Tuesday 9 October 2012

Vermin in the Chicken Coop

We have an unwelcome visitor in our chicken coop that is eating most of our eggs. For the last year or so, we have seen a large native Tasmanian rat (Rattus lutreolus) hanging around the chicken coop. We’ve never been terribly upset by the native rat’s presence because they don’t carry disease (unlike introduced rats: R. Rattus or R. Norvegicus) and they clean up what the chooks leave behind.

However … the visitor is now stealing eggs from the coop, that’s not cool, we are losing eggs from the chickens. Some of the eggs are just being broken in the coop and the albumen is being left behind.

My lovely wife went to the rural store today and bought a small live animal trap and I set the trap up under the coop today so that we can catch the little devil.

We hope to catch the critter and then relocate the rat into the bush far from our property … more news as it breaks.

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