Keeping rats out of the run.

Our first winter with chickens, the winter before last, we had a real problem with rats getting into the run.

I wanted to keep rats out for several reasons. I like to leave the chicken food dishes out because in the summer the girls come out, at their earliest, at half past four and I want them to have food available but don’t want to go out at that time. Also in the winter when I have resorted to taking the dishes in it is difficult to pick up all the spilled pellets from the crevices of the patio.

I don’t want the rats fowling the run and I don’t want them around my chickens.

Unfortunately on the other side of the fence that borders the chicken’s patio there is some decking and that is a perfect place for rats to live and breed. Although we had put vertical tiles under the fence they were still digging under. We also had a wooden box that stepped down from the patio and they were tunnelling under this.

We also found a hole chewed through next door’s fence into our shed which forms the back of the chicken run and then through our shed into the run.

They were determined! We blocked the holes and we replaced the wooden box with concrete. We put chicken wire under the soil of the entire area next to the fence, topped with a horizontal layer of tiles then soil back on top.

They still got in but we could see they were trying to dig out then hitting the tiles. They had to be getting in through the roof. We sealed the roof area with a double layer of fine chicken wire.

At last we stopped them getting in and once that was achieved we put poison down in sheltered spots outside the run and once the poison stopped disappearing we knew we had got rid of them.

I documented all of this at the time. It was a battle but we were determined not to be beaten by them.

Last year as soon as the cold weather came the rats came in again. I know when they are getting in because I clean thoroughly every morning and as soon as I see rat droppings, usually behind the little coop nest boxes, I know they are getting in.

I didn’t bother to document it last year because it was brief and our fault I felt.We had missed a bit of tightening up the roof by the gate and as soon as we repaired that the problem was over.

Now the run has been extended dramatically over the summer and again as soon as the cold weather came so did the rats.

There was no sign of digging in, so we inspected the roof. We thought that where the wire overlapped over the top of the new part of the run there was a possibility of rats squeezing under it. We painstakingly tightened this area. I took wire and wove it through the overlapping wire, in a running stitch and pulled it tight. It was time consuming and arm aching but I felt sure this would do the job.

After each process I would clear all rat dropping so that I could check if there were new ones in the morning.

Still they were getting in. I checked the roof area again and found a fist sized hole in the wire by the gate. I blocked it with layers of weld mesh and felt sure this was it.

Next morning they were in again. I checked everything again then noticed some soil by the coop. We pulled the coop out and there was a hole chewed through the fence behind the coop. I blocked it with layers of weld mesh then a heavy paving stone in front.

The next morning I despaired as they were still getting in. I searched every where again and when I pulled out the table next to the fence I could see a hole by the bush. The chicken wire appeared to have been chewed through. I rammed a large rock into the hole then covered it with a layer of chicken wire. I then covered it with broken bits of tile and topped it with a brick which I hammered and jammed into to place. This was not only to stop rats getting in but to stop the chickens getting to the wire.

I felt pleased with my work and quite confident that this time I really might keep them out.

At this point my husband entered the run to see how I was getting on. The next thing that happened really stunned us. A rat ran right past us and Toffee nearby who gave out her angry sound. I thought it would head for the hole I had just blocked and wondered what would happen when it couldn’t get out. But before my eyes like lightening it disappeared through the weld mesh.

It was like watching magic. I think it was a young one but if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I would never have believed it could have got through the weld mesh.

The first year we had this problem I asked on the “Down The Lane” forum if a rat could get through weld mesh and one person said that they could because this person had seen it with their own eyes. I thought that the rat in question must be a very small young one. Now I too have it seen it with my own eyes and would never have thought a rat that size could pass through weld mesh. I don’t think a large adult one could get through though.

Our weld mesh has one inch squares.

The problem now is that all the blocking we have been doing has been in vain if they can get in through the weld mesh. This makes it a lot more difficult problem but we feel sure that it’s only young ones that can get through such a small space and the fact that it was trapped and desperate to get out.

My next move was to take all the food out at night so there is nothing for them to come in for.

The next morning there was no sign of any rat droppings so we again put poison down in sheltered spots.

Every morning there were no more rat droppings in the run and the poison was all gone. We kept on with this until the poison slowed and eventually stopped being taken. There has been no evidence of them since so I feel we have now got rid of them again.

Hopefully that’s it for this year but I am sure they will chew their way in again next year and we will have to go on finding the entry holes and blocking them. I am determined not to let them beat me.