Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Toying with the idea of raising my coop. It will be a huge job and the only reason I'm considering doing this is because last year I had a infestation of rats. Hesitated to use poison because I have dogs and worried about them possibly eating a dead rat.
The other idea was to bury hardware cloth around perimeter.
Any other ideas?

I put concrete down in the bottoms of my coops and haven't had problems with anything getting in since!

If the chickens can't get under there, throw some mothballs in underneath. They tend to keep most things away. Don't use too many, you don't want to smell them INSIDE the coop. Start with a couple where there is obvious entry

Syeo I'm happy to give you some snakes. I'm over-run with them!
The only varmints I have an issue with is chipmunks. You know it's bad when you start to recognize them and name them.

If they just ate the extra feed they find in the yard id be more tolerant... But they go for the feed bins evertime. Little buggers.

I put my feed in large round galvanized garbage bins . 50kg per bin with snap down lids . Got at Homehardware . Luck

Last year I had an epidemic of rats. The food was contained and I fed the hens outside and only what they would clean up in a few minutes
They were under the coop and dug so many tunnels the ground was spongy. The hens stopped laying and the damage they did to the coop was unbelievable. At that point I ended up selling the hens. My son was picking the rats off with a 22 and a farmer friend of ours put some kind of bait under the coop and that was the last of them.
Now I'm revamping the coop, tearing off the back part and putting up a hoop greenhouse for the new chicks that I have. This time I
will bury the hardware cloth deeper and hope I will be able to manage any rodents as soon as I see them.
I would love to get some of your snakes Happy! It has been a few years since I've seen one on the property.

I think the best defense against vermin or predators is an aggressive offense. I keep traps set 24/7/365, inspect them daily, my 2 cats do a good job on the mice, my dog is always checking the property out and will let me know if theres some "fun" out there and coons ect are eliminated on site.

Dont wait for a problem to come up before taking action, take action and you'll never have a problem, hopefully

My Uncle had a ferret and would let it under his coop to flush the rats out. His 2 dogs would have a field day with the rats.

My grandmother would do the same thing and swears that by just having one around that still has its scent glands deters rodents and other members of the mink family. Shes told me over n over to get a ferret.

G Williams wrote:QR_BBPOST My Uncle had a ferret and would let it under his coop to flush the rats out. His 2 dogs would have a field day with the rats.