Rats eating chickens food....

[katkan16]

Thanks so much guys! Thankfully I haven't noticed many droppings in the actual coop and my chickens are pretty particular about what they'll eat. They'll peck at something and if they don't like it they learn to just ignore it. Hopefully they haven't tried eating any of the few droppings; we do clean our coop out frequently and thoroughly. I still feel bad about the poison, so I just purchased a much better live trap and will try that for about a week. If that doesn't work I guess we'll have to resort to more morally drastic measures....so hopefully the traps will work, but I have to think of the safety of my hens. To any of you that subscribed to this post, I will update in a week or so and if needed maybe you guys can suggest some good brands. Thanks again!

 

[Erica]

I recommend traps with no moving parts. Anything with a trigger or spring will make the rats trap-shy. You can get traps with a sort of interior funnel made of long straight rods. The rats crawl into the funnel but when they try to escape they either don't notice the funnel (which protrudes down into the trap from the hole in the top) or they can't climb up the straight rods. They definitely work here if I remove all chicken feed overnight.

cheers
Erica

 

[1livelychick]

We put glue boards, rat traps, and blocks of poison out....found a few dead rats. I keep the food out in the run area away from the coop. The cats have done a wonderful job with eliminating the rats. Better than all the previous methods. I find a" present" in the barn just about every day now. Good luck!

 

[flowerchicks]

I felt the same way about killing rats. I hated the thought of poisoning anything and causing it to suffer, so I bought a rat zapper, it kills instantly. We were getting at least 1-2 rats a night, and usually one during the day. Then they started getting smaller and I thought I was trapping babies... turned out they were field mice, the rats where on to the electrocution machine. They didn't do any damage to my chickens, but they did do $300 damage to my CAR!!! When I got that bill, I said, screw the rats (I too, had pet rats, but oh well) and bought Just One Bite rat poison. I found 2 dead rats in the yard, but that's it. Never noticed any smell. About 6-7 years ago we had a exterminator come out to get the rats in the garage and he said that the summer is the BEST time to kill them, because when they die, they dry up quickly. He said in the wet/cold weather, they rot, and that is what causes the smell.