Rats getting in my coop... HELP!!!

The rats are coming for the food. You've got to eliminate ALL of the food from the coop before dusk - including the food that has spilled on the ground! I was picking up the feeders at night, but the chickens had spilled so much food on the ground during the day that there was still plenty for the rats to come eat at night. So I started putting their feeders and treats inside of big plastic tupperware boxes. This way, the feed spills out into the box and I pick up the entire feeder and box of spilled feed every night. There are no crumbles left on the ground for the rats. I have successfully gotten rid of our rat problem this way. You've got to be vigilant about it - pick it up every night before sunset and don't get lazy about it or the rats will come back! (I set an alarm on my phone to go pick it up every night!)
 

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There is a very effective rat/mouse trap shown on YouTube called a "quicksand mouse trap". It's fairly simple - you get a bucket and make a ramp up to it. Put enough water in the bucket to drown either a rat or a mouse, then float a thin layer of perlite on the top of the water and sprinkle some sunflower seeds on top of the perlite (which floats). The mouse/rat smells the seeds and looks down and sees what appears to be a solid floor with seeds. Upon jumping down onto the 'solid ground', they sink because the perlite is not solid of course. The water drowns them. You can actually buy a trap like that on Amazon, but it's simplicity itself to make your own. It's not toxic, just kills mice and rats. On another note, there's a guy on YouTube (same one as shown in this link) who calls himself the "mouse trap guy" who has a hobby of collecting all kinds of mouse and rat traps both antique and modern and tests them out. It's interesting to watch.
 

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