Rats getting in my coop... HELP!!!

[j_morgan76]

A couple weeks ago I found a dead rat in my chicken coop. Tonight I got home late tonight and went to close the coop up... I found a bunch of rats at the coop. We have noticed the chicken food disappearing from the coop and thought it was squirrels. Unfortunately it looks like it has been rats. Will they hurt the chickens?

How do I get rid of rats without hurting my chickens?

 

[Kevin565]

Yes Rats can harm your chickens,chicks, and steal your eggs. Since your working near chickens I wouldn't advise ANY type of poison. Maybe a Barn Cat?

 

[j_morgan76]

Unfortunately I am very allergic to cats. The coop is at the back of my property. I have a fence there and a ditch behind the fence. I am assuming the live by the ditch. Maybe I can put out some poison behind my fence?

 

[akashia26]

get a 55 gallon steel drum and a good pellet gun. put the drum near a post, stairs, beam, ect in or around your coop. put a half inch layer of feed in the bottom. wait a few hours. have fun shooting rats in a barrel.

to keep the chickens out of it, put a layer of chicken or dog wire over the top. needs holes big enough for the rats but too small for chickens.

 

[okallthis4eggs]

I would remove the chicken feed at night time when the chickens are roosting and set live catch traps outside and around the coop. You can buy the traps at Tractor Supply. I wouldn't use the snap/kill traps where squirrels, coons, ect would get into them as well. I wouldn't use poison around my coop either. If a mouse eats the poison and dies inside the coop the chickens could eat it , and of course the lethal dose of poison that killed the mouse. Bait the traps with peanut butter and keep setting them till you stop seeing them. Then figure out how they are getting inside to the chicken feed and how to keep them out or your problem will be never ending

 

[fried green eggs]

I hate mice and rats more. I don't know if this type of trap will work with rats but it works well for mice so worth a try. Put a large trash can that holds water and fill it up only half way up with water then dump in just enough oats or horse sweet feed in to the trash can - to make it look like it is filled with oats. Make sure the level of water with oats is low enough so that when a rat goes in for oats that it can't get out and will drown. Prop up a board so they can easilly get in but have to jump down to the level of oats. I would put this close to where you think rats live. I would set this up each night until you are no longer drowning any. Good luck.

 

[okallthis4eggs]

akashia26 I saw a vidio I think on Utube using a 55 gal drum filled about a third full of water and a teeter- totter board mounted on the rim of the barrel with peanut butter on the end of the board that sticks inside the barrel. The walk the plank to get to the bait and end up swimming the rest of their life (Which is less than 5 minutes)

 

[Kanga77510]

I would put poison out where the chickens can't reach it. Your other option is snap or glue trap. We had rats a little while ago but didn't have very good luck with the traps, the rats just seemed too smart to get trapped. Poison did the trick.

 

[j_morgan76]

Ok.. Thanks for all you help. I think I'm going to do the bucket trap first because it won't harm my children or other pets. After that I will move to snap traps and work on clearing out some lumber and overgrown brush near the coop. I'll report back my progress....

 

[Bleenie]

I found this thread because I am having the same problem. When it first started I used snap traps under a milk crate, it worked pretty well until they got smart about it and then i was just finding empty, unsnapped traps

. The problem died down for a little bit but it's back now. I walked in my coop tonight to get eggs and heard a noise before i opened the door but after i looked inside i saw the feeder(25lb) swaying side to side and a HUGE hole dug out under the grit box.

I have a mouse cat, she does catch rats sometimes but we have a large Vole population here too so they keep her busier, easier to get to. We also have feral cats around here whom I have literally caught sleeping in the nest boxes on cold nights. It's just not enough for the amount of rats though.

Tonight I reset the snap trap with peanut butter and placed it under the crate but tomorrow I am going to mix a poison block with peanut butter and put it around the Outside of the coop where there's obvious rat holes. Keeping my fingers crossed it'll work as well for me as it did for you, Kanga77510.

I would put poison out where the chickens can't reach it. Your other option is snap or glue trap. We had rats a little while ago but didn't have very good luck with the traps, the rats just seemed too smart to get trapped. Poison did the trick.