Rats - crazy situation

[dogrepair]

We are moving to a new farm with an existing chicken coop (there is another family on the farm who keep chickens), but the coop is infested with rats. The rats eat the chicken feed, but never harm the birds - in fact the other family says the chickens treat the rats like family and even once attacked a cat who was attacking one of the rats. This seems a bit odd, and I wonder at the very least about the rats transmitting intestinal parasites to the birds. Should I find a polite way of saying we'll be building our own (rat proof) coop, or should I send our ladies in with theirs?

 

[HathawayHens]

Ew. Rats are nasty, and aside from eating feed and wasting your money, they can eat the eggs and even go after smaller or weaker birds. I'd get some good hardware cloth and build my own, thanks. IMO

 

[Young MacDonald]

Not only will they eat your eggs, but I've had one kill a chick before, right from under the mom. I think the rat was after eggs, but this chick had already hatched. I ran out there because I heard screaming in the coop - I think it was the rat screaming from the mom fighting it - and found the baby with it's neck bleeding and it died within minutes. Definitely try to get rid of them. What we did was flood them. They were living under the coop and we flooded the tunnels. We know it worked because we found several young ones dying on the ground afterwards. Good luck!

 

[arch_cpj]

with no attempt to ge rid of the rats and them being able to breed freely you have likely hundreds of them around they carry plague haunta virus etc... Id poison them you are going to need a mess of bait most of the rats will take off and die in the fields Ive cleared up many very bad infestations for farms etc and have rarely found a dead rat within one week you can have your problem fixed... I would then clean all the bedding outta that old coop wearing a good dust mask and then Id sweep the walls... I would use hydrated ag lime and give the floor a healthy dusting if the floor is wood or concrete you should get a garden sprayer and mix a 10 percent mixture of bleach and water no other chemicals soak the floor and the walls... let them air dry and soak them again let them dry the walls are good, then you dust the floor with the ag lime let it sit like that a day and fill it with dry bedding your good to go....

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

You were kidding right?? I have a few mice in my hen house as I am sure most ppl. do..but I do what I can to get rid of them. I have had them attack my little baby bantams and kill them.....build your own house...they are dirty disguisting animals that you don't want around if you can help it.

 

[FarmerRob]

Before you install your own chickens you should invest in some "Just One Bite" rat poison. Works like the name implies. Then be sure you have gotten rid of it before the chickens are there.