the rats seem to have gone off that - but since we have cartoon mouse holes in the garage doors I think they just find the garage more comfortable

The chickens have hysterics about rats though - when we first had poison boxes down in the garden they seemed to curl up and die randomly around the garden and the chickens hated that.

ChasingSquirrels · 13/02/2010 23:50

oh yuk - I think I prefer the idea of a rat in the shed more than coming across a curled up dead one in the garden.

I threw rat bait down the hole that the something chewed in the floor of the shed. Flowerpot covering the hole didn't move again after that, so I am assuming that the something is deceased.

ChasingSquirrels · 13/02/2010 23:52

we also have had somethings in the compost bins - ex used to wee on them (good for compost heaps not because he was a weirdo) and once opened lid to be confronted (penis already out - ex, not the something!). He never did it again, but wasn't sure if it was a mouse or a rat.

stealthsquiggle · 13/02/2010 23:58

I once lifted the lid off a dustbin (to put rubbish out for binmen) only to come nose to nose with a rat. I was so suprised I just put the lid back on - and went inside to tell DH it was his turn to put the rubbish out. I may or may not have mentioned the rat.

ChasingSquirrels · 13/02/2010 23:59

rofl

isthatporridgeinyourhair · 14/02/2010 12:18

We have had rats in the past with chickens - infact one of them (a rather large one) took up residence inside one of the chickens house and killed (and ate)3 of our pullets one night before we realised it was there. Now I keep my food in galvanised bins and chop kitchen scraps in the food processor (rats like to be able to take food back to their burrows to eat and they can't if it's in little bits). I don't leave food out overnight. As they carry Weil's disease we bait as soon as we see a hole - for me a dead rat is infinitely preferable to a live one. And by the way - if you see one - you've probably got a lot more!

CrowAndAlice · 14/02/2010 12:20

i like to think of them as thin-tailed ground squirrels.

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