How Does Rats Affect Chickens?

If you have chickens in your yard, you may be wondering how rats affect them. Rats can cause many problems in your chicken yard and they will kill chicks, young birds, and even adults. Moreover, rats can also transmit many diseases to chickens. These animals can dig several feet deep and jump up to eight feet. They are extremely smart animals and if they find their way into the coop, they will eat your chicken feed and other products.

The most effective way to kill rats is poisoning them with poison. These poisons kill the rats present in the area and prevent the new ones from coming in. If you don’t want to use poison, you can use a bait like Whole Wheat Bait or Ruby Blocks. You should ensure that you have sufficient bait for the rat to eat to die. However, this may not be enough as they might develop immunity to the poisons.

Rats and mice can carry several diseases and can also damage your poultry feed. An adult rat or mouse can eat up to an ounce of feed a day. This can easily add up over a year if you have large numbers of rats. Besides, they can decimate your local animal population and cause social problems. In addition, they can carry diseases like plague and Weil’s disease. In addition, the bacteria in their droppings can affect your chicken’s health.