# Rats in Quail Pen



## Marysgoats (Oct 9, 2007)

I've got rats in my quail pens. I tried putting rat bags at top to kill them but, what else can I do? I forgot one night the lid on a 55 gallon drum an the next morning had 28 rats in it. I have noticed also the rats will go to the goats water barrels an get water an lose there balance an fall in a drown. I have never seen so many rats. What do you do to keep the blooming things away from your amimals?


----------



## PurpleToad (Jan 23, 2011)

Seems to me that you need to leave the top off a couple more 55 gallon drums with a little feed in the bottom. If you can catch 28 per night that should cut the population down pretty quick. 

Do you have cats/dogs in the barn? If not I would look at rat poison to get the last few of them. Or if you opposed to poison, see whats out there for rat traps.


----------



## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

Do you know anyone with either a working terrier (Jack Russell, Rat Terrier, etc.) or a ferret or two? Either of those ought to put a severe crimp in the rat population.

One thing you could do is leave a few handfuls of grain floating on top of a foot or so of water in an open barrel, and make sure you have ALL other feed sources out of their reach. You will at least manage to drown quite a few of the adult population that way, but you'll have to get at the nests and the young somehow, or the population will shortly be back up again. 

Kathleen


----------



## Wingdo (Oct 5, 2002)

Sounds like an infestation... you live near a feed mill or rendering plant? We'd get an infestation during a big grain year, but using the barrel trick mentioned above they wouldn't hang around long... we also shot quite a few of an evening during these times.


----------



## Marysgoats (Oct 9, 2007)

No I don't live by a grain mill. I live on 33 acres an right in the middle. Think is I have pines growing all around an I guess you'd call it underbrush also. That is where I think they are comming out of. I had one is a pen right in the corner one morning. Husband came down an shot him. They seem ti come in from the roof. Ye, I do have dogs GP with the goats at the barn. I really wouldn't want to see if I didn't have them close. I can something set an wait till waters fill for the goats an see them eating food the goats has pushed to the grown. Boy, I do hope I'm cutting the number of these rats down by what I'm doing.
I've seen where they set on top where the feed is covered for the quail an have a egg or two that was layed at night. So you see they get feed several ways. I'm afraid to put poison on top the quail my get to it.


----------



## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

Rats love spilled grain, places to hide, tall grass, old buildings, unkempt places. To avoid rats, you need to have a clean place, no brush piles, old icky buildings, no food sources, no tall grass areas/weeds, no grain spills, etc. a well kept place has little appeal for a rat. That being said, they move with the seasons, and fall is when they really are on the move. But 28 in a night? I chee mama! I got the heeby geebys. They can breed and multiply exceedingly quickly, so yeah get rid of them. I keep poison out specifically for rats. if you keep it dry and fresh, if one moves in and takes a bite or two, they die, and you don't get issues building up. Rats outbreed traps, dogs, cats, guns. But poison, they do not outbreed, thankfully..

Good luck!


----------



## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

I forgot! You can make a rat poison box easily so no other animals can get in and ingest the bait. So you could have the poison in with the birds, but keep them out of it. The downside to poison in a situation like yours, is the rats will feed, and then go off and die somewhere, and there is no stench like a dead overgrown mouse lying in state in a hard to rexach area... Might be a small price to pay though. We have pest control guys up here who run around the countryside poisoning rats, and checking yards for rats. If my guy found 28 on my yard, I am sure he would have called in the swat team of rat world!


----------

