He probably does, you just don’t see him and the chickens may not either. I was going to collect eggs and a rat came out from behind a nest box. There were three chickens in there who were just as freaked out as I was :gigGood idea burying the wood though, I hope that keeps them out until Spring.
Poison was the only thing that worked for us. We left it out in a bait station and the rat that moved into my shed was dead in short order. Smelled horrible, that’s how I knew we got it.
I saw it in the coop in the middle of the day and either it or a friend was headed for a feeder before dusk...