Chooks and rats

[LibbyK]

Chooks and rats

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We are considering getting some chooks in the near future and I have been to see and breader and have borrowed a few books from the library.

We would get 4 silkies. We have an existing aviary with a concrete floor and we would build a run off the aviary for them during the day when we are not home, and they would free range in the backyard when we are home.

However I am worried they will attract rats, we live in suburban Sydney. I have never seen any rats or mice near our house, don't know if this is a good sign?

For those of you with chooks, what has been your experience with rats?

The breader I saw suggested to put their food away over night, does anyone else do this?

One of the books I borrowed scared me with talk of Weil's disease!

Thanks!

[hanabi]

Re: Chooks and rats

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My experience is rats and chooks are synonymous. I recommend you feed them scraps first thing in the morning so they will be mostly cleaned up by evening when you lock the chooks in with some layer mash or other grain combo. Still, the husks and scraps will naturally attract other animals. Ours is a very rural setting but we find the water fowl raid the chicken coop and lay their eggs there too. We often find rat holes around the property.

And also, where there are rats, there are often snakes. We find it goes in seasonal cycles though so it's not like a year-round problem. If you have cats and dogs in your neighbourhood you might be better protected than us.

[sweetsugarsunshine]

Re: Chooks and rats

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I could have written that post myself, I really want to get the same amount and type of chooks.
But Im worried about the rats and Im scared of lizards.lol.

Ahhh.. I had a great book on chook rasing, but it doesnt really mention it and its for larger numbers of chooks to.

[Bronnie]

Re: Chooks and rats

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we have some creatures in the walls, but i think they're marsupial/native rats. they sure don't go down to the chooks. we didn't have any rats at the last place. we have the feed in a lidded garbage can. you can buy feeders that the chook learns to step on and feed themselves?

[Dorasmum]

Re: Chooks and rats

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My mum had a terrible time with rats on the farm. I can't remember too much of what she did, but I can just suggest to make sure they dont' have anywhere to nest. Like bales of hay.
I've just got memories of Mum using ratsak and having half dead rats staggering around the chookpen. She had to chase them with a stick to finish them off, not the most humane thing to do. But that was out in the bush on a farm so should be quite different to being in town.

Just keep feed secure in tins and not something they can chew through and keep an eye out for signs of them. Mice are probably more likely.

Em

[bunty]

Re: Chooks and rats

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We have never seen rats or mice in or around our property. We have four chooks and a completely enclosed chicken coop made from fine gauge chicken wire. We use hay on a dirt floor inside the coop. Unless the vermin were 1cm across, they couldn't get into our coop as the wire is too fine. I am pretty sure the chooks would try to eat anything that size LOL (one discovered a dead bat yesterday in the backyard and raced away with her prize firmly in her beak before DH took it from her ). Oh, we have two cats as well, but they have never brought us any ratty offerings, or mousy ones. It may or may not be an issue for you.

[lrning2b]

Re: Chooks and rats

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We have five chickens in suburbia.

We have had a major learning experience with them. First we notice birds. They flew int the coop because we had large gauge chicken wire, but they often could not get out. We had a few distressed birds with broken wings from their desperation at trying to fly out. We have fine gauge wire around the whole coop. And no more birds.

We then came across a brown snake. I didn't know that brown snakes lived in suburbia, but they do I guess.

The mice came. And they still do come in droves. We are just used to them now. We keep ratsack in the garage and glue traps in the house to make sure no little babes eat anything nasty. We have a 3monthly cycle where we catch a few (3-5 mice) and then nothing. The chickens usually eat them if they are young or slow we have noticed.

We now have a problem with a huge cat from neighbors! This cat is so big! It is almost the same size as my dog!

But the chickens are fine. Their coop is really secure and we love them. DH I think may love them more than the dog. They are great little girls and they produce the nicest eggs and the richest mulch for the garden. We do free range them so their yolks are a brilliant orange year round and they keep the spider and bug population to a bare minimum. And we haven't seen snails in years.

I hope you do get some chooks. They are a fun and great investment!

[LibbyK]

Re: Chooks and rats

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Thanks for your response everyone

Initially we thought we would build a run off the existing aviary, but then we would have to buy another shed to house the boys outdoor toys and bikes that currently live in the avairy. So now I am not sure if we would be better off to do that, or to build a coop from scratch and keep the avairy for the boys stuff? The avairy is great in that it has a concrete floor and the wire is small, if we built a new coop, we would have to make sure the chicken wire went a fair way into the ground wouldn't we?

Hmm, what to do.

[hanabi]

Re: Chooks and rats

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Would your yard accommodate a chook tractor or some kind of moveable cage with roost?

[Jakaluma]

Re: Chooks and rats

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We found that keeping the chook food in an airtight drum helped. Mice were our problem rather than rats. Also kept food scraps to what they'd eat and early in the day and dug in left overs.

Be aware of foxes too if you rebuild - you'll need to go deep (least metre and a half) or concrete floor if they're around (they're in most capital cities - we lost a lot of chooks, ducks, rabbits over the years to foxes in suburban Melbourne)

Chook tractor great idea and can be cheap to make if you have some bits and pieces to recycle