We have a rodent problem

I have known for some time that we have a mouse or mice getting into the chicken enclosure because I can see mouse droppings through the slats of the storage cabinet on the floor below. I wasn’t surprised as we have seen an occasional field mouse in the garden and they are so small that they can get through the smallest of gaps. I wasn’t too worried because while they are going under the storage cabinet to defecate, it is away from the chickens and I resigned myself to emptying the cabinet now and again to clean underneath.

Yesterday morning for the first time I found rat droppings at the side of the storage cabinet. We have never had a rat problem here before. This is much more worrying and we started to think of ways to solve this problem.

This morning I found some different droppings beside the storage cabinet. These droppings were slightly bigger, fatter and longer than rat droppings. I looked up animal droppings on the internet and think that they are squirrel droppings. This would make sense as we have many squirrels visiting our garden. We have a strip of woodland behind our garden, then a golf course. We had started thinking of how to eliminate rats but realize there is no way of  stopping squirrels so think the next step is to block up any gaps. I took a photo of the “squirrel poop” so that any one with experience can give me their thoughts. I didn’t bother photographing the rats droppings because I am familiar with them.

I think this is squirrel poop

I know most people would think that the first plan of action should be to make sure there is no food supply left out, but in the summer the chickens come out at five in the morning and I go out to them at seven. I wanted to be able to leave their food out at all times so that it is always ready for them without me having to go out at five.

We carefully inspected where all the gaps are so that we can plan blocking them off. The most difficult gaps to deal with are under the corrugated plastic roof as this is such an awkward shape.

The gaps under the corrugated roof

These gaps are an inch high and two inches across. We also need to allow the rain water to drain into the gutter. This poses a tricky problem.

The other small gaps are over the gate, under the gate and very slim gaps at the sides of the gate.

Gap over the top of the gate

The other possible place where a squirrel may be getting in is where the chicken net over the enclosure, overlaps the weld mesh. We had secured this with cable ties but noticed a dip in the chicken net as if it had been stood on and a bit of a gap appearing between the cable ties. We think a squirrel may have opened a gap big enough to squeeze through. This was the easiest problem to remedy as all it needed was to put lots more cable ties in between the existing ones. The photo below is where the net overlaps the weld mesh but doesn’t really show any gaps but I included it anyway for another reason. My husband asked me to grab my camera this afternoon as Treacle was perching on top of the umbrella. As you can probably guess by the time I got out there she was strolling around the run looking  totally innocent, but the dirty mark on the umbrella is the spot where she was perched. As our biggest chicken I was surprised that she could fly to that hight!

Dirt on umbrells where Treacle was perched

It’s the biggest patch of dirt half way up the umbrella that marks Treacle’s spot. The black dots above the wood are the cable ties, pulled tight and then trimmed.

Luckily my lovely husband is pro active and good at coming up with ideas. He assured me we will solve all the problems. He said we can treat the gate like a door and put wooden strips above, below and down the sides to block the gap. He had an idea that insulating foam could be used to fill the gaps in the corrugated roof.

We went to our local D.I.Y. store for supplies and set to work to get as much done as possible today with the intention of continuing tomorrow. I will continue this post tomorrow when all the jobs are completed. Lets just say some ideas worked and one had to be rethought.