Rats under the bird table

UGh poor you!

OMG :( il brill Febe Amy she`l catch m 4u in no time:)

It's horrible , these are young ones which will grow into big ones .Drc .. ..

Our old dog use to catch them Jacque a quick nip round the neck and that was it but our cat Marmy is to old and slow , I showed her the hole and then realized how silly that was because I put poison in it , she wasn't interested in it luckily .. .....

AAawwwwww bless Marmy X Febe killed & brought me 3 young Rats the 1st yr id moved in & iv not seen any since which im glad to say :) I have seen some Hoggy Droppings but their ssssooooooo welcome in my Garden as u know ;)

sorry Amy but i clicked like lol maybe you could get some one local to come in an get rid of them

Amy have you been in touch with your loacal council, they should poison them free of charge for you, it would be worth giving them a call.

Eileen / Yorkshire , the last time I ask the council if they would do something they sent me a letter saying , " there's nothing we can do as they don't live there , they are just passing through " please don't laugh , that's the truth , they really did say that ! We are away for the weekend I will contact them first thing Monday morning , I believe they are changing their ideas about it now ... they should go and see the people whose gardens they are coming from as well ...

I bet you were thrilled with Febe's little gifts Jacque ..LOL.. still it's good that you haven't seen any since , horrible things

oh dear Amy.... ive had a rat in my garden as well..... but im not that bothered...

Do you like them Holly , some people have rats as pets I think they are a different kind , they are very clever ........

i dont mind them ive only seen one....i like all the wildlife... but the thing is with rats is they can bring diseases cant they.....i think my one lives in my grasses by the pond.... thats where he comes from.... i hope he doesnt come near my patio door though....

Ooh poor you Amy.....like Holly I don't mind them, but wouldn't want them regularly in the garden or near the house.

Amy sorry i put like, but have to say i hate the things, i was told cats dont like rats, dont know how right it is, if you get the council in they will be saying stop feeding the birds.

It does seem that where there are chickens, rats will be not far away..:o(((

perhaps it's a water rat Holly , we were in a position to watch a water rat on a river bank daily last year , they are very precise and do things at regular times we new almost to the minute when he would come and go , and even which direction he was going to go in ,in fact it became quite a game watching the water rat ..LOL ..
You can have mine Janey , I don't mind , really !
You are probably right Carole I might have to stop feeding them for the time being ...
It is the chickens TT , the rats must be clever to know there are bird feeders here , I wonder if they can hear the noise the birds make when they are after the food ..!

That will be so sad,if you have to stop feeding the birds,Amy.I'm not keen on rats,but I suppose they will have young ones to feed too. Hope you can get some satisfaction from the council....

let us all know how you get on on monday with the council

Oh dear Amy....there are rats and mice all around here, being a farm, but a lot of us have cats and that helps keep them under control. I don't mind them but they are such prolific breeders so you can end up with many....hope you get it sorted.

Gosh they're braizen....sorry about the eggs :-(

Hi Amy, so they're still around, grrrr.
We had a rat in our greenhouse one Winter and the poison we put down didnt seem to work.
Maybe its worth contacting the Council, our neighbour had them in to a similar situation to your's and the Council lady came once a week for about a month and that was the end of it.

Thanks for the interest everyone .... . I haven't seen them for several days so I thought the poison had worked but yesterday we could see another hole had been made through the shingle that we had filled the rat holes with that lead under the fence so it looks as if we will have to ring the council after all :o(

Have you spoken to your neighbour with the chickens about this Amy? If there's any cost involved, I think it's only fair they should share it.

Not yet Sid , we haven't seen anything of them , they haven't actually been there long , I don't know them , but I have said that we should go to see them , they might not know the rats are there ....

Yes....I wonder if rats are a potential problem to the chickens?

I would have thought that if they are prepared to climb up the rose stems to the doves box and steal their eggs snatching chickens eggs would be easy , also it's the feed that attracts them ... maybe the owners are wondering why the hens haven't laid any eggs !!

Maybe??!!