Feeling trapped by rats

[citychicks99]

We let our chickens free range in the day time and they sleep in the coop at night. It is not predator proof. Even though they have a floor, there are rat nests under them. We have another coop and there's also a rat nest under that.

Things were fine for a while, I suspected they were eating our chicken feed at night but I allowed it. However, they killed my two favorite baby chicks a few weeks ago and I've been plotting revenge but I feel these rats are smarter than me. I tried using those catch and release traps but they didn't fall for it. Tonight I stored all the chicken feed in a metal shed but then I realized they can get in the coop and might eat the chickens. Out of fear I put the food back out so my chickens can stay alive.

I'm not sure what to do but to build my chickens another coop and predator proof it but I don't think they'll be able to free range and they might hate it.

I've tried the sugar, baking soda and flour thing but I don't think they ate enough of it. I thought of putting the chicken feed away and leaving a lot of that flour mixture out so they'll only eat that.

I'm not sure what to do. I'm so tired of these rats winning.

 

[Callender Girl]

You have to get rid of the rats. While I am a big proponent of not killing wild things, the rats are killing your babies, so it's a whole different ballgame in my mind. Nests under your coops is unacceptable.

My birds free range only when I at home and are locked in at night. Slightly unhappy birds are better than dead birds.

I realized that the rats were tunneling between two of my coops and runs. Both had dirt floors. I put hardware cloth over the dirt and screwed it into the interior coop walls. I extended hardware cloth aprons along the outer edges of the runs.

I stuffed very fragrant essential-oil soaked rags into the tunnel entrances.

I stopped putting feed out on the ground anywhere near the coops. Allowing the rats to eat chicken feed is creating an attractive situation that they will never want to leave. It just allows them to continue close contact with your birds. It's tempting fate to think they won't kill a bird just because they have a tummy full of chicken feed.

I bought oversized spring-loaded traps -- like the smaller ones used for mice -- and mounted them to chunks of 2-by-4's. Before that, a rat caught in one of the traps actually dragged it a fair distance away. To bait the traps, I hot glued dog kibble so the rat wouldn't snatch a bite and run.

Finally, I bought an electronic trap that lures the rat in and zaps it to death.

I honestly felt badly whenever I caught a rat; I would have preferred that they just move on and leave my flock alone. But, I had to protect my birds.

Because there will always be more rats than you see -- and because, as you said, they are very smart -- it will likely take a long time to convince them to move on. Have patience, and best wishes.

 

[Penpal]

I haven't used this, but others have and are happy with it. You take a bucket and half fill with water. Take a PVC pipe and put a board through it. Place this over the bucket. In middle of the PVC pipe put something tasty, such as peanut butter. Place ramp up to lip of bucket.

Mouse or rat goes up ramp, steps onto board then onto PVC pipe to get food. The pipe rolls, dumps mouse/rat into water. Rodent drowns.

Check out YouTube.com for variations on this.

 

[Folly's place]

No traps will ever get all the rats. A few might be caught, but the others learn and avoid whatever you put out there. It's essential that you have a safe predator proof coop for your birds. at least at night, or this will never end. No openings larger than 1/2" diameter, and a dig proof floor or foundation.
The, it's often necessary to use poison in bait stations, also bait down in their tunnels, covered with a rock or concrete block, so nothing else gets in our out of it.
Pet rats are great, wild rats, not!
Mary

 

[Al Gerhart]

Some good ideas here but they are out of order. For the life of me I do not understand why people make a post before searching the forum for the hundreds of other posts that offer excellent advice on a problem. With that in mind, search for Howard E's posts on rodent control and learn the three steps of rodent control: Sanitation, exclusion, and elimination.

Sanitation, stop feeding the rats. Bulk feed in metal barrels, a real treadle feeder and give the negative reviews more weight than the positive reviews when searching, and clean up all avenues of approach to the coop so the natural predators can thin down the population of rodents as they come and go from shelter to the food source you are providing. Forget about using a cheap feeder or no feeder and providing food only during the day, the rats will feed during the day.

Exclusion is the #2 process because it is less effective and more expensive than sanitation but it is better than the #3 process. Eliminate all ways into the coop, hardware cloth, don't depend on wood or even concrete to stop a chewing rodent. Not much help with free range flocks.

Elimination, traps and poisons. Rarely work unless you have already completed the sanitation process. And always a never ending job and a never ending expense. Rodents are too smart to not recognize what is killing their buddies.

One simple sentence is all the advice you need.

Stop feeding the rodents and they will leave.

 

[Rencola]

You can buy some traps for the rats and use a BB gun to put them to sleep that’s what I do though I don’t like killing animals they try to kill mine have in the past

 

[orelsi]

I have no empathy for rats. Especially when they have killed your chicks. It's go time. Good advice in this thread. Personally, I prefer the mechanical pedal and kill bar traps. None of this catch and release humane stuff. Killing chicks is a death sentence. If they learn and start avoiding the trap change the placement and put tasty bait in. I got 6 of them in the span of a month last year just as a hen got broody.

 

[Nolakennedys]

I bait dead ends under the coop then sneak out and terminate them with the 22 or a bb revolver. The big plastic jaw traps work well for about a year. get them from amazon. Bait station and I have the gluten bait as well I dump down the holes. Florida has them everywhere. Tree by the coop is their escape area. Often have to shoot them out of the tree when I can see them.