Chickens and rats.

[Wolf-Kim]

Found a page on using barn owls to control rodents. The name "Barn owl" should be a dead give away. Could almost be considered domesticated. LOL

http://tommy51.tripod.com/aboutbarnowls.html

 

[big brown horse]

Found a page on using barn owls to control rodents. The name "Barn owl" should be a dead give away. Could almost be considered domesticated. LOL

http://tommy51.tripod.com/aboutbarnowls.html

That is cool!

Here is our barn cat thread: http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3352

 

[SKR8PN]

Update: You guys are gonna LOVE this one. My farmer buddy Jerry came over this morning WITH his .22 rifle loaded with shotshells. I loaded up my

We moved all the straw bales to see if we could locate the buggers. We thought that maybe they were actually living UNDER the coop, so I moved the hens to the other end, stationed Jerry outside the coop and I poked around in the dirt with a pitch fork. Nothing. Sooooooo I grabbed the AR and headed back in. I emptied a 30 round clip into the ground where we thought they might be. Again nothing, but it sure was FUN and "IF" anything was under there, it is going to remain under there for a very loooong time. I planted traps in 6 places I have seen tracks and I also made a couple of bait bombs out of PVC pipe and laid them out and about. Next I dropped poison in BOTH of the sheds(just in case). Just for good measure I made a trap out of a 5 gallon can with a with a 1.5 inch hole in the lid and loaded it with poison and corn to attract him/her/it. I have been extra careful about my egg gathering and I plan on removing the food from the coop area every night.

Now we shall see what happens........

 

[SKR8PN]

Update on the rat situation: After the firearm attempt at elimination AND the first round of trap setting, I was still finding telltale signs. I started removing the feed from the coup every night before dark and had set two snap traps baited with peanut butter outside the coup, in the path that "it" was using. I had also made that can trap and set it inside the coup and left it there, since the hens couldn't get into it. I had also seen tracks( I love fresh snow for tracking ) under the one end of our deck and out around another storage building that we have close to the garden. I set out two poison baited tubes, and another snap trap near the shed and another near the end of the deck. He/she/it FINALLY got hungry enough to get into the trap closest to the coup!


I was really hoping to catch it in that can trap I built.

Now we shall see if it was just a bachelor moving in, or if it is a momma setting up home making.

Patience my son, patience.........

 

[Farmfresh]

Yippee! One less rat among us. Keep the faith!

 

[freemotion]

"It???" Wow, you are a dreamer!!!

 

[FarmerDenise]

SO and stepson have been going "hunting" in the back. Since the rats have been eating our persimmons out of the tree every night they decided to go out and shoot them out of the tree. They got quite a few, but more got away
We remove the chicken feed every evening and the perimmons are now gone. (I managed to pick 2 bushel baskets and they are ripening nicely.)
SO has trapped a few, including some pregnant ones. I am sooo tired of fighting the rats.
They are a big reason, why I cannot leave a momma hen with chicks outside. The rats get the chicks!!

 

[SKR8PN]

"It???" Wow, you are a dreamer!!!

Well Free...... I figure it like this........I ain't gonna spread it's legs and do an in depth analysis of "it's" sexual organs. He/she/it pretty much covers ALL the bases.

 

[big brown horse]

I think she meant there are probably 1000 more still living there.

 

[kcsunshine]

Yep! It's never just an "it", but more of a "them" situation.