Ah another victim of the old "feed them dry food and they will swell up and die." old wives tale. Poison, traps, rodent hunting, soda pop, cement, gassing them... everything except for dealing with what brought the rats to the coop and what keeps them there. You are feeding them.
Get a treadle feeder. Spring loaded door, heavy counterweight, read the negative reviews very carefully as those are the ones that actually bought the feeder for a rodent problem and found out they wasted their money. Do your research. Avoid any article offering advice that has a link going to Amazon or any other sales site, they are getting a commission and they will say what needs said to get that commission. No plastic, no aluminum, no overhead doors that need to be blocked open for weeks for "training".
You are correct on the copperheads coming in with warmer weather. Plus hawks, owls, coyotes and plenty of other predators. Get rid of the rodents and make the predators stay busy earning an honest living stalking their usual prey which is spread out over a wide area.
Good luck and I am sorry you got your time wasted on the old wives tales that so many spread without ever seeing it actually work.
Get a treadle feeder. Spring loaded door, heavy counterweight, read the negative reviews very carefully as those are the ones that actually bought the feeder for a rodent problem and found out they wasted their money. Do your research. Avoid any article offering advice that has a link going to Amazon or any other sales site, they are getting a commission and they will say what needs said to get that commission. No plastic, no aluminum, no overhead doors that need to be blocked open for weeks for "training".
You are correct on the copperheads coming in with warmer weather. Plus hawks, owls, coyotes and plenty of other predators. Get rid of the rodents and make the predators stay busy earning an honest living stalking their usual prey which is spread out over a wide area.
Good luck and I am sorry you got your time wasted on the old wives tales that so many spread without ever seeing it actually work.
