HELP!! Anyone successfully dispatched all rats from their coop? HELP!!

[Sir Birdaholic]

Remove ALL food sources, & the rats will leave. This means feed the chickens only what they will completely consume, & don't leave anything for the rats to eat. Collect the eggs, as soon as they are laid, if possible. The rats will move off to an easy food source.

 

[lynxs1981]

I used to have rats tunneling into my barn. What I did to stop them was to take a foot or so of hose, stick it in the holes, and dump a little bit of gas in there. The smell works wonders to keep them from coming back; and if they do, the fumes can kill them in the small tunnels. It's safe for animals since you actually put it underground.

 

[lurky]

We eliminated all rats using havahart and a pellet gun. There were a few that were too smart to go into the traps. My husband waited for them just before dark and shot them.
Boys just seem to love shooting things

They seem to come out hungry just before dark sneaking around the coop for dinner. So he went out before and sat with patience, very still.
That took care of the last few. We have night cameras now and have not seen one in months. You cant wait til its really bad or it takes a very long time.
When you get ahead of it, stay ahead. If you ignore one or two, you get 25+ real fast.
We never once used poison because it was too risky.

 

[jjthinkagain]

Dirt floor is unfortunately an open invitation. Just doesn't work with chickens, because the preds will get in (except in some exceptionally lucky circumstances). Get a floor and your problem should be solved (in addition of course to making sure food sources totally unavailable at night, etc.)
JJ

 

[19hhbelgian]

I have been removing the feed at night, but that's when they started getting the birds. Guess it got em po'd that I took the grain out. Probably not, but seems that way! I'm going to put a hardware floor down and hopefully that will help enormously

Will also keep taking the food in at night, and any broodies go in the shed in their own little bin

 

[Jess N Jeff]

Someone on here suggested orange soda and Golden Malarin (sp) mixed together in a bowl. I waited until just before night, put the chickens away and put out the bowl of sweet death. I was SHOCKED!!! I didn't realize how many rats I had...not mice like I thought...big thick tailed rats. They swarmed the bowl and went to town. Drank it all up.

Sadly...I had to clean up a yard full of dead rats before I let the dogs out the next morning. I had a dead skunk too. I felt kinda bad. There were so many....

 

[jjthinkagain]

Golden Malarin (sp)

I read that this is just as deadly for other beings - unintended victims like nonpredatory wildlife etc, - so...................... careful everyone.

OP, the hardware cloth floor is tough stuff - they will not be able to get in and your birds will no longer be sitting ducks. I would also let the hardware cloth run up the walls 6 inches or so if you can, so they can't get in around the edges. Then maybe put something on the floor so the birds don't get their toes caught in the wire when walking on the floor. A project, I know, but it only has to be done once..thankfully!
JJ (aka jjthink)

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
this stuff really works well some use coca-cola instead of orange. for trapping them I mix peanut butter and what ever feed I am using. I use regular snap rat traps and keep them in weasel boxes to keep other animals out>

 

[crazyhen]

when I put the hardware cloth in I used screws and washers to attach it to the side walls. I covered it with soil. They love the soil to dust in but I don't like the mess so now gradually I am putting in a real floor. I have two areas done and it is soooo much easier to clean out in there. I can barely wait to floor the whole thing. No More RED DIRT dust on the water, food, ceiling etc. What a mess they can make with it. I have not seen anymore rats for the last month and 1/2 so , so far so good. Good luck with them. Gloria Jean

 

[NewHen]

My coop is raised but I have the attached run and the area under the coop surrounded with hardware mesh. Some people advised burying hardware mesh into the ground along the circumference but I took someone else's advice. Instead, I laid out hardware mesh on the ground and then put pavers on top of that and then the coop and run on top of that. I have landscaping cloth and two inches of gravel on top of the outside hardware mesh. My coop weighs at least a ton but even the attached run has no wiggle room for anything. The only way a rodent has room to squeeze into our coop is if I don't latch down the lid over the nests. Good luck!