Giving in to poison …

[Cryss]

Rats!!
Ok, I have never allowed food inside the coop. I have never left feeders in the run once the flock is in bed. I remove water also. The whole coop and run are covered with 1/2 inch hardware cloth with apron. I have tried building bucket traps, even paid for one. Caught 2 mice in 4 months. This week we let our 2 dogs into the run at night after the chickens were in bed. Rats never reveal themselves although the dogs were sniffing and digging. I have already ordered 2 rat proof treadle feeders. They will be arriving Sunday. I’m thinking poison is inevitable. Local feed store sells Tom Cat lock boxes and blocks. Needless to say, I am petrified. I know I can prevent my dogs and chickens and cats from going into the box. My fear is them finding a carcass. Of course we will be monitoring every morning in the run for carcass. And of course, in the yard where the dogs are. But I am still petrified. Any thoughts from anyone?

 

[Cryss]

Oh, I forgot to mention we tried flooding them out. We just ended up with a very muddy run with several inches of water.

 

[Al Gerhart]

First off thanks for the order.

Second, just wait till the feeders arrive, not sure if Fedex Ground does Sunday delivery so Monday most likely. While you are waiting choose where you are going to install the feeder, hopefully against a wall or post, even a steel post is workable, something to absorb some of the vibration from large chickens jumping on and off the treadle. Set three patio blocks, usually around 8" x 16"x 2" thick, that gives you a 16" wide x 24" long solid platform. Room for the feeder and some space in front so the birds can walk up and use one foot to press down the treadle to eat while standing on the other foot.

I see chain link panels in your profile picture, not good to use that, too much vibration shakes too much feed down into the lower feed bin. You can do it if you use some cardboard to choke off some of the feed flow. Bungee cords around the feeder to the fence panels is a common thing but it is far, far better to solidly secure that feeder in place so there is no wiggle, the hens will not like stepping on something that isn't solid.

When your feeder arrives there will be a 10.5 x 2" galvanized Z plate or cleat in the big plastic bag with the wire link and hardware bag and instructions. Set your feeder in place, use a pencil or marker to draw a line across the top back of the lid of the feeder. Install that metal cleat about 1/8" to 1/4" below that line you made, then raise the feeder and slide it down over that metal cleat. There is a wire axle that the lid pivots on, that wire axle engages that cleat to hold it in place. The top of the cleat also blocks off that gap in the back to prevent critters from coming in, if they could climb the galvanized metal. Here is a video on the cleat installation

Visit our main website with the .net ending for a lot of videos that will help you prepare and fix any issues that can possibly come up.

Alternatively, fill the feeder, set it on your patio blocks (or bricks or pavers). Set one or two concrete patio blocks ON TOP of the feeder to hold it steady and to absorb some of the vibration.

Follow the instructions to the very letter. If in doubt, email me with pictures and I'll walk you through any issues. [email protected]

No other feed other than what is in the feeder, no free range, no snacks. Treadle must bottom out on the patio blocks, feeder must be held solidly in place so it feels safe to use for the chickens. No improvising, follow the instructions, twelve years of making and selling and helping people has honed those instructions.

The second day that the feeder has been installed you will begin to see rats coming out of the woodwork starving to death. If you feel that you have to resort to poison that is the time when they will be desperate and might take bait. But IF you follow the instructions the hens will quickly pick up using the feeder and the rats will leave in a few days or starve to death or be caught by predators when they are forced to scavenge for natural food.

Fedex Ground picked up your feeders yesterday afternoon and they passed through the hub at Lenexa KS this morning.

 

[Jenbirdee]

ferret ? jk.
but I had a rat lived under my duck house for a while. I put onions in the holes and he left but returned. I put my son's snake's shed skin in the hole and he left for a while but returned.
I didnt want to use poison either.
I tried glue traps (only at night after ducks went in their house)
I tried snap traps
nothing
I ended up using floor jacks to lift up the whole duck house (a 6x8 amish shed very heavy) and I raked out and filled in all the tunnels and put more snake skin.
I set some rat snap traps, and finally caught killed him.

then i dug trenches and buried hardware cloth around so no more rats could return.

 

[Cryss]

First off thanks for the order.

Second, just wait till the feeders arrive, not sure if Fedex Ground does Sunday delivery so Monday most likely. While you are waiting choose where you are going to install the feeder, hopefully against a wall or post, even a steel post is workable, something to absorb some of the vibration from large chickens jumping on and off the treadle. Set three patio blocks, usually around 8" x 16"x 2" thick, that gives you a 16" wide x 24" long solid platform. Room for the feeder and some space in front so the birds can walk up and use one foot to press down the treadle to eat while standing on the other foot.

