Well, I've lived here for three years now, so I supposed I've done well. Spotted a void under the skirt of the run for the 5 hens and sure enough, there seemed to be a distinct rat trail into the run. This was confirmed a few days later when one morning, waking up before dawn but with the poultry lamp still shining red into the run, I spotted a rat making regular trips to and from the hens grub bowls. Was it one rat going to and fro, or was it a series of rats. Initially I thought it was a single rat taking multiple trips, but when I looked, there was simply a route under the eglu into the run - there wasn't a rat burrow, so I now think there was a series of rats attracted by the food.
So, I bought some more bait. However I know from chatting to a pest controller that rats are very intelligent and take ages to become confident in a new bait box. So I did the most sensible thing. I moved my five hens into the eglu cube on the patio next to the three sabelpoots in their eglu. Then I removed all the food from the end of the garden. So there is now nothing more to attract the rats.
After a few weeks I will fill in the entrance run and see what happens. I expect all rat movement to reduce and for them to move on to where there is more food. I may well keep the hens on the patio. At least the rats cannot get anywhere near the food and therefore will not be attracted and will not breed!
In some ways it is a shame. Rats are such intelligent creatures. But they have no place here as they breed really quickly so it is up to me to make sure that they don't have access to enough food to make their numbers grow.
