Best way to rid myself of foot long (not including tail) rats??

[Al Gerhart]

Both chickens and rats are too smart to eat cement. Unlike milineals and their Tide pods.... Find the Howard E. posts on rodent control, sanitation, exclusion, elimination in that order.

Sanitation, remove all sources of feed by putting bulk feed in metal barrels and using treadle feeders. Also clean up pathways they rodents are using to get to and from the coop so natural predators can see them.

Exclusion, hardware cloth. Do the sanitation and you don't have to do the exclusion.

Elimination, traps, poison. The last resort because it never ends and is rarely effective unless you are starving the rodents by using treadle feeders. You do need some full size birds to use the treadle feeders. Adjusting the treadle feeders to where a lightweight bantam can use it severely lessens the rat proofing ability of the feeder.

 

[McChooky]

A good dog and cat.
A bb gun (the venator mkll AEG electric)
1/2 hardware cloth the coop and store feed in tight containers.
The cat will take out some.
A good rat dog will hunt them, show you where to look and dig them out. I do a rat killing (dig them out) twice a year. The dog gets most of them and when they climb up something to get away from the dog, bb gun. The Tomcat bait plugs do a good job in the bait boxes. i put a tables spoon of grain/scratch in the box with the bait plug. They eat it all up. My rat numbers are way down so the TOMCAT bait traps are working. I have to really look hard for them now at night. My dog is not liking the lack of action it at all.
I will sometimes leave the chicken door open to the walk in coop untill late at night and easy out and drop it. sometimes i trap one. Nowhere to go with 1/2 HW cloth. Say hello to my little dog. lol Sweet Pea makes short work of it.

Of all the methods you mentioned your dogs the most practical and efficient method!
My predator proof coop & run does a good job of keeping rats out but doesn't kill them.

 

[David61]

actually exclusion is the most important thing. Cut them off from the food/coop/chichen poop.

 

[Shabby Chic-Hens]

Pellet gun. Works every time.

 

[David61]

I use EVERYTHING.
Snap traps, poison bait traps, bucket water traps, dog, cat, rat shot.22, pellet gun....
The biggest impact has been exclusion. Stopping them from getting inside the coop and to any food. Next is the poison bait traps. Adding a little scrath feed inside next to the bait pellet has worked 100%. These two worked to reduce rats by 95%.
Instant gratification is the dog and pellet gun but with reducing it 95% with the first two things makes it hard to actuality see them anymore.