Rat Issue!!!

[Callender Girl]

My best success was an electronic rat trap that would zap the rodents and allow me to dispose of them without touching them. It was about $40. Chickens couldn't get inside the trap, so I put it in the coop with them.

I had limited success outside the coops/runs with oversized snap traps that look like big, old-fashioned mouse traps. When I used those, I hot glued dog kibble to the trap so the rat would have to spend a little time trying to get the bait.

There is nearly no chance that you only have one rat. And, it's likely there are tunnels somewhere near your coops. I had to install hardware cloth "floors' under my coops. I first tried stuffing essential-oil soaked rags in the tunnels without success.

I never leave food out at night and store all of my feed in metal garbage cans.

Good luck with the battle ahead of you! Rats are incredibly smart and will give you plenty of headaches, but you have the ability to (eventually) defeat them!

 

[Annalyse]

My best success was an electronic rat trap that would zap the rodents and allow me to dispose of them without touching them. It was about $40. Chickens couldn't get inside the trap, so I put it in the coop with them.

I had limited success outside the coops/runs with oversized snap traps that look like big, old-fashioned mouse traps. When I used those, I hot glued dog kibble to the trap so the rat would have to spend a little time trying to get the bait.

There is nearly no chance that you only have one rat. And, it's likely there are tunnels somewhere near your coops. I had to install hardware cloth "floors' under my coops. I first tried stuffing essential-oil soaked rags in the tunnels without success.

I never leave food out at night and store all of my feed in metal garbage cans.

Good luck with the battle ahead of you! Rats are incredibly smart and will give you plenty of headaches, but you have the ability to (eventually) defeat them!

We had one success of almost catching it by powering water into the tunnels and the one ran out but that didn’t stop it from coming back sadly. We will definitely try and look into the zap trap

 

[igorsMistress]

Poison was the only thing that worked for us. We left it out in a bait station and the rat that moved into my shed was dead in short order. Smelled horrible, that’s how I knew we got it.

I saw it in the coop in the middle of the day and either it or a friend was headed for a feeder before dusk when the chickens weren’t in the immediate area.

 

[Annalyse]

Poison was the only thing that worked for us. We left it out in a bait station and the rat that moved into my shed was dead in short order. Smelled horrible, that’s how I knew we got it.

I saw it in the coop in the middle of the day and either it or a friend was headed for a feeder before dusk when the chickens weren’t in the immediate area.

We tried poison and he completely ignored it

 

[igorsMistress]

We tried poison and he completely ignored it

You have to leave it out a while. Use a few bait stations in various places, and leave them for a few weeks.

 

[Annalyse]

You have to leave it out a while. Use a few bait stations in various places, and leave them for a few weeks.

We didn’t use bait stations we just put them in his tunnels. But we’ll try all these ideas this weekend so.

 

[igorsMistress]

We didn’t use bait stations we just put them in his tunnels. But we’ll try all these ideas this weekend so.

Good luck!

 

[dawg53]

Yep, the electronic rat trap works great. I used a 'Just One Bite" poison bait cylinder for bait.

 

[igorsMistress]

Yep, the electronic rat trap works great. I used a 'Just One Bite" poison bait cylinder for bait.
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You’re giving me the willies Dawg! Blah!

 

[Al Gerhart]

There is only one reason why rats, mice, squirrels, or wild birds want to hang around a chicken coop and that is chicken feed. They can usually get water elsewhere, not always, desert flocks would draw rodents to the water. So the answer to eliminating rats in the coop is quite simple:


Stop feeding them.


I have taken to posting one of Howard E's posts on the rodent issue as he has the best info out there on this forum. Do a forum search for the guy's posts. But here is in my view his best post on the issue before, I think, he got tired of re posting the same advice to the twenty or thirty posts a month on the same rat issue. Really folks, do forum searches, taint' nuffin new most of the time.

But here is Howard's post and my usual interpretation of his advice:


"To the OP (and others like them), if you will spend the time, everything you need to know about rats and how to get ride of them will be found in the links below......

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rat-control-the-video-series.1337456/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rat-control-101.1283827/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rat-proof-feeder-review.1180514/#post-18610285

This last one is a review of a rat proof chicken feeder built and sold by a BYC member, who is a staunch advocate for the plan of getting rid of rats by starving them out. Remove all sources of feed and they will be forced to move on or starve to death. If you are firmly against the use of poison bait blocks......for whatever reason.......then this is one of the best actions you can take. Bulk food in metal trash cans.....chicken feed in metal rat proof feeders. Can't get to the feed and birds do not spill and waste feed that the rats can survive on."

End of Howard's post:

And the short version of Howard's post? Sanitation, exclusion, elimination.

Sanitation, bulk feed in metal cans or barrels with tight fitting lids, a treadle feeder, clean up the avenues of movement so the rodents have no cover to protect them from their natural predators. In my opinion and experience this is the quickest, surest, and cheapest way to solve a rodent problem.

Exclusion, plugging the holes and building a Fort Knox chicken coop and not leaving an opening for free range. Tough to do and expensive but it could work for rats.

Elimination, poison and traps. Problem is that rats are smart and will quickly learn to avoid both traps and poison bait. Were you to clean them out, the lack of sanitation would mean a new population of rodents would move right in. And there is risk and no end to the process, keeping fresh bait out. However, if you have done your sanitation using poison becomes effective as the rats are starving and will likely try the poison bait. Not needed though, they will leave in a few days as long as you are not feeding the rodents with a compost pile or other animal feed. Not all will leave, your area will have a natural carrying capacity for rodents, natural feed, but that natural ability to sustain rodents is quite small and the natural predators keep them in check and under cover as the rodents hustle to find this natural food.

Do a forum search on "rats chickens" and you will find most of the old wives tales exposed and read of long epic battles against the rodents. Sanitation, exclusion, or elimination all have associated costs but you are already paying for the feed and will recover the initial costs quickly with the first method.