Rats-need ideas how to store wood less attractively

[Birdielee]

There's always some feed billed out of even well designed feeders, unavoidable. The chickens will go after rodents during the day, but not at night.
Mice happen, and keeping 100% mouse free is a goal, not often managed here. Rats, however, must be eliminated always.
Mary

I hoped they would scare the rats off but that doesn't seem to be happening at all.

 

[Birdielee]

So, nobody has any strong opinions on wood storage arrangements that are least attractive to rats?

 

[Birdielee]

but the birds and our barn cat do discourage invaders!

Does the barn cat mess with the chickens?

 

[Folly's place]

Our barn cats have been fine with the chickens, with one exception, and she moved on to an indoor home, after expressing too much interest in the bantams.
Any would likely love to eat chicks, but they aren't outside until they are five weeks old, or a little older, and too big to be interesting. Chicks with a broody hen are well guarded, so never a problem.
We have one or maybe two barn cats, all vaccinated, neutered, and well fed, and they spend time working on the mice.
Mary

 

[Al Gerhart]

There's always some feed billed out of even well designed feeders, unavoidable. The chickens will go after rodents during the day, but not at night.
Mice happen, and keeping 100% mouse free is a goal, not often managed here. Rats, however, must be eliminated always.
Mary

Doesn't have to happen. A 1/2" lip inside the feeder pointing away from the chicken will stop most raking. Adding another 1.25" height will stop all the raking. Kind of like a road dead ending into another road, a T shape. The vast majority of feeders don't even try to manage spillage. The cheap Chinese treadle feeders warn to use one third full, about three pounds of feed if that. The Grandpa feeder has that grate which helps somewhat as it prevents raking but the feed piles up right flush to the front panel and there is no lip at all. Still, I wouldn't consider either well designed so there is that. I made that a priority from the start, keep the feed level well below the front edge, the half inch lip protruding into the feeder, and having the feeder lip extension for those extremely rare cases where people were feeding mixed feed and encouraging raking. A determined hen can pull down enough feed to defeat the half inch lip but she can't defeat the feeder lip extension.

 

[Al Gerhart]

So, nobody has any strong opinions on wood storage arrangements that are least attractive to rats?

But the problem isn't the wood. The problem is the feed and limiting the feed to one pm just means the rats are going to eat during the day.

Rodents almost always live within a few feet of their food source and the smaller the rodent the closer they tend to have very small territories they live in. Mice, ten to twelve feet from shelter to their food source, rats maybe double that. Why? Predators will get them if they venture out in the open and they leave urine trails that some predators can see due to the ability to see in more spectrums of light. Rats can and will tunnel under the coop if they don't have a handy wood pile, even there the wood pile is to shelter the tunnel entrance, they aren't living between the wood itself.

So unless your wood pile is right next to the coop it probably isn't contributing to the problem. Control the food, control the rodents.

And like Howard E. said, you can feed a lot of birds with one feeder if you don't mind refilling. Fifth Crow Farms is feeding over 100 birds per feeder, partly because they are using the original interior versions outside and want the feed gone every day. That also works because with dozens of feeders in a flock there will be one not in use pretty much all the time. If you had fifty hens and one feeder they would eat two or even three at a time and the pecking order determines who eats first so bottom tier hens might wait a half hour for their breakfast.

 

[Birdielee]

1/2" lip inside the feeder pointing away from the chicken

Hi, Al. I have wondered about your sheet metal feeder. Do you fold all the edges that could cut the chickens?

 

[Lovem all]

I Hate Rats! feed you chickens at lunch, breakfast, and supper instead of all day feed and only do it in one spot in the yard. Store all chicken food in metal trash cans

 

[Birdielee]

But the problem isn't the wood. The problem is the feed and limiting the feed to one pm just means the rats are going to eat during the day.

Rodents almost always live within a few feet of their food source and the smaller the rodent the closer they tend to have very small territories they live in. Mice, ten to twelve feet from shelter to their food source, rats maybe double that. Why? Predators will get them if they venture out in the open and they leave urine trails that some predators can see due to the ability to see in more spectrums of light. Rats can and will tunnel under the coop if they don't have a handy wood pile, even there the wood pile is to shelter the tunnel entrance, they aren't living between the wood itself.

So unless your wood pile is right next to the coop it probably isn't contributing to the problem. Control the food, control the rodents.

Thanks for the good info. That gives me more to work with. The wood pile is right next to the henhouse.
I chose 1pm because i see rats later than that, 3 pmish, and i want them to find the area foodless.
Unfortunately, they're now eating my tomatoes.
I put out poison and am continuing to restrict the food availability as much as possible, checking to make sure that the hens go to bed with a full crop.
How long will it take before the rats move on from lack of food?

 

[Al Gerhart]

Oh the rats will quickly adapt and eat during daylight hours. Hens might kill a mouse, not a rat, most cats won't take on a full grown rat. The story that I told about the basket ball size hole full of rats, that happened right in the middle of the day. Now you probably won't catch rats going out into open territory during the day unless they are starving and have no choice but with some cover nearby, they will happily eat your feed whenever it is available.

How long till they move on? How big is your garden?

That is the thing I learned about selling these feeders. People wait till they are overrun before realizing that they cannot trap or poison their way out of a rat problem. I have heard stories of building foundations settling due to the tunneling, cars being damaged, house wires chewed, and of course exhausting all other methods before solving their problems by buying a good feeder. By the time they resort to a rat proof feeder they are at wits end. This year though there have been a ton of new flock owners buying feeders when they buy their chicks, figuring there will be a run on feeders like there was on chicks and even feed.