Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Anisah David on February 13, 2010 at 10:09am

The issue of rats is one that must always be dealt with when raising poultry. Chicken eggs & even young chickens are a food source for rats. Its one reason poultry raisers must have strong predator proof pens for their poultry. However, she probably had rats in the area, even when she got rid of the chickens. She only got rid of one of their food sources. Yet would she also get rid of her food? Or other things like habitats that the rats lived in? My husband has a blacksmith shop & on the side of that shop we have a dog run, where we kept our family lab. The rats were found under the dog's dog house, which was INSIDE the blacksmith shop! We suspect they were consuming some of her dog food as well. Yet we never dreamed of getting rid of our lab just because of the stupid rats. Rat poison is a beautiful thing! We used Decon rat bales & got rid of the rats & didn't cause any harm to our dog or the local cats who ate their share of our lab's dog food either. Possums & Coons can also be an issue, if you don't provide an appropriate secure coop for your chickens. So don't be afraid of raising chickens. Just do it responsible. After all, if we want to be closer to nature with raising livestock & gardens, we must recognize that NATURE in all its forms will likely get closer to us...and some of them will be uninvited guests. We need to have in place ways in which we will deal with those uninvited guests. Be it secure coops, bate or what ever other means we choose.

Permalink Reply by Theresa M. Stefanick on March 2, 2011 at 9:44am

We've had chickens for 12 years and haven't had trouble with rats.  We keep their food in metal trash cans.  We also feed them bread & keep that in a large Rubbermaid trash container.  My husband built a very secure chicken coop with run for them but we've still had a couple racoons get in and a possum who ate the head off my Golden Laced Cochin Bantam rooster.  The possum didn't live long after that but that little chicken was one of the prettiest I've ever had and I was very upset for a few days.  Generally speaking, we don't seem to have rats.  We do have one huge, orange tabby who lives outside and I give him credit for "taking care" of a lot of vermin for us.  Saw him haul a full-grown rabbit up to the house when he was six months old.

I agree with you, Anisha in everything you said.  Oh, and, most little critters that get into the coop don't last long.  They go berserk.

Permalink Reply by Brenna z6 PA on February 16, 2010 at 8:05pm

I haven't had any problems with rats, but I make sure I keep their food in sealed containers, and have their food they are currently eating hanging like a bird feeder. This way they still get to it, but other critters cant. My chicks also freak out and chase other animals. When we moved here there was a groundhog, but after being chased by three crazy chicks, it never came back.

Permalink Reply by Kevin Kidd on February 21, 2010 at 6:18pm

I haven't had an issue with rats or mice for that matter. As Brenna said we keep the food in a 30 gallon garbage can with a top that seals with a half twist. The feeder is hanging from a rafter above the floor of the coop. And anything that gets with in chasing range of the girls gets chased.

Permalink Reply by Skeeter588 on February 21, 2010 at 8:27pm

I haven't had any problems with rats, but I have several VERY good mowsers out and about!

However, we ALWAYS have a resident possum when we have poultry. Possums love eggs, chicken feed and dog food as well. We always name them the same thing ' "EEK!" It started with EEK the first when my youngest (who is now 20) used to at age 10 go out to do her chores, which included feeding the chickens. About twice a week when she'd stick her scoop into the chicken food barrel she'd hit fur! :) And, of course, exclaim EEEEK! :)

Permalink Reply by Ronald G Maxwell z5/MI on February 21, 2010 at 8:39pm

That it too funny. Makes me think whenI lived in town and my neighbor, who lived in a older home, heard some scratching noise in his old kitchen cabinets. He looks in his bread drawer an a big opossum is laying in there with a big smile on his face. With his gloved hands he grabs it by the fur on the back of his neck and runs for the door screaming all the way. We al ran to the door wondering what was going on.

Skeeter588 said:

I haven't had any problems with rats, but I have several VERY good mowsers out and about!

However, we ALWAYS have a resident possum when we have poultry. Possums love eggs, chicken feed and dog food as well. We always name them the same thing ' "EEK!" It started with EEK the first when my youngest (who is now 20) used to at age 10 go out to do her chores, which included feeding the chickens. About twice a week when she'd stick her scoop into the chicken food barrel she'd hit fur! :) And, of course, exclaim EEEEK! :)

Permalink Reply by Sharon Rose NW Ohio 5B on March 22, 2010 at 7:35am

LOL great stories.
I've never seen a rat out here, we have field mice (near the beginning I even saw one run out of the food trough into the barn, the coop & barn share a wall). We've had other critters in the pen (possums, skunks, racoon, and at one point before I did a double tightening of the coop had something that was in the henhouse and killed a couple of chickens, one per night (now there is no point of entrance...chicken wire and 2x4 running under the barn wall. I have all of our animals (cats, dog, chicken) feed in the attached garage we walk in & out of several times a day, the only thing that's gotten into there is our animals...chickens peck hole in bottom of pet foods! ARGH. Then I have plastic containers in the house for the pets and a 5 gallon bucket with lid loosely attached (not fully, what a pain that would be every day) out at the hen house.
The most chickens we had was 13 laying hen.

