Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Not as large as raccoons, rats are a serious problem for the poultry raiser. Not only do
they sample your flock, they can eat as much feed as the average chicken. When they
can't find enough feed, they switch to eating the eggs and poultry. They creep into the
nests, break eggs, and eat them. They travel in feeding packs, are death to poultry chicks,
and can wipe out hundreds in a night when they go on the rampage. An adult fowl of
any sort that's trapped or unable to move is fair game for rats. A bird unable to flee from
a rat's feeding frenzy is destroyed and all but the bones are consumed.
Rats can squeeze through quarter-size holes and chew through wood. I have even
seen them chew through thin layers of concrete. Concrete floors must be at least 4 inches
(10 cm) thick to keep them out of the pens. Metal patching has to be thick or they will
gnaw through it as well.
Vigilant dogs and cats should be your first rat population control measure, but you
may have to resort to poison.
Be sure that poultry, pets, and young children don't have
access to the poison.
Follow a plan for changing poison types periodically to prevent
rats' developing a tolerance, rendering them ineffective.
Be proactive. Upon first sight of a rat, begin an eradication program, or you will be
sorry. The old saying, “For every one you see, there are 10 more” really holds true for
rats. See Appendix H at the back of this topic for a rodenticide chart with descriptions
and comparisons of the poisons.
Skunk
The smelliest predator, the skunk, really prefers eggs to birds, although it sometimes
will eat baby chicks. It only rarely attacks adult chickens in late fall or winter when the
food supply is tight. Skunks love eggs and are typically content to just pilfer from that
part of your operation.
Use the same methods as for opossums to keep skunks from obtaining access, al-
though they do not climb as well as their rat-tailed friends, and prefer to dig to get into
the building.
Live traps work well, but once you catch a skunk, you'll have to figure out how to
remove or shoot it without getting sprayed. You'll hear lots of advice about how to keep
a skunk from spraying, such as finding the correct angle from which to shoot it. Most of
these anecdotes are simply tales that could get you perfumed. However you remove the
skunk, when it dies, the muscles relax and the scent drains out of its body. Once you kill
it, deal with it quickly.
Snake
Although I have a great interest in snakes and educate the public about all the good they
do and the bad rap they get, they are predators of poultry.
