Resorting to poison before cleaning up the sanitation in and around a coop is just ill advised. Put your bulk feed in a metal barrel or trash can if you haven't already, clean up the hiding places around the coop, put stuff up off the ground if possible so predators can get under to hunt the rats, and store the coop feed in a good quality treadle feeder with a narrow and distant step, spring loaded door, and a counterweight.
If you do that the rats and mice will leave. A customer did a review this morning about New Orleans rats:
"Product Name: Medium Ratproof Chicken Feeder
Name: Cheri, New Orleans, LA
Review: I purchased two for a flock of 15 hens, four small (Royal Palm) turkeys, and two peacocks. The units work as advertised, feed use dropped in half since I'm not feeding half of New Orleans' rats anymore, and best part--this is the apex of customer service, the best, bar none.
PS- I added a larger pad for the big birds and then hung a cabbage leaf out the front of the lid so the birds had to step on the pad to get the leaf. This opened the food drawer which seemed to speed up the learning process.
Rating: 5 stars"
Now if you want to resort to poison a week after doing the feed sanitation that is a compromise to clean out the starving rats and they will be starving as most environments cannot support a pack of rats without an artificial source of food like a chicken coop with bad feeders. Still it is better and safer to just wait a few more days to prevent poisoning the predators that are already trying to keep the rat numbers under control.
If you do that the rats and mice will leave. A customer did a review this morning about New Orleans rats:
"Product Name: Medium Ratproof Chicken Feeder
Name: Cheri, New Orleans, LA
Review: I purchased two for a flock of 15 hens, four small (Royal Palm) turkeys, and two peacocks. The units work as advertised, feed use dropped in half since I'm not feeding half of New Orleans' rats anymore, and best part--this is the apex of customer service, the best, bar none.
PS- I added a larger pad for the big birds and then hung a cabbage leaf out the front of the lid so the birds had to step on the pad to get the leaf. This opened the food drawer which seemed to speed up the learning process.
Rating: 5 stars"
Now if you want to resort to poison a week after doing the feed sanitation that is a compromise to clean out the starving rats and they will be starving as most environments cannot support a pack of rats without an artificial source of food like a chicken coop with bad feeders. Still it is better and safer to just wait a few more days to prevent poisoning the predators that are already trying to keep the rat numbers under control.