Permalink Reply by Anne Chastain on March 22, 2010 at 3:39pm

A lot of people who have rats are feeding their chickens kitchen scraps. An easy food source will attract rodents. I do as most of the others suggest. I keep the feed in a metal container with a secure lid, hang a feeder on a bungee cord that raises as it lightens. And I keep their pen clean. If the pen is littered with leftover scraps of food, rodents will come after it. I don't put down more greens and food scraps then they can eat immediately. The rest goes on the compost pile.

Permalink Reply by Julie Buck on March 22, 2010 at 5:09pm

We always have mice, raccoons, badgers, skunks, coyotes. Comes with the territory. We keep good cats for the mouse/vole problem, a dog for the coyote/deer problem, a .22 for the raccoon/badger/skunk problem. Also, all the feed, horse/cow/chicken/dog/cat is in good containers with lids that lock on (except the hay of course). The hay attracts deer who then like to eat my bushes also. Please don't everyone jump on the .22 issue. You only have to lose a few good hens and/or have you dog sprayed a couple of times to know that SOMETHING has to be done about the raccoons/skunks and badgers. Badgers will attack and kill even large dogs and kids. They are way meaner than coyotes and big cats (mountain lion, cougar, bobcat), of which we have had several visit. They really mean no harm as long as they aren't hungry AND they are great to observe. The coyotes and hawks and owls and eagles really help control the mouse/rat population.

Permalink Reply by Anisah David on March 23, 2010 at 12:11am

Clarification... the rats I've experienced were not in a building with livestock feed. They were living under a built in cabinet in a BLACKSMITH SHOP of all things... no grain. no scraps. But they were still there. But we live less than one block from a farmer's grain elevator full of stored grain! So it doesn't matter how great we are personally at sealing up our livestock feed. We are still going to have critters looking for shelter & since we don't have dogs controlling the building's unwanted inhabitants... we get rodents such as mice & rats on occasion. I'm a committed believer in Panther pellets due to this! Drop a few of those large pellets & I have no rodent problems chewing on things.

My aunts, who raised more than a hand full of hens... more like a few HUNDRED on her farm always had to cope with coons, skunks & rats trying to get in to the hen house. Rats will kill hens as well as steal eggs. Its all depending on the size of your rats I suspect.

I also know that skunks, possums & rats LOVE people to feed cats outside! They appreciate the buffet of free food & will often fight over the right to have it, with a cat. Watching a cat loose a scuffle to a possum or a skunk makes one realize just how NOT a good idea it is to feed cats out where wildlife can "share" in the food provided.

My biggest issue currently isn't rats or other rodents... its feral cats! So the real solution for all these unwanted guests to the hen house is simply a strong & secure poultry run, in my opinion.

Permalink Reply by Kim Beall on September 1, 2010 at 10:22am

We've never had rats but we DO have squirrels, so from the very beginning I've always kept the chicken feed in galvanized steel trash cans with tight-fitting lids. I only give the hens as much food as they can eat by their "bedtime" each day. This goes double for kitchen scraps, which if not eaten up by bedtime would attract not only rats but possums and raccoons, which eat chickens (yes, I have had possums break into the coop and eat not just the eggs but the hens themselves if I have been too diligent about collecting the eggs before bedtime! I know it was possums and not raccoons eating them, because I eventually trapped them.)

We DID have a problem with "rats with hooves" (aka deer!) eating up all the hens' feed before they could. They would go right inside the chicken pen and butt the feeder with their heads until the feed fell out on the ground so they could eat it up. You had to practically walk right up to them and punch them in the nose to get them to go away - and then as soon as you turned your back, they'd be back. I finally solved that problem by putting the feeder inside a big crate that had a door cut in one side that was only big enough for a chicken to get into.

Permalink Reply by diana Z9 Houston, Texas on September 3, 2010 at 9:10pm

I have cats and I have not seen any rodents, also we have snakes around and usually they take care of rodents too. I have chicken and horse food in the garage and have never had a problem with rats. Even in my chicken coop I have never seen any. Sorry. I think everyone should have chicken and not worry too much about those things unless they don't clean up after their animals.

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