Rats!!!!!!!

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rachp05

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7 Years
Mar 1, 2012
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Hello all! Ready for all the advice you can share! Thanks in advance! I have 6 fourteen week old hens that have more than happy in a coop we spent a great deal of effort working on, I did all my research, dug several inches down and placed sheet metal down around my coop to keep predators out. I guess we did not do enough, I have two larges holes daily in my coop that rats, possibly other rodents have dug under the sheet metal and eating my girls food! I have tried traps, and had no luck, I am hesitant to try poison because I have a lab that enjoys roaming the yard & although is pretty smart & I wouldn't think would mess with it, I am too afraid to take the risk. Recently, I have thought about evacuating the chickens for a week or so & bombing the food pail with poison & taking their source of feed away? My only concern is would it be safe to then move the girls back into the coop if this worked? The hens are getting close to laying age & would really like to fix this issue so I don't lose eggs or have to fear rats in the nest boxes when checking them. I have also read just tonight about putting peppermint oil around, is this safe for chickens??? Someone else also mentioned steel wool & I had no luck! HELLLLLLPPPPP! Please share any ideas to try, I am willing!
 
Rats are suspicious of anything new in their environment, and they also tend to travel the same ways every time. Observe to see where their trails are (look for the poop) and place snap traps there (unarmed and baited) for a week or so. Then you go to arming the traps once they are used to taking bait from them. Use something tasty and smelly like peanut butter and keep dogs and chickens away from areas where traps are deployed of course. It took a few weeks, but this is how I got rid of roof rats in my attic. I think you are right to be hesitant about using poison when you have any other animals around...and the rats might die somewhere inconvenient if you poison them. With the snap traps you can dispose.

You could also try putting feed inside coop only (assuming they are locked up there at night) then stuffing all crevices with steel wool or copper mesh.
 
I have found some of my younger chick's wings in traps that I forgot to remove for the day. So I am so careful about traps.
I love pet rats and used to raise them. I even think wild rats are cute, but they are nasty to chicks.
They have hurt many of my chicks. I live city suburbs and near stores etc. They are out there and it seems if I get rid of them, more turn up. It is frustrating.
I trap and trap.
I feed my hens in the morning and take their food bucket away for the day and bring more food out at night. They free range during the day in a certain part of my yard.
It is hard to do that when raising chicks, but now all the chicks are in the house, so I can keep their food out for them.
I had a horrible thing happen last year when I figured out that the rats were eating food that I left out in the coop all night.
I stopped the food and they got into my chick coop and killed a bunch of my silkie babies. It was devastating.
After that my hubby built me a "rat safe" baby coop.
THey are safer, but the rats will figure anything out.
You can't just ignore them because they multiply very fast.
You have to keep on them. I leave traps out in my gardens because no chickens can get to the gardens. I catch them now and then. They dig holes in my gardens and have eaten my peppers this summer. GRRR!
I put that peanut butter paste mix with plaster out and it seems that they will eat it to no end and it doesn't change things.
I would put poison out, but I thought it might hurt a neighbor's dog if they caught one, but someone here says not. So I might just do that again.
The problem is that it gets expensive. The rats eat alot of that stuff.
I wonder if it might help to mix the poison in with peanutbutter or something just to stretch the poison out. They seem to fill up on it and maybe they don't need that much to kill them.
It is frustrating.
I just read that amonia won't make rats leave their homes. It might be a deterrent to them coming around though. I wonder if it is safe for chickens as birds can die from certain smells and toxins in the air.
Something you could try to keep them out of the feeders. Cayenne pepper liberally sprinkled on the feed. The cayenne is great for the birds as it's full of A,D,C and minerals and since they don't have the same taste buds, the heat doesn't affect them. I use this with my wild bird seed and the 'tree rats' squirrels won't touch it! Another good thing about cayenne pepper is it will help keep worms and cocci levels down. I give it to all of my chickens and turkeys 3-5 times a week and have seen great improvements with their appearance as well. Simple and cheap to try.
 
