Rats in chicken pen!!!

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Hi All,

Thank you for all your posts and great information. For the past few days when I let the girls out I see no more rat activity in the pen. I have taken active
measures to clean the pen well, cleaned the coop well, and picked up things around the pen that could possible attack them.

I put the food in a rodent safe metal trash can and take in their water every night. I have not seen any more rodent activity after I did these things.
So what ever it was, I caught it early and sent it packing. I will continue to keep good watch on the pen for any new activity. But as for now I think
I have detoured any rats from setting up camp.

I have not put out any poison. I feel that right now I don't need any. Hopefully I will not have to.

Thanks again for all your help and great information.
 
I recently went through this and I agree with using the poison. I tried every kind of trap and just had no luck. They were getting so brazen that they'd hop up on the chicken feeder and watch me while they were eating. I had great success with a .22 (using CCI shotshells) - got 5 rats over a weeks time that way. Also, your coop/run is "wide open" to rats/mice...you'll need 1/2" hardware cloth EVERYWHERE, along with a 1/2" hc skirt around the entire base. I have a very strong coop/run in terms of security...but while we were building there was a 3/4" gap at the roof line between the coop/run (where we were going to insert the siding), about 9 feet up...that's how they were getting in. So remember they're climbers, they're diggers, and they're very smart.


You can see here how I ran the hardware cloth, including the skirt around the entire base. The hardware cloth is held down by landscaping staples.


Shot with CCI .22 shotshells out of a Ruger MKIII


Also shot with .22 shotshells...I think this was a male/female pair

I have a large wooded area behind me, and about 100 yards away a guy keeps a couple horses. So I know they're not "gone" - I'm just trying to keep them in check and away from the girls...and it will be an ongoing process.
 
Last edited:
Cacique500 said:
I recently went through this and I agree with using the poison. I tried every kind of trap and just had no luck. They were getting so brazen that they'd hop up on the chicken feeder and watch me while they were eating. I had great success with a .22 (using CCI shotshells) - got 5 rats over a weeks time that way. Also, your coop/run is "wide open" to rats/mice...you'll need 1/2" hardware cloth EVERYWHERE, along with a 1/2" hc skirt around the entire base. I have a very strong coop/run in terms of security...but while we were building there was a 3/4" gap at the roof line between the coop/run (where we were going to insert the siding), about 9 feet up...that's how they were getting in. So remember they're climbers, they're diggers, and they're very smart.


You can see here how I ran the hardware cloth, including the skirt around the entire base. The hardware cloth is held down by landscaping staples.


Shot with CCI .22 shotshells out of a Ruger MKIII


Also shot with .22 shotshells...I think this was a male/female pair

I have a large wooded area behind me, and about 100 yards away a guy keeps a couple horses. So I know they're not "gone" - I'm just trying to keep them in check and away from the girls...and it will be an ongoing process.
Click to expand...

great!! thank you so much for you post. I will look into the hardware cloth. I have some but maybe not enough.
 
He had a similiar issue with mice and rats here in Round Rock, lots of limestone caves where the little buggers live.

We would have dozens scurrying up the trees, coops and run when we would go out at night.

One step we took was getting metal feeders where the hens step on a bar to open it to feed and then when they step off it closes.

Most of the food stays inside the feeder as they peck away.

It made a HUGE difference.

We hardly see a mouse/rat these days though we know they are still around.

It also save us a bunch of money since any food they pecked through stayed in the feeder instead of hitting thr ground.

No issues with heads getting stuck and when we get pullets in, we put extra regular hanging feeders out until they see how the old hens work the metal feeders.Usually just takes 2-3 weeks before they are pros.

Here is where we purchased our metal feeders ... http://www.thecarpentershop.net/mediumplywoodchickenfeeder.html

Have had them for a few years and they are still holding up great!

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for the link Sweetshe. We just started making a soft close retrofit kit for that feeder.

No chicken heads stuck yet? It can happen on extremely rare occasions. We have a saying here in Oklahoma "No farm animal is completely safe around moving machinery or Oklahoma State Senators."
 

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