Will rats physically harm full grown chickens?

[Flockofeleven]

I've been reading threads on rats and have seen a lot of people mention that if they are eating the chickens' food and the food is removed, they might go after the chickens. Has anyone had a rat hurt or kill their full-sized chicken? I would think that if a rat got into our run that our chickens would terrorize or eat it, but I know that they are pretty defenseless on the roost at night. So what has your experience been?

 

[animals1981]

full grown chickens will usually attack and can kill rats during the day if they are aggressive breeds that are large like buckeye.

 

[redsoxs]

Yes, I've never heard of rats going after full grown birds. I think mostly they go after chicks and chicken feed.

 

[Gallus Sapien]

I never had a problem with fullgrown birds, but my sister did. She originally thought it was a weasel by the way they(Birds) were killed, however it turned out to be Rats. She killed over a doz. before the killing stopped.

 

[animals1981]

weasels follow rats i had lots of rats and that made weasels come i didnt know it was weasel doing the real killing till my cat killed it


when they find out birds live there they leave the rats alone i think and just work the birds till they die


ive had hundreds of rats they never took even chicks people say they do they leave my pigeons alone but just eat all the feed and make things dirty also but 1 weasel will cause such hell. Its hard to keep weasels out because they can fit into things a mice can. A weasel or a stoat weighs less than a rat.

Ill take 20 coyotes or wolves or coons over 1 weasel.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

What no one has mentioned yet are the pathways and tunnels that rats pioneer or open up into your chicken coops. These rat ways or rat lines then guide raccoons, mink, etc. to the weak points of a chicken pen. Just the presents of the rats themselves helps to draw bigger vermin to your chicken yard.