Actually it was fleas and human filth and ignorance that made the pluage such a horrible mess. I will not get into a debate about it but for most pests includeing rats its easyer , and safer to remove food and water and nesting / hideing places then it is to try to kill them all , they are pests for a reason and after hundreds of years of us trying to kill them off it should be obvious this aproch dosnt work as well as changeing the enviorment to soemthing they would rather not live in.
 
I check traps daily when the mice are running and keep an eye on them at other times because I dont want a glue soaked rat making a mess, or worse a bloated dead one oozing all over.
Put them in a way where you will notice a change in position. Never fails and I havent had a rat go unoticed on a trap for more than 2 days.
Not sure what you mean by giving them an edge on something.

I've seen a large number of rats on a glue trap, never seen one chew a limb, ever. Even seen one that just had its tail stuck on. It wouldnt even chew that off to escape. Never seen torn skin, or anything but pulled out fur. Even the really weak skin on the tail didnt break. Not sure where any of that grizzly info comes from.

Every one that met with the "rat log" in my place hadnt spread any more urine than it would normally just scampering around. More poop though, and everything was right on the trap where it belonged. They didnt look crazy, hadnt done anything grizzly, the only one that ever came close to escaping was the one who decided to chew the trap. Ended up with a moutfull of glue, but did a good job getting halfway free by the morning.

Honestly I dont care if people finish off the animal or not.
If they have a beef with the rodent and want to torture it, thats between them and the rat.
Their karma, not mine.

Its better to kill them before they go in the bin as it can get free, or mess up the bin. Most importantly no sanatation worker wants the off chance of a rat bite coming at them when the bag bumps a leg or arm.

You can try to defend rats all you want, but they dont belong.
If you made the adjustments to the location and they come back again, kill them and dont give it a second thought.

I respect life, but when it doesnt respect back it gets removed.
 
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I have pet rats so I can tell u they are smart and probe solvers they know where food is so they will stop at nothing to get to it I would suggest take it away at night but what worries me is they are also meat eaters I'm affared they well go after your chicks. They will notbchew through steel whoop I'm going to suggest somthingbi never though I would I hatebthem and find it very cruel but in your situation needed Glue trapped are best and if a chick or dog gets it stuck to them mineroil will release it. But please if you catch rat don't let it suffer drowned it or release it in the woods don't let it die a slow death
 
Thanks guys! Going to try the steel wool tomorrow night! I have been afraid to take the food away, because I don't want them after my chickens, it honestly doesn't bother me that bad, I'll buy them an extra **** bag of food if they would stay out of my coop! I just want my eggs safe when it comes time, I've worked too hard for them to take them from me!
 
I agree that fast kill traps are the safest and really most humane solution.

If possible keep the food out of the coop so future rats won't have any reason to get in. It's best to deal with this now because, while rats can't smell eggs, getting rid of them will be harder if they happen to find eggs while they are stealing feed.

Keep stored food in a sealed five gallon bucket and consider taking the feeder out of the run when the chickens are inside anyway.
 
Please, do not use glue traps! Mice and rats die slowly and painfully on these! They struggle, often resulting in the trap pulling their hair out or even breaking their bones while trying to escape. Quick kill snap traps are the easiest, more humane way. But, the "no-kill, humane" traps are also safe for around your other animals. They're more expensive ($15-30) but are reusable and nice to have on hand. You can set these up without the any danger of harming your other animals. If you do not wish to release the animal you can always opt to drown it within the trap in a bucket after it has been caught. However, I suggest releasing more than a mile away so it doesn't return.

Good Luck!
 
Please, do not use glue traps! Mice and rats die slowly and painfully on these! They struggle, often resulting in the trap pulling their hair out or even breaking their bones while trying to escape. Quick kill snap traps are the easiest, more humane way. But, the "no-kill, humane" traps are also safe for around your other animals. They're more expensive ($15-30) but are reusable and nice to have on hand. You can set these up without the any danger of harming your other animals. If you do not wish to release the animal you can always opt to drown it within the trap in a bucket after it has been caught. However, I suggest releasing more than a mile away so it doesn't return.

Good Luck!
Have you ever had rats? Release the suckers 1 mile away???? If you want to do poison, get a covered box to put it in. I have one that locks & only the rats crawl inside. Just one bite inside of it & rats go pretty quick.
 
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