Hello!
We insulted our coop last fall because ND winters are brutal. Now I have what I believe is a rat problem. Lots of holes chewed, insulation all over and large feces (bigger than mice droppings). I started talking out insulation, and put hardware clothes on the outside is building. Rat traps have been out down. What else can I do?? Yuck
I am always amazed that people don't do a forum search to find the dozens if not hundreds of threads about rats and mice and how to deal with them. This is a very simple problem to solve although people do tend to enjoy making a hobby out of trying to outwit rodents, AKA Caddy Shack. And they usually fail if they try trapping or poisoning their way out of a rodent infestation.
Rats and mice don't have a magical attraction to chickens, they have an attraction to that buffet you have set out in a cheap feeder or a plumbing parts and bucket gizmo that was cobbled together to make chickens look silly while eating. If you want to get the rodents to leave you are going to have to cut off their food source.
Assuming you already have your bulk feed stored in some sort of metal bin or barrel, the first place to start is by purchasing a treadle feeder. There are three key points to have on a feeder.
First a heavy counterweight, next a spring loaded door, last you need a narrow and distant treadle. The counterweight and spring prevent the mouse or rat from just pushing open the door or lifting the lid and most treadle feeders that have either the vertical lift lid or the swinging back door are easily pushed open by even a small rat or ground squirrel because the manufacturer is too cheap to spend the money on a decent counterweight and spring system. That said, if they are reselling to retailers or through
Amazon or
Ebay they are losing 30% or more of the sales price in fees or subsidized shipping so yeah, they gotta squeeze pennies.
That wide treadle step that is within a few inches of the feed sure is comfortable for the chickens and it allows the smaller birds to use the feeder but it also means it is easier to push open the door or lid and short reach critters like mice and rats can easily reach the feed too. But a wide treadle sells better because people don't take the time to remember why they need a treadle feeder.
All that said, even one of these poorly constructed feeders will work some of the time, usually 50 to 60% of the reviews on the shopping carts will be favorable at first.
If however you want to eliminate the rats you are going to have to get that treadle way back, this also has the purpose of stretching out the bird and making it a bit harder to use which is good on preventing the birds from standing there flicking feed out while searching for treats. A good feeder will have a 1/2" right angle lip inside that prevents most feed raking but a tiny percentage of hens will just dig so hard that they drag out feed, especially if the lower feed bin is poorly designed.
A spring and counterweight on a properly designed feeder does mean the lightest birds are going to have a harder time using the feeder. You can start off just letting them eat when the other birds are eating or adding a temporary treadle extender on top the narrow treadle, cardboard works for long enough, so does stiff plastic, then trim it down a half inch each day till you are back to the regular narrow treadle.
If you try trapping or poisoning your way out of the problem you will find that rats and mice are very smart and most will refuse to take bait until they are starving. Their noses are so sensitive they will find out where the feed is located and the longer they hang around eating old feed in the litter or spilled feed from a poorly manufactured feeder the more likely they are to learn how to defeat the feeder if it lacks the three things it needs; narrow and distant treadle, spring loaded door, and heavy counterweight.
Worse, should you manage to kill off the current pack of rats, another pack is going to find the feed and you get to start all over again.
Most new flocks will have no problem at the start so chicks and under six weeks old birds usually are not a problem even if their feed is out in the open. It might take a while for rodents to find the coop. Ditto on adding new birds on occasion and having to feed openly. And you do not want very small chicks or under six week old heritage breed birds around a treadle feeder, one might get trapped. So pen them up in a small section of the run or coop till they are large enough.
But, do a forum search on "rats rodents mice chickens" without the quotation marks and you will find tons of past posts on how to deal with rodents. A lot of the contributions are not helpful at times, plenty of knock down drag out fights over poisoning Mickey Mouse or Ricky Rodent, plenty of posts about sitting up all night with a gun or homemade poisons or debates on the ethics of barn cats but all of it is entertaining and the shear lengths of some of the threads might keep you occupied till it is safe to go outside again. LOL
