War on rats

 Over the winter the rats resident in mine an neighbour's back yards have decided that the chook shed is a good source of food and warmth. They have burrowed under the concrete blocks on which I mounted the shed  and helped themselves to chook food. They snack on leftover on the floor but I think they could reach the food dispenser and worked out how to make it work.

So yesterday Cathy and I dug out the floor and lined it with fine wire mesh then held the edges down with bricks and tent pegs. I also raised the chook food bin slightly. I had to put a bit of dirt back under the feeder because the food the chooks missed was going through the holes of the mesh but I will consider what to do there. Maybe a tray to hold the excess or finer mesh just in that spot??

There is a lot more to do yet. We are blocking the gaps under the fence but I think we'll also need to mesh the outside of the chook shed. After all that is done we'll spread some rat poison blocks at the fence line and hope it all works.

Of course I have been poisoning but I don't think any of my neighbours have even noticed the rat plague. The rats usually shelter in my garage but they don't seem to be there at the moment and the poison I have put in there does not seem to have been disturbed at all.

Lots more dirt to shift and access and holes to block so I am not spending money feeding rats (and mice).