Rats Living Under/Near Coop - How concerned do I really need to be?

[DuckDuckSook]

Please don't use glue traps. Widelife will be attracted to the bait/trapped animals and die slowly and unnecessarily.

Since the rats are coming from under the coop, are you able to get the traps under the coop?

Not really. The tunnel appears to be prettty narrow. I can't really see myself having the ability to get the trap tucked deep inside it.

 

[DuckDuckSook]

Snap traps work best when you set the bait end of trap against a wall, preferably along a route they travel, but also to make it harder to back off. I like to use a chunk of grain or nut pushed tight into the trigger, so they have to work at it to get it it out. If your birds do not have access to the run at night, then you wont need to protect them from the traps(just need to remove traps in the morning and replace them at night). I use a metal mesh basket for mouse traps, holes in mesh small enough for mice but not chickens.

Great point about setting the traps at night when my flock is inside the coop. I like the wire basket idea too.

 

[MACCanadianCoop]

Not really. The tunnel appears to be prettty narrow. I can't really see myself having the ability to get the trap tucked deep inside it.

Can you dig it out just enough to get trap in? Or skirt that side of the coop with hardwire cloth?

 

[DuckDuckSook]

Can you dig it out just enough to get trap in? Or skirt that side of the coop with hardwire cloth?

I can easily set the traps out at night in the run when my chickens are locked in the coop. Then, I'd get rid of them before I let my girls out in the morning. I think that might be my best bet since these rats are pretty big and seem to be spending time in the run every night.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I would also make sure to take food up a little before dark. Odds are spilled feed is what’s attracting them to the run.

 

[Acre4Me]

Poison is the most effective. FWIW, there are different poisons, some of which are metabolized into harmless compounds by the time the rodent dies. Other poisons kill the rodent but the amount the rodent ingested was small - won’t kill a larger animal. So, do your research into the options you have. And, absolutely, use the bait stations do any poison dies not get removed by the rodent, and nothing else can access the poison.

Just today, I was at a farm store I do not normally go to. They had an aisle for poisons and an informative sheet on the various poisons by a particular company…it detailed the active ingredients and how quickly it would kill, and how they worked.

rodents usually go back to their nests to die, it is not common for them to end up where a chicken would find them. But, in many cases, when a BYCer resorts to poison bc nothing else controlled the population, they keep animals inside, and put poison out only at night when other animals inside. In the morning they scan for any poisoned or dead rodents to remove them before animals come out.

Irregardless of traps or poison or any other method, if there is food in the run, leftover tidbits for the rodents, they will be hard to eradicate. In order for any method to work, the rodents need to want to eat or investigate your poison or trap, so make sure everything is clean and feed free. Buy metal trash cans or rodent proof storage for all your feed, sweep up spilled feed, use feeders that minimize feed loss, don’t throw down scratch- put it into something with sides.