Rat problems for chicken keepers

[Ripeberry]

Hi, Just seen a HUGE rat a the bottom of my garden where i keep the chickens and it was in WITH them.
Found it had nibbled a hole in the wire fence (told you it was huge) and it just lopped off, not even running away.
Went down to my local Countrywide store (farmer's shop) and they have sold out of rat traps and poison as there is so much of a problem with them.
Don't want to use poison as it does not work half the time and costs a fortune.
Managed to find a plastic "one-click" trap and have baited it with a piece of Marathon bar.
Just got to see if i catch the evil rodent.
There was even a rat at my DD1's school, as bold as anything sitting under a car in the car park, we could see it as we have to go up a small incline.
Have any of you got rat problems at the moment?
AB

I have chickens and no rats

Probably because I also have a dog and 4 cats

Lots of slugs come out at night on the patio though, the chickens fair go mad hoovering them up when I let them out in the morning.

My friend has rats though and she had to get a pest guy in. How about just feeding the chickens only what they need for the day and taking the food out at night?

I've got a cat but he's too lazy to catch it!
I do only put food out in the morning its just that this rat comes out during the day and helps himself.
At night the food is already gone!
Just need to find someone with an airgun!
AB

No rats here - the run is on concrete slabs so they can't burrow under, the wire is extra tough wire, food all kept in aluminium bin. Have a look at my blog here which has some pictures of our run.

Our cats have caught 5 rats in the past few weeks (left one under the kitchen table ) - this is the first time they have ever caught any in the 5 years we've been living here! We do have chickens, but have had them for years and this is the first time there have been problems, so not convinced it is chickens, plus we only ever feed them what they will eat and no more.

Whilst staying with my parents we went for a walk at a local nature reserve and OMG it was like a plague! They were everywhere you looked, on the path by your feet, you could hear them in the bushes, it was horrible.

We have legions of mice in all the outbuildings but no rats.

The mice can frequently be seen on bird feeders and in the chickens corn hopper.

They're a bit annoying, particularly when they try and nest in the chicken house (they can squeeze behind the nest boxes) but they're preferable to rats.

I've heard that if rats move in, the mice move out. I've have no idea if it's true but I haven't seen a rat here in nearly 8 years.

I think that is true DuchessofN - we had a rat problem a few years ago, and we observed then that all the mice had gone. But we haven't had rats since then, and have a few little mice living down by the rabbits.

Try the sweepings from a ferret hutch...rats hate the smell.
Or try cutting back on your cat's food a little.
Airgun works a treat.
We had rats swarming all over the birdcakes for the wild birds. eewwww

don't they say you're never more than 6 foot from a rat?
My chiekn run was rat proof but mice could squeeze in.
Tortoise, how well do you keep the run clean? Mine are on concrete slabs too with straw indside the run but food forms into hideous mats that have to be scraped off the slabs when I clean out the run oncea week.

I have chickens and saw a rat in the garden a few weeks ago. I keep feed in rat proof bins and the feed hopper is not on the ground - its tied to the underneath of the henhouse (which is on legs), so is suspended in mid air. I suspect a big rat may be able to reach if on its bac legs though

Not much more I can do. I'm not bothering trying to catch it.

My MIL has had a rat in her greenhouse for ages - she puts traps down and it gets the bait but doesn't get caught - even with the humane traps, the door comes down and the box is empty, even food is gone!

We've got mice and slugs, but haven't seen a rat since when we first moved in. We have our own car and the neighbourhood cats all come to ours on a night.