Red kidney beans as a rat poison

[Al Gerhart]

Yes I have experience with a rat infestation, think lifting up a hanging feeder and having a basket ball size hole full of rats running over your feet. Couldn't afford a grandpa Xi feeder so I designed and built my own with the help of folks here on BYC. Two years later I set up a small factory overseas.

 

[azygous]

Red beans as a rat poison? Never heard of it. Why do people insist on trying these convoluted, unproven, complex methods when there are time tested solutions that everyone knows work?

Last spring, I had a stubborn and clever pack rat that was coming into one of my coops every night and dragging in all sorts of trash and refuse to make nests in the laying boxes. It was not attracted to food because no food is available overnight in my runs due to needing to prevent bears from being interested in breaking in. It just thought the coop was a very handy and attractive hotel.

The rat defied my usually very effective bucket roller trap. So I dragged out my trusty large spring rat traps and baited them with peanut butter. Got the darned critter finally.

Red beans. Makes my brain tired.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Your fooling yourself if you think they only come out at night.

Exactly, removing the feeder at night just means they gorge during the day. Monitor your feed use folks, quarter pound of feed per hen per day, ignore the roosters unless you have a bunch of them. Anything more, you are feeding rats or wild birds.

A rat infestation takes pounds of feed each day to sustain. And I have seen squirrels rolling eggs away, never a rat. But the larger the infestation the quicker it implodes once you clean up the area, protect the bulk feed in metal containers, and begin using a treadle feeder. Not enough natural food for the rats, they turn on their young first and eat them, next each other, and frantically start foraging for food which exposes them to natural predators.

Make sure the feeder has a narrow and distant treadle, has a spring loaded door, and a protruding lip inside a deep feed tray to prevent spillage and feed raking. You will need full size birds in the flock if you have a few silkies or bantams and no treadle feeder is safe around chicks.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Red beans as a rat poison? Never heard of it. Why do people insist on trying these convoluted, unproven, complex methods when there are time tested solutions that everyone knows work?

Last spring, I had a stubborn and clever pack rat that was coming into one of my coops every night and dragging in all sorts of trash and refuse to make nests in the laying boxes. It was not attracted to food because no food is available overnight in my runs due to needing to prevent bears from being interested in breaking in. It just thought the coop was a very handy and attractive hotel.

The rat defied my usually very effective bucket roller trap. So I dragged out my trusty large spring rat traps and baited them with peanut butter. Got the darned critter finally.

Red beans. Makes my brain tired.

I think people want to be helpful but spreading these old wives tales isn't helpful. They go with what they got I suppose.

Bears.... I can only imagine what a bear proof chicken feeder would cost.

 

[allenw]

Red beans as a rat poison? Never heard of it. Why do people insist on trying these convoluted, unproven, complex methods when there are time tested solutions that everyone knows work?

Last spring, I had a stubborn and clever pack rat that was coming into one of my coops every night and dragging in all sorts of trash and refuse to make nests in the laying boxes. It was not attracted to food because no food is available overnight in my runs due to needing to prevent bears from being interested in breaking in. It just thought the coop was a very handy and attractive hotel.

The rat defied my usually very effective bucket roller trap. So I dragged out my trusty large spring rat traps and baited them with peanut butter. Got the darned critter finally.

Red beans. Makes my brain tired.

I've threw a little of what a pack rat was gathering into the back of a box trap and caught them.

 

[azygous]

Bears.... I can only imagine what a bear proof chicken feeder would cost.

No such thing. Bears have the equipment to get into anything. Some years back, I was running down the road and happened to notice a travel trailer that a bear had "opened" as if it were merely a big can of red beans. Getting a can of red beans open is child's play for a bear. Heck, sometimes they try to eat the whole can, and I mean the can.

 

[KaseySnow]

It would be great if we find less harmful alternative to rat poison

The best option I've heard of is a product called Rat X. No risk of secondary kill and affects only mice and rats due to their unique digestive systems--basically dehydrates them and puts them to sleep in their burrows as they fall into a coma and pass away. So it's pretty humane, especially compared to poisons.

Here's a video review on best practice use with it by a guy who was testing it out in his chicken coop:

The guy basically set up a feeding station for a week and fed the rats sunflower seeds to get every rat in the area trained to feed there at night. Then he mixed in a whole bag of RatX with the sunflower seeds in the same spot and set up cameras to see if there was a difference in rodent numbers in the week to follow as they ate it. 95% reduction in rodent population, and he finds dead rats in their burrows afterward. This same youtuber has loads of mice/rat trap ideas of all different kinds to help catch that remaining 5%.