Chicken wire malignment ( was Raccoon attacks - Should I consider using poison?)

[Michele Bee]

:-) I was simply responding to the statement that chicken wire is only good for containing chickens. Rabbits are a very real problem where I live. Anyone who wants to grow food (or Bermuda grass, for that matter) must exclude them somehow.

The corn may not care, but I do. I deal with predation of chicken feed by dozens of house sparrows; plump little mice, which attract the gorgeous California kingsnakes that threaten any chicks I might be raising; and Eurasian collared doves, which are non native and drive away the mourning doves I would love to have living in my yard. Fortunately, the rabbits appear to be deterred by the presence of the chickens themselves from chowing down on chicken feed in their territory, but the darned fowl blithely tolerate sparrows and doves. Most of my birds ignore the mice, too, instead of considering them to be opportunities for protein enhancement.

In the desert of southern Nevada, every unit of vegetation I can maintain around my home improves my living conditions by reducing my electric bill. The rabbits go for anything within their reach, including biting off limbs of Mondale pine saplings--one of the few trees that can survive here without inordinate inputs of water.

I have begun attempts to grow graze for my chickens. Rabbits destroy everything that arises from the dirt.

On Aug 27, 2014 7:21 PM, "Barry Koffler" <bar...@feathersite.com> wrote:

Chicken wire is keeping the rabbits out of my corn.  :-)

Rabbits don't generally count as predators (unless, I suppose, you're a conscious kernel of corn).

--

-Barry

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bar...@feathersite.com  Barry Koffler   mid-Hudson Valley, New York
                        the FeatherSite at
                           http://www.feathersite.com
                Lead me not into temptation . . . I can find it myself

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia!

"It's called the American Dream 'cause you have to be asleep to believe it." -- George Carlin

I dream of a world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.

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[Diane]

Very good points, Michelle. What's a problem for one is not necessarily a problem for another. 

My hens tolerate the mice and rats as well, which is also annoying. I am having a hard time keeping them out. They've replaced the chipmunks, but I'm not sure that's a good thing. 

Rats are not nocturnal, though the pest control folks always tell me that. Mine have been out whenever it is convenient for them. Well, I sure don't want them to be 'mine'!!  Anyway, the pest control folks recommend something I cannot find the info for right now, but it's calcium based. All I read about this type of pesticide makes me very wary as I have other animals, and let my hens free-range in the yard - I'd expect them to suffer negative consequences if they get into the dead one... '

Any ideas on how to get rid of them? 

Diane in MA

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Contented Farm - free range eggs

Dracut, MA

[Margo]

Hi Michelle,

               You're lucky. I don't know if the rabbits around here are just extremely determined, or if they hired thugs like raccoons to do their dirty work, but they got thru the chicken wire barrier I tried for my poor 'lil lettuces. Found two sitting in the bed with lovely Red Romaine being happily consumed. Found a nice little rabbit sized hole at one corner. It had gone completely un-noticed by me, until I really hunted among the green stuff.

Margo

On Aug 27, 2014 7:21 PM, "Barry Koffler" wrote:

Chicken wire is keeping the rabbits out of my corn. :-)
>


Rabbits don't generally count as predators (unless, I suppose, you're a
conscious kernel of corn).

--

-Barry

************************************************************
*******************************
bar...@feathersite.com Barry Koffler mid-Hudson Valley, New York
the FeatherSite at
http://www.feathersite.com
Lead me not into temptation . . . I can find it myself

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow
in Australia!

"It's called the American Dream 'cause you have to be asleep to believe
it." -- George Carlin

I dream of a world where chickens can cross the road without having their
motives questioned.

************************************************************
*******************************

[Michele Bee]

The only suggestion I have for mice is a simple spring trap set inside a cage that excludes the chickens. That works well for me. Are there larger spring traps for rats? I did get lucky with some mostly young mice that drowned themselves trying to drink from a bucket when the water level was low enough that they fell in and couldn't get back out. I had put bricks next to the bucket so my bantams could have access, and the mice also happened to use the "stairs." We're in the desert, however, so a bucket of water can be awfully attractive.

I'm shopping for live traps that are the right size for house sparrows. I know I'll have to monitor them carefully in order to save any other type of sparrow or small bird. I suppose they'd work for rats too, but I've never had to deal with rats, thank goodness, so I don't know.

I also don't know how high rats can jump. I used to catch my pet hamsters when they got loose by putting food in the bottom of a bucket that was too deep for them to jump out of and giving them a stairway up the outside. Perhaps a bucket with a funnel from the top that they could enter but not be able to escape? You possibly could find a snake owner who would take the rats for food.

Poison just seems far too hazardous.

[Michele Bee]

I expect to walk the chicken wire fence routinely. Good thing I'm retired! I think about Peter Rabbit and the farmer when I'm trying to protect my food. Most people here use something stronger than chicken wire, more like solid walls, which help protect from the awfully dry winds we have, too.

[terry]

One of my hens ran down mice and rats while the others watched terrified but she couldn't beat the rodent population explosion.  I always worried about disease and was concerned these pests might injure my hens at night while they roosted..  

So I found that a couple of tablespoons of essential mint oil in  a quart of vinegar sprayed Sent Rats and Mice Running- it helped clean up the barn as well.  The mice & rats Hate it, really really hate it and run out.   But as soon as the oder dies down, they return.  The Spray has to be sprayed all over, walls floors Every Day.  So you really need a supply of essential mint oil- like gallons.

I also tried an electronic gadget that sent out a signal that rodents Hated.  That got rid of them too for awhile...then one day i saw a hole and the device had been dragged into it.  So i dug it out but noticed the wire had been chewed on too.  It seemed to work again but soon the wire was broken.  I got the device on ebay.  There are similar devices to chase out spiders and bugs.  The hens did not seem to mind the electronic signal but i didn't replace it because i wondered if it could harm or bother the hens eventually.  

My neighbor has a garbage pile he likes to build and i guess he is raising rats as a hobby.  I really hated the rats, they made holes in our walls to get in and out, dug tunnels-i put in a plywood floor-no good, they still found ways in.  We completely enclosed the hen house top to bottom, the rats chewed holes in the walls.  They made my hen house feel dirty all the time.  It was an everyday problem.  

My husband put out traps and we had a cage trap but neither worked well, with the automatic feeders there was just to much food to tempt them, and i was always afraid a hen might run into one of the traps outside when they were out.

I think cats would help, hopefully if your neighbors don't poison rodents. 

Never Leaving Any Food in your hen house could discourage rats.  Maybe feed your hens outside and then put them in for the night especially if you can free range them.  Raccoons love free range chickens, it's a favorite.  

I hope you find a solution and i hope you post your success.      Terry Northern California

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[K M Edgar]

Raccoons are one of the most plentiful animal in North America. Trapping and killing those that are making you miserable is a reasonable solution.

[Cock-A-Doodle-Do]

Somewhere online there is a picture and directions for making a simple bucket mousetrap.  You fill the bucket 1/3 full or so , attach a roller bar across the top of the bucket with peanut butter in the center of roller.  the mice walk out on the roller to get the treat and fall into the water and drown.  

Of course you'd have to be careful if you have chicks or keets old enough to fly up there and potentially drown.

Heritage Hens
herita...@aol.com

[lighthousemo at Wildwood]

Youtube has several  of the bucket traps.... I have had rats and mice drown in the bucket without incentive..

It does need to be away from the chickens because they can drown too..

Shirley

[terry]

I like that bucket trap idea!  No poison, very simple to set up and pretty safe for cats,dogs and most other animals-nice.