First time baby chicks!

[NikaStar]

Hi everyone! I have to broody chickens. A total of 5 fertilized eggs. 1 chick has hatched! Yay! This is our first time and a first for our chickens
I am super excited and worried.
I have seen that we have a rat living under our chicken coop. I want to protect our children at night and during day, but I don't want to seperate them from the other flock. I have made a "cage" are for mom and chicks. Attached are pictures. Is this OK? Or do I need to do something more?
Thank for you any feedback.

P.s. yes I know I must do something about this rat.but right now I want to first do protection. I know 1 rat means more. So until they are all out I need to make sure my chicks are safe.

 

[NikaStar]

Correction.. two* broody chickens

 

[Callender Girl]

Congrats on the hatching, and OH NO on the rat!

Getting rid of rats was a major undertaking for me, and I hope you are able to disperse yours quickly. I won't bother with the lengthy list of reasons why you have to get rid of your intruder, but the sooner the better.

 

[NikaStar]

Congrats on the hatching, and OH NO on the rat!

Getting rid of rats was a major undertaking for me, and I hope you are able to disperse yours quickly. I won't bother with the lengthy list of reasons why you have to get rid of your intruder, but the sooner the better.

May I ask how you got rid of yours?

 

[NikaStar]

We also have lots of homes with chicken coops and most of them are in sheds with obviously rat problems. So I want to try to best protect my coop from invaders even after I "get rid" of mine. Any suggestions?
Rat aversion such as cat hair or peppermint, vinegar and/or etc. Work?

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

Welcome to BYC and congrats on the babies
I don’t have experience with rats but I like the protection you made while you come up with a more permanent solution to the intruders. good luck with your chicks.

 

[LizGio]

I feel like a rat could squeeze through the top or knock it over. This could be a really great idea or insanely stupid idea, can you attract the rat to a different location with something else it could eat so it won't resort to your chicks. I am not a fan but if desperate glue trap? Obviously out of reach from the birds

 

[Callender Girl]

It took me a long time and many tries to get rid of rats. I tried all the natural, non-lethal methods I could for as long as I could -- plugging the holes, using essential oils, adding hardware cloth to the dirt-floored coops, storing food in metal containers, feeding birds far away from their coops.

I finally had to go the kill route -- which I hated. I had what looked to be giant, spring-loaded mousetraps that I baited by hot gluing dog kibble so the rats would stay long enough to die. But, more successfully, I got an electronic rat trap that lures them in and didn't require me to touch corpses.

I don't use poison because I don't want any unintentional victims.

Good luck, NikaStar; it likely won't be fast or easy.

 

[NikaStar]

I feel like a rat could squeeze through the top or knock it over. This could be a really great idea or insanely stupid idea, can you attract the rat to a different location with something else it could eat so it won't resort to your chicks. I am not a fan but if desperate glue trap? Obviously out of reach from the birds

Where it can "get into" from the top is how I open the cage area to put food and water for the chicks and mama's. I close the coop at night. I have plastic around the coop where chicken wire is. I hope this helps.

 

[NikaStar]

For now I blocked all entrances that I could think of with bricks. Also added used cat litter under the coopand sealed it up with bricks. As mentioned above.