HELP -- we have a rat walled in under the coop!

[MissE]

My dogs will eat any dead, gross thing they find, so I am always leery of baits and poisons other than high speed lead poisoning.

Can you block the corners from the inside so he can't get in the coop and is stuck underneath it? Yes, he could slowly starve to death, but it might be motivation for him to find another way out.

Do you have any friends with a ferret? Move the chickens somewhere else secure for a couple days and leave the ferret in the coop.

 

[cmom]

It appears as if you have an infestation of rats/mice. I had a coop that was infested. When I started renovating it, the rats literately poured out of it, they were coming out all over in all sizes. I had so many that I put out some rat bait boxes so other critters couldn't get to the rat poison. I put the bait stations in a pet carrier. After the baits had been set out for awhile in the coop and in our barn which is behind the coops and replacing baits, eventually less and less bait was being eaten. I didn't find dead rats which lead me to believe that the rats were going down into their tunnels and dying. The bait box has a little window over the bait so the bait in the bait boxes can be checked often. I had no issues with other critters getting the bait. Good luck...

 

[cmom]

I pulled out several nests when I was renovating my coop that were in the walls and ceiling.

 

[cmom]

I moved the birds out of the coop before I put the bait stations in a pet carrier in the coop.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Control the feed and you control the rats. Get a treadle feeder.