Chicken coop/tractor

[Swarm]

Sounds great. Stunning little fella That's a great age and testament to a great life, bless him.

 

[pargyle]

Sounds great. Stunning little fella That's a great age and testament to a great life, bless him.

+1 ... Good looking dog and clearly knew what to do with a rat .. My Yorkshire Terriers were brilliant in my youth ... used to work as a pair .. killed hundreds on the local tip over my teenage years.. Sadly our Labrador is worse than useless ...

 

[pargyle]

@Hivemaker and @MIllett ...

Thanks for those tips .. I have traps in tunnels in the runs but the little beggars just seem to go round or over them ... I'll try a single wire and also try burying the traps ... I've just found the floor of my greenhouse dug up so there's one burrowed in there again .. there's nothing for them in there - I suspect it's just warm and dry ... I'll find where the hole is and put a trap out tomorrow.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Would a mole trap work?

 

[Tremyfro]

Satisfy my curiosity.... Did it reach the top?

Ha ha...I knew someone would want to know!
It came out the back of the neck of my jumper.
I was quite hysterical by that time and don't really remember it...I think I must have fainted! My father laughed so much he choked on some toast...my mother rushed to my aid...not knowing what had happened...only that I was screaming and positively rigid with fear.
Later they bought me a hamster....to help me over the fear...which didn't help at all....loved the hamster...still terrified of rats and mice. Anyway...the hamster managed to go between the cushions of the new sofa...and disappeared inside it. My father had to dismantle the sofa...he wasn't laughing then...he he...

 

[MikeT]

Would a mole trap work?

Our house is a converted barn, every morning when I went out to feed the animals there would be a small hole next to the barn wall. I filled it in every morning and the next day it would be open again. This went on for about a week. The hole was about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, I knew it wasn't a mole, I thought it might be a weasel and just set the a large scissor mole trap on the off chance. The next morning low and behold a small rat, reset the trap and the next morning another small rat.

When I first started to used Fenn traps the local game keeper suggested when I catch a stoat to make it wee on the plate, to attract more when reset. I didn't catch another but a large rat.

Mike

 

[Millet]

@Hivemaker and @MIllett ...

Thanks for those tips .. I have traps in tunnels in the runs but the little beggars just seem to go round or over them ... I'll try a single wire and also try burying the traps ... I've just found the floor of my greenhouse dug up so there's one burrowed in there again .. there's nothing for them in there - I suspect it's just warm and dry ... I'll find where the hole is and put a trap out tomorrow.

Like the trap in my picture buried by the hole near the fence do the same and place the trap inside the green house and put some food around it.

 

[Millet]

Would a mole trap work?

The odds will be in the rats favour if you try using mole traps, i have seen clean caught rats carry the fenn traps a good distance before they die, and i have even lost traps in such a way, that is why i always peg them to the ground now.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

When I first started to used Fenn traps the local game keeper suggested when I catch a stoat to make it wee on the plate,

How do you do that then? keep a tap running until it can't hold it in any longer? Have a long rambling conversation about waterfalls and lakes?

 

[Millet]

Ha ha...I knew someone would want to know!
It came out the back of the neck of my jumper.
I was quite hysterical by that time and don't really remember it...I think I must have fainted! My father laughed so much he choked on some toast...my mother rushed to my aid...not knowing what had happened...only that I was screaming and positively rigid with fear.
Later they bought me a hamster....to help me over the fear...which didn't help at all....loved the hamster...still terrified of rats and mice. Anyway...the hamster managed to go between the cushions of the new sofa...and disappeared inside it. My father had to dismantle the sofa...he wasn't laughing then...he he...

The same thing happened to my lady friend several years ago but it was a rat, we could see the lump going up inside of her cammo trousers,she pulled the waist band open and it stuck its head out then dropped back inside and down and back out of her ankle, we where hysterical laughing and one of the lads said, i would not care if i had my wife's knickers on the trousers would have been off..

 

[MikeT]

How do you do that then? keep a tap running until it can't hold it in any longer? Have a long rambling conversation about waterfalls and lakes?

Give it a good squeeze around the waist

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

reminds me of a comment one old boy made when trapping badgers and innoculating them for TB was mooted.

"if you want to wrestle with a p!ssed off giant stoat that's been trapped in a cage for hours then try to give it some medicine - you carry on, but don't invite me to the party!"

 

[MikeT]

["if you want to wrestle with a p!ssed off giant stoat that's been trapped in a cage for hours then try to give it some medicine - you carry on, but don't invite me to the party!"[/QUOTE]

Its dead

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I know not unlike 'pissing' a rabbit after dispatching it to save tainting the meat.

 

[Millet]

Pissing a deer is harder.. lol .. or shall we delicately slice the bladder out..

 

[pargyle]

The odds will be in the rats favour if you try using mole traps, i have seen clean caught rats carry the fenn traps a good distance before they die, and i have even lost traps in such a way, that is why i always peg them to the ground now.

Found the hole they have dug round the back of the greenhouse ... they have dug right through beneath 3' of paving slabs .... tiny little hole outside the greenhouse - couldn't see it to start with just a small depression next to the edge of the paving slab. so .. set two traps either side of it in a tunnel so I'm hoping that will get the bugger.

Shot a small one just before dusk when it couldn't resist a few grains of corn I left against a wall .. I'd seen it earlier and just sat with the gun on a tripod with it sighted in on the spot .. I knew it would come back so easy picking that one off but I think there's more still ... I can't believe how many we've had this winter... never had this many before.

 

[Millet]

Found the hole they have dug round the back of the greenhouse ... they have dug right through beneath 3' of paving slabs .... tiny little hole outside the greenhouse - couldn't see it to start with just a small depression next to the edge of the paving slab. so .. set two traps either side of it in a tunnel so I'm hoping that will get the bugger.

Shot a small one just before dusk when it couldn't resist a few grains of corn I left against a wall .. I'd seen it earlier and just sat with the gun on a tripod with it sighted in on the spot .. I knew it would come back so easy picking that one off but I think there's more still ... I can't believe how many we've had this winter... never had this many before.

I wish i was near to you, these rat problems do arise when bad weather is ahead, and also at any time if there's a good population, you say you shot a small one which means something made it ?, get the fenn traps's set as many as you can, make it like a mine field for them, if you have persistent trouble PM me.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

We've had ideal rat breeding weather the last few years - as rats need a constant supply of water due to the fact lack of a bladder means they pass water constantly (Hmm, I can relate to that at my age ) a long dry summer can mean the population drops as, in some circumstances they will not only stop breeding but will consume each other to obtain moisture.
Even 2014 can't be considered an exceptionally dry summer, 2015 definitely not that, combined with mild winters means there's hardly been a dip in breeding at all.

 

[Millet]

We've had ideal rat breeding weather the last few years - as rats need a constant supply of water due to the fact lack of a bladder means they pass water constantly (Hmm, I can relate to that at my age ) a long dry summer can mean the population drops as, in some circumstances they will not only stop breeding but will consume each other to obtain moisture.
Even 2014 can't be considered an exceptionally dry summer, 2015 definitely not that, combined with mild winters means there's hardly been a dip in breeding at all.

When the shooting season has finished we get let loose on thousands of acres of cover crop every year, and every year we dig young rats and even nests full of pinkies, even when there's snow on the ground, but the rats do get well fed and wormed from the pheasant feeders and the keepers go through 2 ton of food per day which gets scattered from the back of the mule.

 

[Erichalfbee]

as rats need a constant supply of water due to the fact lack of a bladder

Nope....Rats have a bladder.
They mark constantly which makes it appear they are incontinent.