Neighbors have a rat problem

[21hens-incharge]

I live where rats normally are not found.....BUT last summer someone released feeder rats here. Of course they found my coops.

I went with a poison called Kaput. It is warfarin so breaks down very quickly once the rat or mouse has eaten it. That means the risks of secondary poisoning are greatly reduced.
The packaging indicated a medium/ large dog would have to consume 7+ pounds of the bait for it to be fatal.

Just food for thought.

 

[duluthralphie]

I live where rats normally are not found.....

Just food for thought.

Where in the world are rats not found?

I thought if humans were there rats were there?

 

[21hens-incharge]

Here in Colorado. Not quite the mountains not quite the flat land.

In 50 years here the only rats I have seen were in cages......until the feeder rats.

Maybe I have been lucky enough to have just never seen them or their leavings.


Google says there are pack rats in the high country and others in the low. I just never ever in my life saw any outside of cages.

 

[Lostchicken]

My neighbor has rat problems also, but I have no rats so far. They have tunneled into his chicken coop and eat the feed. Out of being cheep I never leave my feeder out, and I hand feed out in my yard once a day scratch, and I set my feeder out there too. I bought a big orange tool box made of steel from Homedepot, and I put wheels on it so I can move it around in my shop when it is in the way, and all my feed is in that box. I have no rats at this time.

 

[duluthralphie]

I think you hit on it Lostchicken.

If the food is there the rats are there.

I changed feeders to a less rat friendly one and got cats, That took care of my rats. I just have too many chickens and pens to remove the feed every night.

I love my cats! I never touch them, they cannot be petted, they are skittish at best. BUT I LOVE THEM!

 

[holm25]

There hasn't been a rat on the farm since my grandpa bought the place. The second th he weather got nice he bought 4 barn cats and there hasn't been a rat since. We have the some field mice but the only time we see them is when the cats carry them from way out in the hay field or pasture.

 

[duluthralphie]

There hasn't been a rat on the farm since my grandpa bought the place. The second th he weather got nice he bought 4 barn cats and there hasn't been a rat since. We have the some field mice but the only time we see them is when the cats carry them from way out in the hay field or pasture.

That is the same here. I just saw one piece of the cat I bought from that shady Used cat salesman carrying a small field mouse out of my shed... Nice broken kitty!

 

[Al Gerhart]

It is nearly impossible to prevent rats from getting into a coop short of spending a lot of money on hardware cloth and building a Fort Knox chicken pen. What you can do is drive them away by cutting off their source of food. Gotta stop the feed from being wasted and scattered and stop the mice and rats from being able to push feeder door open.

The only sure way is to use a treadle feeder with a spring loaded door, a counterweight,and a distant and narrow treadle. Any other design works for a while but eventually the rats will earn to overwhelm the treadle. There are some pretty feeders on the market but only one that actually works, it is not uncommon to see a 30% negative review rating on some of the commercial treadle feeders on Amazon. Someone has already posted a link to that customer review on my feeder so I won't post any links.

So it isn't black magic, restrict their access to feed and the rats will leave quickly. Poison isn't needed but it does suddenly work a day or so after you have a good treadle feeder because the rats are now starving and will eat the bait. Yes, the rats can eat dog poo and even chicken poo but they aren't going to stick around eating poo unless there is no where else for them to go.

If you do go with a treadle feeder remember these basics: Have the treadle bottoming out on the ground or a patio block. Fasten the feeder firmly to a very solid object like a post or wall to keep down vibration (shakes too much feed down) and turning the feeder over when it is close to empty. If the door is spring loaded be sure and adjust the spring to prevent the door from slamming too loudly and causing premature spring breakage. Follow the training instructions to the very letter if you want fast training, don't use logic on a chicken, don't block the door open unless it is a guillotine style feeder where you have no choice but to do that, do read all the reviews on the feeder because lots of people will post tips and tricks and exhort you to follow the directions (LOL, the only emails we get asking for help always turn out to be people that don't follow the directions). Full size birds of course or use a treadle extension and tweak the feeder.

 

[duluthralphie]

It is nearly impossible to prevent rats from getting into a coop short of spending a lot of money on hardware cloth and building a Fort Knox chicken pen. What you can do is drive them away by cutting off their source of food. Gotta stop the feed from being wasted and scattered and stop the mice and rats from being able to push feeder door open.

The only sure way is to use a treadle feeder with a spring loaded door, a counterweight,and a distant and narrow treadle. Any other design works for a while but eventually the rats will earn to overwhelm the treadle. There are some pretty feeders on the market but only one that actually works, it is not uncommon to see a 30% negative review rating on some of the commercial treadle feeders on Amazon. Someone has already posted a link to that customer review on my feeder so I won't post any links.

So it isn't black magic, restrict their access to feed and the rats will leave quickly. Poison isn't needed but it does suddenly work a day or so after you have a good treadle feeder because the rats are now starving and will eat the bait. Yes, the rats can eat dog poo and even chicken poo but they aren't going to stick around eating poo unless there is no where else for them to go.

If you do go with a treadle feeder remember these basics: Have the treadle bottoming out on the ground or a patio block. Fasten the feeder firmly to a very solid object like a post or wall to keep down vibration (shakes too much feed down) and turning the feeder over when it is close to empty. If the door is spring loaded be sure and adjust the spring to prevent the door from slamming too loudly and causing premature spring breakage. Follow the training instructions to the very letter if you want fast training, don't use logic on a chicken, don't block the door open unless it is a guillotine style feeder where you have no choice but to do that, do read all the reviews on the feeder because lots of people will post tips and tricks and exhort you to follow the directions (LOL, the only emails we get asking for help always turn out to be people that don't follow the directions). Full size birds of course or use a treadle extension and tweak the feeder.

Nope, the only sure way is some miserable little Putty Tats! They keep everything away.

 

[XanderWiFi]

Pay attention to how much your chickens are eating in a day and only take that out. In the winter, we usually have to take two scoops of food throughout the day, in nicer weather it usually is just one and the scraps we provide. At the end of the day the goal is for there to be just a powder layer of the crumble. We adjust to only have out what needs to be out.

There are a couple feral cats around as well. The possibility that they kill rodents is what keeps them alive. In fact, I caught one in one of my live traps when trying to catch a opossum that has been hanging around.

We also hang our food bucket from wire at a height that helps prevent the chickens from spilling everything.

I understand the concern and worry, but the rats chose to infest your neighbors house. Any chance they need to remove the plank from their eye before picking out the splinter in yours? I don't know the exact distances and conditions where they infested, but I cannot help but think if you were providing this rich food source they would be nesting a whole not closer to you instead of them.