This is weird. I Found a Dead Rat in the Chicken Coop. How did that happen?

[2banon]

8. Not a huge rat. I'd say it was about 8 or 9 inches long, roughly.

I've seen much bigger rats in my day.. not a field mice. It happens that this is an urban situation. Oakland Ca. The back yard borders on a wooded creek that cuts through parts of the flatland area. Lots of racoons, squirrels, even spotted a couple of hawks and falcons in the area preying on the hens when they were chicks. Oh, and naturally tons of rats. What we need are owls!

The hens have to be penned up to keep from both destroying the vegetable garden, which they are wont to do, and from "flying the coop" ending up in a neighbors frying pan, which has happened with one.

Thanks for sharing your story, I had no idea chickens would even go after mice. The rat found in the coop, seemed to be ignored by the hens in this case. I just went to feed them kitchen scraps which they were impatiently waiting for.

I bet the hens in your friends farm are really healthy critters and good layers!