Rats

[Gerald1969]

I installed a run-chicken F80 BT feeder inside our chicken coop. Now it appears that it has captured the attention of rats and I just don’t actually know what I should do about this situation. I’m requesting help from others here that may have had this problem. Thank you all so much.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Okay, explain this for me. This is basically a sunlight activated feeder, the door opens during daylight and closes at night.

It claims to be pest proof. It isn't. It couldn't be..... nothing in the design makes it remotely pest proof.

Return it.

Unless, you have a flock of mostly banties or silkies too light to operate a treadle feeder. That is the only reasonable reason to spend that kind of money and depend upon electronics in a dang chicken coop.

The cost alone, $149.00 for an eleven pound feeder? That has zero provisions for keeping rats, mice, or squirrels out of the feed during the day? Send it back, get your money back, buy a proper 33 pound capacity feeder that doesn't have electronics to fail, does keep the rats and squirrels and mice out of the feed, and costs a bit more than HALF of the cost of that contraption.

Right at half the price, three times the feed capacity, can only fail in the open position if you don't keep some spare springs on hand. Is actually rat proof.....

 

[Gerald1969]

Okay, explain this for me. This is basically a sunlight activated feeder, the door opens during daylight and closes at night.

It claims to be pest proof. It isn't. It couldn't be..... nothing in the design makes it remotely pest proof.

Return it.

Unless, you have a flock of mostly banties or silkies too light to operate a treadle feeder. That is the only reasonable reason to spend that kind of money and depend upon electronics in a dang chicken coop.

The cost alone, $149.00 for an eleven pound feeder? That has zero provisions for keeping rats, mice, or squirrels out of the feed during the day? Send it back, get your money back, buy a proper 33 pound capacity feeder that doesn't have electronics to fail, does keep the rats and squirrels and mice out of the feed, and costs a bit more than HALF of the cost of that contraption.

Right at half the price, three times the feed capacity, can only fail in the open position if you don't keep some spare springs on hand. Is actually rat proof.....

The problem is not them getting feed from the feeder! I never saw rats around until I installed the feeder. I’m beginning to think it’s the mobile RV trailer that my neighbors have and only uses it for storage. Being we get plenty of hurricanes here in Southeast Texas I thought they were preparing for the season, however it’s in no shape to use for evacuation! It’s a pile of junk and everyone in the neighborhood now complains about it. The city inspectors go there all the time and I have spoken to him about the situation, however he says it’s his property and he’s going to do whatever he chooses to do! I don’t want any kind of problem so I said so be it. Well now I have ordered traps this morning to see if that will help. We have cameras on the coop and the rats continuously set the motion off! I leave no feed on the ground and we check for that each evening. The F80 BT opens and closes on schedule, however they continue to come around! Would you agree that maybe we need a cat? That’s what I noticed the neighbor depends on! They have 5 or 6 of them…

 

[Al Gerhart]

Rats never, ever, stick around unless there is a food source. In the wild they have to hustle non stop or starve and natural predators take out most of them while exposed looking for food. Are you certain they are not getting feed out of the feeder? I see nothing to stop rats and mice from just jumping up into the feeder.

Traps rarely work more than once or twice, rodents are too smart for them to work consistently. Cats, if you can keep one around and keep it hungry or you find a feral cat that is already a mouser, they will control mice. Rats, not very likely other than the babies.

The RV, how far from your coop is it? Rats rarely travel more than 100 to 300 feet from their nest. Too risky... the longer distance is when food is very scarce. They might have their den at the RV and coming to the coop for the chicken feed. They can eat poop but poop is fertilizer, not food, rats can survive short term but never long term or people would never get rid of the rats.

 

[Gerald1969]

Rats never, ever, stick around unless there is a food source. In the wild they have to hustle non stop or starve and natural predators take out most of them while exposed looking for food. Are you certain they are not getting feed out of the feeder? I see nothing to stop rats and mice from just jumping up into the feeder.

Traps rarely work more than once or twice, rodents are too smart for them to work consistently. Cats, if you can keep one around and keep it hungry or you find a feral cat that is already a mouser, they will control mice. Rats, not very likely other than the babies.

