[littlechick]

  Grrrr the little 

Went into the Chook shed to find a flippin great hole in the corner.... thing is they aren't going to find food as i feed the girls in the day and see them gobble it all up!

I have covered it in a very thick mesh wire and blocked off the hole to prevent more damage, they has burrowed some very neat tunnels under some bags and seem to be living under my daughters wendy house (its huge.. was here when we moved) so im not sure what the best way is to get rid of them?


We had mice in the house before Christmas but unfortunatly they had to be dealt with (peanut butter and a trap worked very well) but I don't think it would do so well with the bigguns?

Any ideas? I have young children too so want to avoid poisen.

[robert waddell]

a ferret or move the wendy house everybody wants hens but the down side is they attract rats

[daddymatty82]

get a JRT and a air gun where are you im sure someone would help you shoot it if close enough

[charlie]

Yes a little furry ferret will do the job

[OhLaLa]

If the hole is in the corner of a concrete floor, put more concrete into the hole to seal it.

Where the Wendy House is, it will need to be put up on some sort of platform to lift it.

Glad you are not using poison, and please be careful with traps as it's not only rats that will get caught up in them.

And rats love a tasty freshly laid egg, I knew someone who had had enough and just left the eggs 'et al' lying about in the barn. I watched the rats from his house one afternoon, helping themselves to whatever egg or grain of food they could find. The mess in that barn after a couple of weeks of being abandoned.....

[shetlandpaul]

try a live trap. the mum in law has just been told that she has rats in her loft. she is not a very happy lady.

[littlechick]

Well the Wendy house is about 10ft high (has stairs  ) and is set on top of concrete slabs, there is noway on this earth i will move the damn thing.

We are planning to move around May time anyway and as it was here when we came, I don't want to move it (permenantly) as it may fall apart    

Ferret? now that sounds like a good idea except the back of the wendy house backs onto a stream, the wendy house itself has no fencing behind it (it has fencing on either side) and would worry about the ferret escaping?   I have never had ferrets! so have no idea!

The hole is in the corner of the shed, but the shed is about 3 inches off the ground (concrete underneath).

I was aware that the hens would attract rats... but I was kinda wishing and hoping they would skip our hens  

I am interested in traps, we don't tend to get much in the garden apart from the odd cat but not usually down the bottom where the hens are... hmmm unsure!

I want to try and sort this asap though as they breed!!!

[littlechick]

get a JRT and a air gun where are you im sure someone would help you shoot it if close enough

We have an air gun actually 

JRT? they are?   

[robert waddell]

for ever one you see there is ten more they nest in the side of the stream and use it as a motorway and are very intelligent a good adversary broken glass in the hole under the concrete they also send out the young first before the breeding stock feed

[littlechick]

for ever one you see there is ten more they nest in the side of the stream and use it as a motorway and are very intelligent a good adversary broken glass in the hole under the concrete they also send out the young first before the breeding stock feed

Broken glass i can do 

I think I will have a battle on my hands

[Fleecewife]

Do you know anyone with working terriers?  Our two would probably dig out the whole lot for you - they are like little machines and don't stop until they have every one.  As Lillian says, there will be lots more than the one you saw.  I don't like the idea of broken glass as it will injure other animals and people who come into contact with it.  I'm not sure how you go about finding people with terriers - perhaps there is a club in your area?

[littlechick]

I am not surehow I go about looking into borrowing a working terrior.
It seems they tried another angle of the shed but failed  due to this mesh wire I wrapped around the side of the shed.

I will have a look to see if I can find anyone local as it would be far better than using glass (which I don't really want to use) I just hope I can get rid quickly!!

[shetlandpaul]

ferrets/polecats and chucks really don't mix.

[shrekfeet]

I have been baiting in plastic bait boxes for about 3 weeks now. I have 3 types of poison, mix it with melted fat, peanuts and raisens and mould it between two desert spoons into a small cake. They have been taking these nightly for 3 weeks - why are they not dead?
Yeasterday I set some traps, traps have gone off but no rats. Obviously they are under cover so the chickens can't reach them.

I'm at a loose end as to how best deal with them. We have 3 cats which love to catch rats but they can'ty get into the large chicken run as the perimeter has an electric wire to keep the foxes out!

I really don't want to have to sit around all night with the shotgun as I think this would be a waste of tim as is unlikely to get them all. Any ideas?

[Castle Farm]

Just covered this on Downsizer.