rat mystery

[0die]

I had noticed lots of rat poop in the coop past couple weeks or so but never saw any. The feed tube cap had been malfunctioning. I placed some snap traps and caught one. then nothing more.

Anyway, next week was a rat swarm. Capped off the feed tube and placed freshly cleaned traps, so no dead rat scent. Nothing. not one trap hit. I made some bucket "flip" traps too, youtube, and noting in those.

It's like the rats suddenly left?

Highly unlikely but highly strange that they would suddenly stop.

 

[cavemanrich]

I don't have the answer,,, but do have questions.
Since the rat population seems to have moved on to elsewhere,, are there any rat droppings in your coop?/run area currently??
Keep those traps baited, and handy in place...
Rats are smart,, and usually avoid poison food if they see their fellow rats dying from it.
Maybe this group decided this coop was TOOOOOO DANGEROUS

WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[0die]

the rat dropping have not returned.

Murphy's Law...

I set a bunch of snap traps. I bought an assortment of bucket flip traps on Amazon. Made some homemade flip traps. Got a ratinator cage trap...

It's like as soon as I invested money in traps they just left.

peanut butter is still on all the traps. Not one rat or mouse and no bait taken. And no more rat droppings...

 

[0die]

well...saw a single rat last night running along the fence. They are around, just not entering the coop it seems.

Or maybe all the new traps have got them cautious. Perhaps they will reenter the coop after a few days.

 

[Al Gerhart]

One sure fix for rodents assuming you have full size hens, get a treadle feeder. Control the feed, control the rodents. Read the negative reviews first on all treadle feeders because the vast majority are sold to people just wanting a feeder and without a current rodent problem. The negative review tell the story of how effective the feeders are once you weed out all the kooks posting about ugly pop rivets, the ones that refuse to follow the instructions, and shipping problems.

Do a forum search for Howard E's rat control posts. Haven't seen the guy online in a few years but he had some of the best researched, common sense posts on rodents I have ever seen.

 

[0die]

I've thought about those step on feeders.

My current set up is a PVC tube with curved tube at the end. I have a plug rigged up to drop in the opening when the coop door closed. But I've found often the chickens will just kick or pull it out. Probably a large rat could as well.