I put out rat poison down inside some rat tunnels, under the ground, then covered up the tunnel entrances with large stones. I thought that would do the trick to keep the poison underground and away from areas where chickens might roam and come across it. Unfortunately I think something went wrong with this theory, because I found a dead chicken yesterday. I'm assuming it ate rat poison -- cannot think of another reason why it might have passed on. I'm kicking myself for doing something that inadvertently harmed my gorgeous gal.
I've tried the 5 gallon bucket trap but it didn't work at all. The rats got the bait without getting caught in the trap. I've actually tried every type of trap and nothing has worked but rat poison. Live traps, glue traps, snap traps, 5 gallon traps -- none have worked. I did catch one rat in a live trap long ago -- but only one. AFter that, the other rats must have quickly learned not to go in there because I could never catch another.
I think I need to build a rat poision feeding station like the black plastic ones depicted here.