Rats rats and more rats…

[kduck]

Seems that even with hardware cloth buried to 16” these buggers will dig deep to get in the run to eat…
Guess I’m going to go to a concrete pad…$$$
And yes I use the ratinator trap too…

 

[Blue Andalusian]

Seems that even with hardware cloth buried to 16” these buggers will dig deep to get in the run to eat…
Guess I’m going to go to a concrete pad…$$$
And yes I use the ratinator trap too…

try peppermint oil rops, it rives away mites an other pests. As well as Mice (I it works on Mice, it probably will work on Rats). An, its Chicken Safe!

 

[Al Gerhart]

For a fraction of the cost you can just stop feeding the rats and they will leave. Bulk feed in metal drums with tight lids, a treadle feeder, and clean up the pathways so the natural predators can get at them during their travels.

But don't let me rain on your parade if you got money to burn.

And you do know they can chew through concrete?

 

[SamLockwood]

For a fraction of the cost you can just stop feeding the rats and they will leave. Bulk feed in metal drums with tight lids, a treadle feeder, and clean up the pathways so the natural predators can get at them during their travels.

But don't let me rain on your parade if you got money to burn.

And you do know they can chew through concrete?

In my experience the rats just start eating the chickens if there's no feed.

 

[SamLockwood]

Seems that even with hardware cloth buried to 16” these buggers will dig deep to get in the run to eat…
Guess I’m going to go to a concrete pad…$$$
And yes I use the ratinator trap too…

Make sure you're looking above as well as below. They're really good climbers and can slip through the tiniest of gaps.

They also may have established a nest inside your coop or run: that's what I found last fall. They'd managed to build a nest inside the area where the eaves of the coop roof merged with the top of the covered run.

 

[SamLockwood]

try peppermint oil rops, it rives away mites an other pests. As well as Mice (I it works on Mice, it probably will work on Rats). An, its Chicken Safe!

In my experience none of that stuff really works: I've tried peppermint oil sprays, cayenne pepper in the feed, even that Rat-X stuff. Didn't do a damn thing.

The only "natural" rat deterrent that I ever saw work was the black rat-snake that moved under the old coop. For two years we had no rats around the coop, but it did tend to steal eggs and scare the hell out of my mom.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Rats aren't going to eat adult chickens, chicks, some toes maybe, they will leave for better digs once they begin to starve. Perhaps if they were all locked in a cage....

Snakes, eat one or two rats a month during warm weather. They can be a deterrent but they aren't going to wipe out a rat colony.