The RV, how far from your coop is it? Rats rarely travel more than 100 to 300 feet from their nest. Too risky... the longer distance is when food is very scarce. They might have their den at the RV and coming to the coop for the chicken feed. They can eat poop but poop is fertilizer, not food, rats can survive short term but never long term or people would never get rid of the rats.

I’m doing things around here a little different. It’s aggravating when they set my cameras off so I do what I can to rid them.

 

[Gerald1969]

I put bricks on top of the milk crates to keep the chickens from tipping them over…

 

[BDutch]

We had a neighbour who was (unintentionally) feeding rats too. So I read tips about this problem and have a few tips I remembered /used myself for you.

I suppose they come into your run (not coop) to eat. If you put ½ “/ 1 cm square hardware cloth around the run, 4ft /1 meter high the rats wont come in your run anymore to eat.
Look at openings around the door too. Put 1ft into the ground (or on) to avoid digging into the run.

If you let you chickens free range, take away the feed until the chickens return.

Cats do help a lot even if they only take the younger rats.

Make sure there is no cloth/ rubbish / bushes around the run to hide. Rats don’t like open spaces.

No access to feed at night. And if it the rats come during the day, supervised dinner at least 2x a day or a good treadle feeder (not a Chinese wannabe). A treadle feeder needs a learning process for most chickens.

A good trap is a bucket with water halfway in it and add a broomstick with 2 screws on top. In a way the broomstick turns around when stepped on. Attach peanut butter in the middle. Works only a few times like most traps.

The rats vanished after the neighbours rabbits and chickens got killed by a fox and he didn’t buy new chickens/rabbits. So there was no food for the rats anymore. Rarely saw a rat after this.
Foxes and cats keep them in control.

 

[Gerald1969]

We had a neighbour who was (unintentionally) feeding rats too. So I read tips about this problem and have a few tips I remembered /used myself for you.

I suppose they come into your run (not coop) to eat. If you put ½ “/ 1 cm square hardware cloth around the run, 4ft /1 meter high the rats wont come in your run anymore to eat.
Look at openings around the door too. Put 1ft into the ground (or on) to avoid digging into the run.

If you let you chickens free range, take away the feed until the chickens return.

Cats do help a lot even if they only take the younger rats.

Make sure there is no cloth/ rubbish / bushes around the run to hide. Rats don’t like open spaces.

No access to feed at night. And if it the rats come during the day, supervised dinner at least 2x a day or a good treadle feeder (not a Chinese wannabe). A treadle feeder needs a learning process for most chickens.

A good trap is a bucket with water halfway in it and add a broomstick with 2 screws on top. In a way the broomstick turns around when stepped on. Attach peanut butter in the middle. Works only a few times like most traps.

The rats vanished after the neighbours rabbits and chickens got killed by a fox and he didn’t buy new chickens/rabbits. So there was no food for the rats anymore. Rarely saw a rat after this.
Foxes and cats keep them in control.

Thank you so much! I tried the bucket, however the ants would take advantage of that system

 

[Al Gerhart]

We had a neighbour who was (unintentionally) feeding rats too. So I read tips about this problem and have a few tips I remembered /used myself for you.

I suppose they come into your run (not coop) to eat. If you put ½ “/ 1 cm square hardware cloth around the run, 4ft /1 meter high the rats wont come in your run anymore to eat.
Look at openings around the door too. Put 1ft into the ground (or on) to avoid digging into the run.

If you let you chickens free range, take away the feed until the chickens return.

Cats do help a lot even if they only take the younger rats.

Make sure there is no cloth/ rubbish / bushes around the run to hide. Rats don’t like open spaces.

No access to feed at night. And if it the rats come during the day, supervised dinner at least 2x a day or a good treadle feeder (not a Chinese wannabe). A treadle feeder needs a learning process for most chickens.

A good trap is a bucket with water halfway in it and add a broomstick with 2 screws on top. In a way the broomstick turns around when stepped on. Attach peanut butter in the middle. Works only a few times like most traps.

The rats vanished after the neighbours rabbits and chickens got killed by a fox and he didn’t buy new chickens/rabbits. So there was no food for the rats anymore. Rarely saw a rat after this.
Foxes and cats keep them in control.

There is a lot of very valuable advice in this post. Well done!