Rickety Coop has rats coming in...help!!!

[leasmom]

I don't want to replace it because the size is really good and enough room for everyone to be comfortable. Right now I have 7 hens in it and there's enough room for even more...but it is rickety and I didn't build it thinking that that flat piece of board I put down could be easily chewed through by a rat. I have lights in it, a window, and it is in no way as nice as some I've seen but I don't have alot of money to spend on a coop right now...how do I prevent them from chewing throught the floor...there's two rat holes now that I put bricks over but I know they'll just make a new one...

This is my ideal...buy some foil insulation to lay on the floor and then place those square garden squares on top. That will warm up the coop for the girls and the squares...thats my best ideal...HELP!

 

[Omran]

the only problem you might have with the insulation ( if you put it under the concrete blocks) that it will be wet in no time.
but may be I did not understand exactly what are planning to do.
any way good luck.
omran

 

[The Chicken Lady]

How about covering the floor with some roofing tar? You'd need to clean it first, then spread and dry the tar; probably a weekend project.

 

[leasmom]

They can't go through tar...I didn't know that.

Oh, and yes omran, that's exactly what I was thinking...see that's why I need help with my ideals.

 

[buckeye lady]

We had a rat problem a few years ago and we tried everything to keep those buggers out of the milkhouse, feed, barn etc.... No luck. We even poured quickrete down their tunnels and THEY CHEWED THREW IT! The cats were afraid of them and those Rats would actually fight with our Dogs! They evaded every type of trap we used. We eventually had to resort to poisoning them. We made bait boxes out of various tins and old metal lunch boxes. ( To avoid them carrying the bait out and dropping it where the other animals could get it) We put rat size holes in them and placed the "cake" type of rat poison in them. It took about 2 weeks of continuous "baiting" but we erradicated them.

 

[leasmom]

Wow. That sounds like what I'm gonna have to do.

 

[EweSheep]

I've got a problem with rats myself and had to poison bait them. They just literally chewed thru the plywood flooring of my coop and thru the rubber mattings.

Hardware wirings is the only thing I can do for my coop flooring as if wrapping the 2 x 4 foundations, lay it with rubber mat inside and put the coop on top of it. If they can chew thru it, then this means WAR!!!!!un

 

[patandchickens]

This is a good illustration of the benefits of building a strong coop in the first place, since now that the rats know it's there it'll be MUCH harder to keep them out.

However, "all" you need to do is apply heavy-gauge 1/4" hardwarecloth over the entire bottom and lower walls and anywhere else you think might be chewable. (If all the walls look chewable, you might just cover them with sheet metal siding and be done with it). Put the hardwarecloth on the OUTSIDE, not inside, of the coop, i.e. yes you will have to crawl down under there on your back and wear safety glasses to prevent bits of stuff falling into your eyes as you affix the hardwarecloth. Overlap the seams several inches and attach everything REAL REAL WELL, adding metal battens to screw through if necessary. Only a very desperate inner-city rat is going to make a serious dent in hardwarecloth, and none will chew through sheet metal, so if you do this and do not leave ANY gaps AT ALL you should be in good shape.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
As for the walls, it would be hard to "tie" the hardware wire to a Royal Outdoor shed which it consists of vinyl....I am very certain if they dont have a way in, that wall would be next. Makes me rethink harder about getting those resin, steel inlaid walls of newer sheds, I think, Arrow has those. I would hate to pay more than eight hundred dollars for those Royal Outdoor shed and have those city rats get into it. UGGGGH!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
What about actually wrapping the hardwarecloth over the outside of the lower part of the walls, to a foot or two up? If the walls are not solid enough to screw into you could run a wood or metal batten along the top edge of the hardwarecloth and bolt thru the wall into a 2x4 or 1x6 on the inside of the wall.

The walls are not necessarily such a risk for rats. IME rats prefer to hide somewhere to do their gnawing. So underneath the coop is appealing to them. Standing 2' up the side of your coop in plain view of all the local hungry critters, probably not so much. Probably your best bet, anyhow. (Although, that much hardwarecloth will unfortunately be a bit spendy)

The alternative would be to run hardwarecloth or sheet metal all over the *inside* of your coop, but this will encourage the wooden floor to rot out further and won't really deter the rats from gnawing thru the wood or vinyl in different places to TRY to get in, which may seriously weaken the structure.

Good luck,

Pat