Gopher or mole digging under my coop

[Shadrach]

I use the bucket/roller trap. No poisons, no traps to unload or in the case of live traps, figuring out what to do with the live critters. I made my own roller out of a wood dowel, a bit larger diameter copper tube, and little plastic bottle caps I cut the tops off to slip over the wood dowel so the copper tube would spin. Sometimes I get as many as five or six rodents by morning. This is safe to set up in the run since the chickens can't hurt themselves on it or be accidentally poisoned.

Do you need bait to entice them onto the bucket?

 

[azygous]

Peanut butter. But the chickens eat the peanut butter off the tube, so I put it on after they've gone to roost.

 

[BrandonVercnocke]

I like the dowel trap but my husband doesn’t like the drowning aspect. Snap traps it will be for now

 

[azygous]

No need to drown them. You may use the bucket roller trap without water as a live trap. Simply place a lid on the bucket with your live(ly) nightly catch inside and take them for a long ride and release.

 

[BrandonVercnocke]

No need to drown them. You may use the bucket roller trap without water as a live trap. Simply place a lid on the bucket with your live(ly) nightly catch inside and take them for a long ride and release.

I live in an area that has a lot of sloughs. Rats are inevitable

 

[BrandonVercnocke]

I live in an area that has a lot of sloughs. Rats are inevitable

Moving them won’t help

 

[rosemarythyme]

Moving them won’t help

I agree, they'll either just come back or end up being someone else's pest problem.

I dislike poison but we have multiple bait boxes around the foundation of the house, as we've had mice inside. I have a pest control company that monitors those.

We don't currently have a rat problem in the coop or run but I still keep snap traps on hand as well as an electric trap, though those aren't meant to be used outside, so you have to make a casing for them to keep them protected from the elements. Also make sure to take the feeder out of the run at night (inside a closed coop is ok if that's your preference) as spilled feed will attract rodents, and make sure to clear out any junk near the outside of the run as rodents will take shelter under things like buckets, wood scraps, general debris. Rats will always be around, you just don't want to give them extra reasons to be attracted to the run.

 

[aart]

Might need a deeper bucket for rats, drowned or not.

 

[BrandonVercnocke]

Well... I got one. Forgot to get a pick

 

[townchicks]

Frankly, I think it is more likely that it's your chickens doing that. Moles, rats and gophers make tunnels, not remove a wide swath of dirt as in the picture. Or, if it is outside your coop, (hard to tell from the pic) then it could be a canine.