I see chain link panels in your profile picture, not good to use that, too much vibration shakes too much feed down into the lower feed bin. You can do it if you use some cardboard to choke off some of the feed flow. Bungee cords around the feeder to the fence panels is a common thing but it is far, far better to solidly secure that feeder in place so there is no wiggle, the hens will not like stepping on something that isn't solid.

When your feeder arrives there will be a 10.5 x 2" galvanized Z plate or cleat in the big plastic bag with the wire link and hardware bag and instructions. Set your feeder in place, use a pencil or marker to draw a line across the top back of the lid of the feeder. Install that metal cleat about 1/8" to 1/4" below that line you made, then raise the feeder and slide it down over that metal cleat. There is a wire axle that the lid pivots on, that wire axle engages that cleat to hold it in place. The top of the cleat also blocks off that gap in the back to prevent critters from coming in, if they could climb the galvanized metal. Here is a video on the cleat installation

Visit our main website with the .net ending for a lot of videos that will help you prepare and fix any issues that can possibly come up.

Alternatively, fill the feeder, set it on your patio blocks (or bricks or pavers). Set one or two concrete patio blocks ON TOP of the feeder to hold it steady and to absorb some of the vibration.

Follow the instructions to the very letter. If in doubt, email me with pictures and I'll walk you through any issues. [email protected]

No other feed other than what is in the feeder, no free range, no snacks. Treadle must bottom out on the patio blocks, feeder must be held solidly in place so it feels safe to use for the chickens. No improvising, follow the instructions, twelve years of making and selling and helping people has honed those instructions.

The second day that the feeder has been installed you will begin to see rats coming out of the woodwork starving to death. If you feel that you have to resort to poison that is the time when they will be desperate and might take bait. But IF you follow the instructions the hens will quickly pick up using the feeder and the rats will leave in a few days or starve to death or be caught by predators when they are forced to scavenge for natural food.

Fedex Ground picked up your feeders yesterday afternoon and they passed through the hub at Lenexa KS this morning.

THANK YOU!! I didn’t know you were on the forum Yes, fedex confirmed expected delivery to be Sunday no later than 1:30pm! We shall see
I did get that list of videos from the link in your confirmation email. I’ve saved it to my desktop. My son in law and husband are watching videos Saturday with me to be prepared. You are very thorough in covering details in your communications. I really appreciate that quality in any business. I will certainly contact you if I need help. Thank you for the encouragement to hold off on poison. Perhaps starving rats will be easier for my dogs to see and I can avoid poison. It might be ongoing because a neighbor started chickens 2 years ago. They don’t take as many predetor precautions as I wish he would but he’s a good guy and is improving.
Again, thank you. I’m sure I’ll be updating

 

[Al Gerhart]

You are welcome. I sell a solution, not a product, so I do my best to make sure people are successful. Check spam as a lot of the emails get routed there these days.

Starving rats, when I first came up with the wooden model of this feeder back in what, 2011, on the third day we had dozens of starving rats staggering around in the yard. My two dogs were killing them as quick as they could move from one to the next. I went from a colony of dozens and dozens to zero rats in about five days.

Follow the instructions! Email if you have problems. Those that have problems usually aren't interpreting the instructions correctly.

 

[Folly's place]

We had rats in our coop a few years ago, when part of our (old!) concrete foundation cracked. They ate eggs, and killed three nice pullets at night, before we got them out. We had insulated two of the coop walls, so they were hiding in the cavities, and we had to tear that all out. And bait stations, and no more rats.
Having some bantams, especially younger bantams, the rat proof feeders don't work here.
Mary

 

[Al Gerhart]

Partially true, as long as there are more full size birds than bantams the flock will do fine. If you have mostly bantams, you need a feeder that is NOT rat proof. One of the Chinese made feeders like the Grandpa feeder might be more suitable but they are NOT rat proof. Over 30% of the reviews on Amazon for that type of feeder are negative and there are many, many customers complaining that mice are getting in the feeder.

Again you need a huge difference in reach and weight between the critter that is using the feeder and the critter you are trying to keep out. If you don't have that then the feeder is NOT rat proof. You might use a wider step that negates the reach portion but you better increase the spring tension on the door if you want the feeder to remain rat proof.

Thanks to Mary for pointing out that bantams aren't always the best kind of chickens with a Ratproof feeder.

And folks, if a feeder claims it is rat proof please check the negative reviews. There will always be a few really dense people that haven't assembled the feeder correctly and won't take advice if they even bother to reach out for help but if it is more than say 4 to 5% negative reviews, watch out!

 

[Red Mangrove]

The very same night I dropped off a cat here all rat problems vanished

 

[Cryss]

@Al Gerhart I sent you an email with pictures. Help!