How can I stop RATS!!

[christineavatar]

I have had a problem with rats. I thought it was pretty much benign but I changed feeder types and figured the little devils would move on. I had a hen go broody, I noticed her staying in the nest box when I locked up the chickens last night. My son lets them out in the morning so on one noticed anything wrong. I got her broody box ready for her and was going to move her tonight. I went to the boxes to collect the eggs and she had been killed by a rat! Just her head and neck had been eaten at - striped bare of all skin and feathers. Her body was untouched.
Question: does anyone know of a fool proof way to get rid of the culprits? I have electronic rat traps that zaps them. I have had them for about a month and have caught one rat. I have tried traditional spring loaded rat traps and all I caught were birds. Now with this carnage I have declared war on them. Any suggestions?

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

OMG! That's horrible! i am SO sorry for your loss.

It sounds like the first thing is to make your coop super secure so the rats can't get in. Although, it may be that the rats got her during the day when the coop door was open? i have used those rat zappers, and you may catch one rat, but the others wise up and generally won't go in. The rat zappers are better at catching mice, i've found.

i have used sticky traps placed in areas where the chickens can not access. But i have only caught baby rats that way. The adults seem to be able to flip them and get off. i have used bait blocks underneath one of my pens when i knew a rat was living under there. In that case i felt confident i could put the block under then seal off any way a chicken could get to it. i really don't like using poison, though. Just too much danger that other animals might get to it.

The most effective way i have found to kill rats is to sit out with a pellet gun and shoot them when they emerge. It takes a lot of patience, and i don't do it when my animals are out. But early evening after everyone is in bed is a good time to get them.

Hopefully others will have some good suggestions for you. i hate rats!

 

[JenJuhasz]

Feeling your pain! We had rats infest my turkey run...and now they've found a way into my super-duper chicken penitentiary. My husband and his father have spent days and days securing our coop - the entire thing (16'x20', split into a duplex) is off the ground by 3+ feet and has diamond mesh lath running the entire base and up the walls. The run is fenced all around with a foot or more of fencing bent outwards and buried. We even had a bear try to get into the fence and all he did was bend the fence, but couldn't get in.

Our challenge? Rats and weasels have found ways in, even with all our efforts! We close the coop doors at night, keep the food inside...but last night my husband went down to close it up - it was still daylight - and he said it was like a horror show with the rats dumping out the doors. We have 3 broody hens sitting on a few eggs we decided to let them hatch...but at this rate we're going to lose the incubated eggs.

Really at a loss as to good solutions. Read some of the other threads on good suggestions, and am open to additional ideas. I doubt I can get a barn cat to live down there...though it's really tempting! Hubby is going to make an outdoor food shelter to keep the rats Out of the coop if possible, then we'll cross the bridge of keeping the rats out of the food.

Other ideas suggested that we'll try is to build rat-sized boxes to put the poison in. Problem is, the rat poisons we've seen actually eat their way through the rat and then the poison is on the ground for anyone to pick up. Anyone have suggestions for a poison that dissolves in the gut and is faster acting? I cannot Imagine the agony the rats must go through if they eat something that simply dissolves them inside out over a period of days. After moving the country and dealing with predators, I'm not sympathetic towards the animals, but I'm really opposed to creating agonizing deaths.

Suggestions?

 

[marianne7]

To add to all the good advice already given, Poision is the only thing, there are usually lots and lots of rats, and killing a couple of them will not get rid of them, they breed like wildfire too, but make sure your birds cant get to the poision......

 

[Folly's place]

My coop has 1/2 or 1/4 inch hardware cloth over all openings, and a cement floor, Very predator proof at night. Rats in the barn are another story..Never caught one in a trap; they're way too smart. I resorted to poison finally. Caged my barn cat, warned neighbors, and kept the chickens in their coop for over a week, and it worked! The poisoned critters will poison anyone eating them, so you have to keep your animals safe. Mary

 

[fairfeatherfriend]

We've had pest control come out with special poison blocks that (they say) only rats or rodents can get in to. But, first of all - exclusion is important. We found that 1/4 " chicken wire around the base, the door, and under the floor board has worked. We take the feed out at night and secure it in the metal trash can with the remaining food; then put it back in the morning. At lease I know their food is not largely contaminated that way. Unfortunately we've still seen rats around during the day, but the infestation seems to have lessened. We have not put out the poison (yet), hoping that exclusion would make the difference. If we need to do more, we'll soon find out.

 

[gabrielle1976]

Im so sorry for your loss, please reammber when / if useing posion or deadly traps that you can wind up killing just about anything not just the rats, rats will live anywehere there is food and safety , if you remove or severly limit there ability to get at food and get rid of the places they can nest and hide they tend to move on alot of the time as there opertunests. They are very smart. I would suggest looking into how you store the feed and all that as well as make sure there are not any nice comfy hidey holes within a mile or so of the coop, they dont like to travel far from safty but they can. Good luck
I forgot to mention that they can get into places with little more then a hole the size of a nickle. Make sure that stuff is sealed up good.

 

[christineavatar]

Thank you, everyone! It looks like poison is the winner. I have free ranged my birds for years. It looks like I'm going to have to keep them penned for a while.