RATS!!

[CoyoteMagic]

I've got a couple of rats that have moved into my hen house. They haven't been bothering my birds. They are making some of my eggs disappear.

Anyone got any ideas of how to get rid of them without getting my hens heads caught in a rat trap.

 

[chickmamawannabe]

I'm not sure what your setup looks like, but are they living UNDER the coop or actually INSIDE? If they're under the coop, and your chickens can't get under there, I'd toss some Dcon under there or something. Don't really have any other thoughts right now, but I've heard that for every rat you see, there's 10 that you don't! Maybe try to explain your setup, or show pics. That might help.
Edited 'cuz I just thought of something. They do make those "humane" traps in rat sizes, maybe you could try one of those?

 

[s6bee]

Do you have cats?

 

[ivan3]

We use cardboard boxes (even an empty 12 pack soda box will work in a pinch) flipped over with small holes in the sides (for rat entrances) and something heavy enough on top to prevent the girls from flipping it with a couple of big Victor snappers inside.

A soda box can simply be duct taped across the top and to wall of coop to prevent movement. Hole cut in one end, trap slipped into box and both ends taped shut. Rat goes in whack! Throw out box.

This is also the method we use with `sticky' (glue) traps. Shoe boxes are also good but I'm not allowed to use those

 

[crzychickenlady]

Rats are a menace here, they come from the sewer and have managed to set up shop here on my property somewhere that I have not found yet.

I used poison with precautions over the summertime and found 25 dead rats on my property. I put the poison in a locked storage room that only the rats could get into, they ate every drop of poison in there but they are still abundant.

The only feed I had outside was the feeder in the chicken coop which I brought in every night, it didn't deter the rats as they will eat dog and chicken droppings, but it has saved tremendously on my feed bill!

I have heard that you can mix plaster of paris and confectioners sugar to make a poison, you may want to give that a try along with the box/trap method recommended above.

They key is consistency, you have to keep at it until you can eliminate the entire colony, otherwise you will never get rid of them.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

These are those big ugly Wood Rats. They've had to have come into the coop during the day when the gate is open or manage to wiggle their way in through the chain link in the small run. My husband keeps kicking the dirt into their holes that they have dug but it's not working.

I'm thinking of cutting up part of the lid of a 5 gallon bucket just big enough for the rats to get in. Put the poison in the bucket and stick the bucket back in the corner where the chickens can't get into it.

Would mothballs keep them from going back into their holes?

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Quote:
Here is what we did.

Fill all the holes you can find but one. Then, take a garden hose and shove it down the last hole. Pack dirt around it. Turn the hose on full blast and leave it running for about an hour. You'll destroy their tunnels and drown a ton of rats.

We did this; some escaped, but they never came back.

 

[crzychickenlady]

Moth balls DO NOT work. We used them in the storage room and they continued to come back in.

We cleaned out the whole room and got storage bins to put things in, then put the moth balls down.

All the moth balls did was stink up the room, the rats came back.

 

[pokachix]

I've made holders for poison out of the grey plastic plumbing pipe, it's about 2 1/2" wide. I make em 12" or so long, put duct tape on 1 end & put the poison in. You could also buy the end pieces. You can shove em in corners & under pallets & stuff & the chix, dogs & other animals can't get in em. The rats will attack a weakened chix & it's really gross to find. Rats have all sorts of "cooties" too..eewww! J

 

[tileman@prodigBird Raiser]

Try using a small havahart trap. Then dispose of the live caught rats how ever you like. I use all kinds of solutions to limit the number of predators and varmits i have. I use havahart traps. Kill traps for rats, Muscovy ducks for eating and killing rats. Sebastopol geese for alerting me of the hawk and predators durning the day. Shooting of the varmits with the pellet guns. I have a cat that catchs rats. I also have found some dead rats in the kennel with my swinhoe pheasants and woodducks. My best protection is my hunting english setter who stands gaurd and protects the birds. She just treed a raccon 2 days a go and i got rid of him. Now i have no more probelms with him.