Rats in the chicken coop

Should I lock my cat up in the coop at night? I cant believe Im asking this. My husband thinks its a good idea. omg.

Trying to imagine...

Uh-huh. Pick up a couple of BIG Victor (rat) Snap traps Tie some raw bacon smeared with peanut butter to the treadles. Get a heavy duty cardboard box (shoe/boot box would work), turn the box upside down and cut a `doorway' in one end (big enough for rat/too small for chicken to get into). place traps in one corner of coop with the box over them. Place a brick (or other heavy/chook immovable wt. on top of box). Rat enters hole in box, chows down on `bacon butter' - rat gets neck broken. (just a quick and dirty - but cat free - option).

Good luck!

Rats are usually attracted to chicken feed, so make certain that you lock up their feed at night.

ivan3 said:

Trying to imagine...

Uh-huh. Pick up a couple of BIG Victor (rat) Snap traps Tie some raw bacon smeared with peanut butter to the treadles. Get a heavy duty cardboard box (shoe/boot box would work), turn the box upside down and cut a `doorway' in one end (big enough for rat/too small for chicken to get into). place traps in one corner of coop with the box over them. Place a brick (or other heavy/chook immovable wt. on top of box). Rat enters hole in box, chows down on `bacon butter' - rat gets neck broken. (just a quick and dirty - but cat free - option).

Good luck!

Click to expand...

wow! Thank you for amazing idea! One problem is my teeny-tiny Cornish hen...she's about the size of a rat. Perhaps I can keep her in the house that night. Wonder if my husband will lose interest in his idea about the cat. LOL he's very creative.

Yay Chicks! said:

Rats are usually attracted to chicken feed, so make certain that you lock up their feed at night.

Click to expand...

There shouldn't be any food inside the coop at lockdown or really ever. Maybe rat family just loves the quarters. idk but they are not welcome guests.

This is how I got rid of them all. I locked up all the food. I got 2 bait stations and put the tomcat dark green cubes, not the light green. I found about 6 dead rats in 2 weeks, then it stopped. I did a search every morning and evening for any dead rats. I swear by those bait stations.

Just started seeing rats in the evening in the chickens run. They arent getting into the coop at least. I feed my chickens on the ground cause I love watching them scratch but I guess thats a BAD thing to do. They knock over their feeders, they make a mess with hanging ones swinging it around jumping on it. Its a feeding frenzy here!I came up with an idea Im going to try tomorrow so no food is ever outside the coop or gets spilled. Im going to put a large plastic tote bin inside the coop and in the morning when I feed my chicks I will put the food inside the rubbermaid tote and they will have to fly or hop into it to eat. Then at bedtime I will put the lid onto the tote so rats dont smell any leftover food and decide to chew into my coop. No more spilled feed, no knocking or scratching feeders and making a mess. If anything I will just hose out the tupperware bins once a week in case they stay in there and poo but they are pretty eager to get outside so I dont think they will hang around in there after they eat. They have nice nesting boxes with shaveings so I doubt they will lay their eggs or try to nest in a plastic bin the others all jump into to eat. Well I shall see. Ill let you know in a couple weeks how this works and if the rats go away for lack of food. Im going to also empty my water bowls at night or lock them in the coop as well. No Food...No Rats.Wish me luck.

I had a rat problem in my coop. I put poison under my floor boards where they had tunnels......never seen any again. Lol

I do a clean sweep every month. I remove all the feed at night, and I have a few bait stations with the Tomcat (?) DArk green chunks, and it cleans things up nicely. I found that the light green chunks they sell do nothing.

I just recently noticed some rat poop on top of my hen house. (I never seen it before in my life, but I didn't need anyone to tell me what it looked like!) I of course, am concerned. My husband, could really care less. Our bucket feeder is hanging from a chain rope from the ceiling in the coop. It's never on the ground, and at night, my husband clips it up high onto the chain with a carabeaner. So it ends up being maybe 2 feet from the ceiling top, so a good 6+ feet off the ground. Its on the opposite corner as the house. Maybe 3/4 feet from the house? I've not looked inside the feed bucket, but you don't think that the rat is jumping in there?? The chickens, of course DO flip some of their pellets out, and there is straw and mud all over, so who knows whats really on the ground. (although it always looks clean to me?) I'm getting some good ideas from you all, with the box and the traps. I'm not too crazy about discovering dead rats in traps (I really hate doing the mouse thing-mice freak me out), and I'm wondering, the green cubes everyone is talking about, with the "tomcat" traps? Do they leave any traces of these cubes/pellets for your chickens or other birds to get ahold of? I've got a couple turkeys that free range, and I'd of course hate for them to tip over after getting into that? (they aren't SUPER bright)

Thanks....