Rats getting in run & eating feed

[benevolent_leonela]

Hey folks,

I finally found the culprit who has been getting in the feeder making an absolute mess of the chicken feed. I noticed a rat tunnel that comes into the run from the edge of the run wall.

I have read on some other posts about tactics to rid of the rats but was also wondering if hanging the feeder would further achieve the goal? Up until today I would place the feeder on a round of wood that was just a few inches high. I will implement traps but also want to know if hanging the feeder versus leaving it in a location where a rat can access the feed

Thanks for any tips!

 

[Callender Girl]

I don't think hanging the feeder will be enough to discourage a determined rat. If your chickens can get to a hanging feeder, I think the rats will also. They are very smart and athletic -- almost admirable if they weren't such pests.

When I was battling rats last year, I had to rethink some of my set-ups. I have always kept spare feed in metal garbage cans, but I was a little lax in how I fed my poultry, especially at night when the thieving rats were most active.

Although I had been leaving their feeders out, once the birds were done with dinner, if they didn't eat all the feed, I removed their feeders. The ducks, who used to eat in their shelter, found their dish moved across the yard, past the driveway -- out in the open where the rats would be less likely to congregate.

Rats were tunneling from one coop run to another setup -- an Urban Coop with an attached run. I installed hardware cloth under both of those coops and bought an electronic rat trap that rats could enter but chickens couldn't. I've recently read on BYC that only the males would have been caught; the females would have been back in their homes, taking care of their babies. However, my strategies cleared up my problem last year.

I also used giant snap traps outside the coops and runs at night, which was fairly successful except for having to remove the bodies (the electronic trap was a no-touch model). I found the best way to bait those was to hot glue dog kibble to the trap so the rat wouldn't snatch and run.

Good luck with your battle!

 

[cmom]

I have hanging feeders in my coops and the rats haven't gotten into them. I did have a coop that was infested. I had a ceiling and wall cavities. The rats made nests in them and dug tunnels around outside of the coop. I tried a lot of different things before I resorted to poison. I'm not advocating using poison but when I started to renovate that coop, dozens of rats of all sizes poured out. I put rat bait stations into pet carriers/cages so only the rats could get to the bait and put the pet carriers up on shelves in the barn which is behind the coops. The rats would travel between the coops and barn and are good climbers. I didn't find any dead rats from the poison but assume they went into their tunnels and died. Good luck...

The coop that was infested.

 

[benevolent_leonela]

Good greif that's terrible! I think I've caught the problem early on luckily.

I'll try a couple different things before resorting to poison, I'm apprehensive on that front cause I have outdoor cats that like eating all types of different rodents along with owls that reside in my area.

Thanks for the advice & luck Callendar Girl and cmom!

 

[Afors]

Not sure if it’s possible but I’m having the same issue. I put a pulley above the food with a chunk of rope to the door and another pulley. When I lock up the coop at night I pull the feed to the top of the run and they haven’t figured how to get up there...yet.

 

[NatJ]

I have outdoor cats that like eating all types of different rodents along with owls that reside in my area.

Can the cats get to the area with the chicken feeder? They might be able to solve the problem for you.

 

[rosemarythyme]

How high were you planning on hanging them, if that's something you're going to try? Rats can leap vertically a couple feet, and that's fat, lazy domesticated ones.

I remove all feed at night, even inside the coop, and I put a handful of Rat X into any tunnels I see in the vicinity.

 

[cmom]

This is where a rat chewed through a stud in the coop that was infested.

 

[benevolent_leonela]

Can the cats get to the area with the chicken feeder? They might be able to solve the problem for you.

I thought about it but i would have some really fussy cats all night long. The two don't always get along and wouldn't appreciate being locked in there for the night. Chicken coop is right next to my bedroom window plus my geese get put in the run at night and they REALLY don't like the cats.

I'm going to town today I fetch trap supplies, try out a couple techniques.

 

[Howard E]

Having followed at least hundreds of rat threads, I'm now convinced humans are genetically predisposed....our default reaction......is to think killing rats. Unfortunately, that is misplaced. Thoughts of elimination should be last on the list, not first.

Rats are not there by accident. They are there for the free food. Take away their access to the food and they will move on. Easier said than done, but just know, if not for the food, they would not be there. So the trick is to allow the birds to continue eating, but rats can't. In addition to food, rats also need shelter, but they can make that.....almost anywhere. But food is what draws them in.

So correct order of steps to get rid of rats is.....

Sanitation.......clean up the food. No food, no rats.

Exclusion......rat proofing the chicken house is not easy, but doable. But also applies to feed in storage. Metal is your friend. Feed stored in metal cans. Metal feeders.....preferably rat proof metal feeders. Birds eat, rats don't. Too bad for them.

Last on the list is elimination. Mostly relegated to picking off the stragglers, as it is almost impossible to eliminate a colony of rats by trapping or similar means. Only other viable option is use of poison bait blocks. But for those to work best, you also need to eliminate the feed options, so they are starving to the point of acceptance.

BTW, when folks say "I have a rat".......that may be what they think, having seen one, but what they really have is rats. As in plural.......and in a colony of rats. Not one but many. You can't get rid of them one at a time. They can re-populate far faster than you can kill em one at a time.