Rats in the chicken coop

[silkiecuddles]

That's one reason I dislike raised coops. If your coop is predator proof, then eliminating the critters living under it will be easier. I've never caught a rat in a live trap; they are too smart. You might have rats, ground squirrels, or weasels there. Can you see tracks? Probably poison will be necessary, making sure that only the target critters are harmed. Can you fence the site to keep others out? It's hard to fix anything in winter though. How about bait in a box with small openings? I'd want to rebuild in spring so nothing can live under the coop. Mary

My coop with the rodent problem is on the ground. It has hog wire on the bottom of it, but the creature is obviously small enough to fit through. I can't see tracks, because of the chicken feet-prints, and also I let the collie in there occasionally to sniff around for it. I don't really want to use poison because my pigeons and silkies are in there, and I'd be afraid of them eating it.

Also, I can see where the ground is broken up above what I'm assuming is more tunnels, which goes to my other coop, which is bigger and raised. No holes over there, tho.

 

[seminolewind]

I use hardware cloth on the ground. It would maybe be easier to lay it from the inside on top of the hog wire?

 

[silkiecuddles]

I use hardware cloth on the ground. It would maybe be easier to lay it from the inside on top of the hog wire?

I'm not sure. There is a thick layer of dirt--and mud, from snow melting--over it, so that may not work out so well.

 

[BarneyChick97]

Those TomCat bait boxes are pretty nice though. Your birds can't get into them, its a big enough opening for a rat to get into, and you can see how much of the bait is gone. You could put it in the corner of your coop, and just put bricks on top of it and make some kind of a barrier around it also to be extra safe. At least then you'd know if it were a rat/mouse. I just today found another mouse in my coop. They just LOVE to live under our duck house!! (I have found a rat under there also) So I moved the trap back out there a few days ago (because I had found one just a week ago), and its secure behind the duck house, also trapped behind a brick, and a big water bucket. Its better to stay on top of it, because if you see one, then there is sure to be 10 more!!

My coop is on the ground, there is no mesh buried under it, so anything can dig in there. Rats can't get through the chicken wire that well (at least when they are running from ME

, so I've discovered), but there is plenty of room for them to get under if they want. After I found the RAT is when I decided that I would no longer leave my food outside. I never even left it on the ground. We used to clip our chicken feeder higher up on the chain, it was at least 6 ft up, and the buggers were still getting into it!!

If you don't take your food out if only for a few days, its going to make them harder to catch. They are smart, they will go for the good stuff first!

I understand that there will always be some "critters". A mouse, yes, they are everywhere. But oh, NO....I don't want to play with rats!!! Ew!!! There is just too much that they can destroy, not to mention how super nasty they are!!!

 

[MammasBabies]

Know I have several large adult rats, some smaller, what I call Kangaroo Rats/mice and multiple juveniles. When they killed my first fledgling silkie, I got mad and started digging in the pen where an old board was.....found 2 nests. Needless to say...all those baby rats are disposed of. Two days later they cornered the second fledgling Silkie and tore her apart in the chicken house. Went to work immediately to completely rewire the whole house with half inch wire. Last fledgling lasted 5 days, daughter did not check for rats before she closed chickens in for night and it got the fledgling. Much angry digging under the house resulted in me finding 4 more nest and over 40 young rats of varying sizes. All dead soon after. Know I still have adults, have put gluten style rat poison down all holes, it has killed some. They (the rats) cannot gag them up when they swell.
No danger to chickens, dogs, cats or humans. We have killed some with those, but still seeing those cocky rats running around pen during day even.
Will completely remove feed in house at night from now on. We use metal trash cans to store food, so that helps.
Everyone in my house now HATES rats! We had hand raised those babies.