I have a lot of coops and birds, so it isn't practical for me to do what people do with their backyard flocks. I buy feed once a week and it can be from 200 pounds to 400 pounds (every week) when I'm hatching and growing out. I put the feed in buckets because it's easier for me to handle. I do keep feed in the feeders in the coops so the birds always have access to it. Since putting out the rat bait stations I haven't seen any more rats. If you have chickens you are likely to have a rat at one time or another. I choose the poison in the bait stations and nothing else can get to the bait. I have not found anything dead on my property from eating a dead rat that was killed by the poison. It doesn't take much poison to kill a rat and most likely if a critter does eat a dead rat it will not affect it. I'm sure there are always exceptions. I do have game cameras set up. I have had a couple of rat infestations over the years and have learned what works best for me. Before I did the renovation on the coop that was infested I had rats coming out all over the place. I had a ceiling in the coop and the rats were nesting in the ceiling too besides in-between the inner and outer wall. The rats actually chewed through a stud. When I took the ceiling down a lot of rats came out of it. One almost landed on me. I wish I had a picture to show how many rats I was dealing with. It was a lot. I hate rats...
