Rats in the yard before chickens

[Caitmorgan222]

I've gathered from the various threads that rats are the most annoying chicken pest/ borderline impossible to get rid of and we have them Rats Of NIMH style, thriving for God knows how many generations, in a deep, hollow mimosa tree stump that gives dark, mystical portallllll! Lmao. Hardware cloth and a priest perhaps?? Lol but fr chickens are the heros journey like wdy mean I have to smoke out the witch hole haha.
Still building the coop. My chicks aren't outside yet. These are small rats or giant mice lol. They've been thriving there even before we moved in. This house was empty before that so I have a hard time believing I can starve them out of their stump kingdom.

I'll be using a bucket feeder and covering the ports every night and so much hardware cloth. Need to hit them before the chickens and food go out there but I don't want to use poison. If they come inside I use catch and release traps. I'm afraid to flood the hole but probably the move with my dogs on deck. They've caught a couple before. Any tips appreciated.

 

[Mountain Roost]

What about taking the approach of digging or clearing it out with a shovel and branch pruners. Remove as much plant matter as you can and dig out the mesh and see if you can fill in the hole. Flooding it and adding dirt in turn could help fill it down deep. Remove the habitat of the rats. Then your dogs will have a better chance of keeping them at bay with nowhere to hide. Just a thought.

 

[Caitmorgan222]

What about taking the approach of digging or clearing it out with a shovel and branch pruners. Remove as much plant matter as you can and dig out the mesh and see if you can fill in the hole. Flooding it and adding dirt in turn could help fill it down deep. Remove the habitat of the rats. Then your dogs will have a better chance of keeping them at bay with nowhere to hide. Just a thought.

I think they tried some version of that before we moved in. Took awhile for me to figure out that there was even a plant there. Worth a shot. It's so spooky though I'm basically clairvoyant and when we moved in I was bothered by what I perceive to be an angry nature entity. I pushed it back and into that hole and haven't been bothered in my house much in the year but now I have to clear the hole lol. Very woo I know but I'm scared lolol.

 

[Mountain Roost]

Do a ritual before and after to alleviate your concerns. Better to move that type of energy onward.

 

[Caitmorgan222]

Do a ritual before and after to alleviate your concerns. Better to move that type of energy onward.

Thank you and I agree! Thought it was very cool of me to not bind and banish initially but now that I got chickens, it has to go

 

[Al Gerhart]

You are doing your research so that is wonderful. The advice to clean up the area is spot on. Rats have plenty of natural predators so if you force them out into the open they are exposed to natural predators when traveling between their den and their food source. Clean up anything that gives them cover or concealment.

What are they eating BTW? Few natural habitats can support a rat colony unless humans are providing a buffet.

The stump hole, get a couple of bags of mortar from the big box store. Not cement, mortar, just sand and cement. Mix up a 55 gallon barrel of water, maybe ten gallons of water to start for the two bags of mortar. You want a watery sloppy mixture, maybe twice as thin as pancake batter. Using a big funnel or a chopped off pop bottle, pour it down the holes. What it doesn't drown might escape but it will eventually harden and make the rats relocate.

Your bucket feeder isn't going to be safe though even if you cover the ports at night. It will get chewed into, but probably not as rats will feed in broad daylight even in front of adult chickens. Mice, no, they might get killed and serve as snacks.

Do a forum search for rats and find Howard E.'s excellent posts on dealing with rodents. Look for the Rat 101 or Rodent Control 101 if I remember right.

 

[Mountain Roost]

What took you so long to reply Al? You are usually Johnny-on-the-spot when someone says RAT on the forum.