Rats! I have rats.

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Chickens can be curious, so we always put them somewhere they can't peck at them.

 

[Kat2141]

So we've been struggling with rats lately. We tried live trapping, laid TONS of hardware cloth and more. We've had an exterminator out who put poison outside of the chicken's access and only found one dead baby rat. Please don't send me anti-poison msgs. I have young kids playing in the yard and cannot risk fooling around with the diseases that rats carry. The coop and run are against our house and I've heard about the damage that rats can cause.

Our current approach is as follows:
I have a hanging metal feeder (which the rats jump up onto... and eat while enjoying a spin ride). If I hang it higher the chickens will not be able to reach.
It's this one:
The chickens make a mess of food beneath where it is hung. So each night I remove the feeder and hose off the area where the spillage is. After the chickens are locked up, I place a board with screwed in poison bricks. This is the third night I've put it out and the rats so far haven't touched it. I remove the poison in the AM before letting the chickens out.

During the day the rats come out and eat what falls while the chickens are RIGHT there! My chickens are apparently pacifists because they are happy to live with rats weaving around their feet... even baby rats!

I've read that I can try wetting their food to prevent spillage. Does anyone know if this works? I really don't want the hassle of fermenting food. Is there a feeder or system that prevents spillage so that during the day there is less for the rats to get?

Help!!

I had problems with mine getting food all over when they were on crumbles or pellets in a dish. Not sure how your hanging feeder is designed but if it lets them swipe the food to the side, you may want to try one that has little dividers all the way around. The pic below is like the one I got at tractor supply (mine was red). I went from having a pile of feed on the floor daily to none on the floor with this. It works great with pellets, haven't used crumbles in it yet.

 

[cmom]

Each persons situation may be a bit different so the rat problem may have to be dealt with differently. My mistake was when we built this coop we put an inner wall in around the bottom of the coop and the rats chewed holes and made nests in-between the studs. There is actually a stud chewed through enough that the rats could pass by the stud. Now that the cooler weather is here more coop maintenance. Before I took off the infected wood I shut the coop up tightly so the only critters could get into the coop was the rats and loaded it with the rat baits. After a few days I started seeing dead rats which I disposed of. Now I keep baits only in the baited bait boxes in the barn which is directly behind the coops. I haven't seen any rats in quite awhile. I do have game cameras up.

 

[rehsanipoor]

I will look into getting a feeder that they can't make such a mess with. In the mean time I am going to try feeding them twice daily with wet food until we get the problem under control. I forgot to attach the picture above so I'll do it here. I've never given them wet food. Can I just wet this food in a plastic tub?

Are we talking wet like the consistency of oatmeal? Not sure how long to give them with it... they are spoiled and are used to eating whenever they like. I guess I'll have to experiment. Tomorrow I'll head out to buy more bait boxes... ugghhhh HATE THESE VERMIN!!!! They are costing me a fortune!

 

[rehsanipoor]

Maybe I'll do some amazon research to see if I can do bait and boxes cheaper that way.... wonder if "amazon now" delivers rat poison

 

[rehsanipoor]

@andreanar Did you put the bait stations where the chickens were? I'm having trouble figuring out if people have found them to be "chicken-proof".

 

[Kat2141]

I will look into getting a feeder that they can't make such a mess with. In the mean time I am going to try feeding them twice daily with wet food until we get the problem under control. I forgot to attach the picture above so I'll do it here. I've never given them wet food. Can I just wet this food in a plastic tub? View attachment 1612150


Are we talking wet like the consistency of oatmeal? Not sure how long to give them with it... they are spoiled and are used to eating whenever they like. I guess I'll have to experiment. Tomorrow I'll head out to buy more bait boxes... ugghhhh HATE THESE VERMIN!!!! They are costing me a fortune!

Before I switched to pellets, I used crumbles and my girls preferred them wet... not soupy... just enough so they stuck together a bit... kind of like a cookie dough consistency. They still prefer that over the pellets.

 

[Acre4Me]

I will look into getting a feeder that they can't make such a mess with. In the mean time I am going to try feeding them twice daily with wet food until we get the problem under control. I forgot to attach the picture above so I'll do it here. I've never given them wet food. Can I just wet this food in a plastic tub? View attachment 1612150


Are we talking wet like the consistency of oatmeal? Not sure how long to give them with it... they are spoiled and are used to eating whenever they like. I guess I'll have to experiment. Tomorrow I'll head out to buy more bait boxes... ugghhhh HATE THESE VERMIN!!!! They are costing me a fortune!

I just add water to whatever feed. Some feeds hydrate quickly, some takes 10 min or more to fully hydrate. I usually put in feed, add water to an inch or more above feed, stir and let sit 10 min. Then stir again, usually add more water to a thick pancake batter consistency. Not sure how many chickens you have but one dish might work per feeding. Since I just supplement with wet feed “treats” I just use one container since they have dry feed too. I have 14 adults and 7 chicks (12weeks)

 

[WunnySharbit]

Slightly off-topic perhaps, but I've been watching a you-tube channel called the minkenry about a guy in Utah who does rat extermination using dogs and trained mink. I've gotten many a vicarious thrill from watching and cheering for the mink and dog to kill the little buggers!! (he also hunts other things with them, so just be aware. no, I'm not a sadist, i'm just very,very frustrated and am glad to see someone else having luck with their extermination program). I think he's been helping/training others around the country to do the same? Might be someone in your area? (no idea on cost, tho)

 

[WunnySharbit]

@andreanar Did you put the bait stations where the chickens were? I'm having trouble figuring out if people have found them to be "chicken-proof".

I tied mine shut (sometimes taped) and attached it to a 4 foot long 1x4. Then I put 2 chunks of concrete on each end of the board. The chickens quickly lost interest in it. Although one year, I had to put another board/block over the whole thing because 1 chicken could see movement inside and was trying to tear the bait/trap combo apart! I had to stop using poison while I had her because she would kill and eat mice...... great fun to watch!