Rooster rat question

[Project Blue]

I was using a very gentle Blue Wheaton roo on my hens and hatched dozens of chicks with him. Despite being very attractive, and gentle with hens I decided it was time to do bring in some new blood as I'm working on a breeding project. The two young new roos I put in are more aggressive, as in one flogged my leg, and they brutally attacked another roo hurting him badly in about 5 seconds, that roo was a former housemate I tried to reintroduce to the bachelor pad. Meanwhile, the coop I put the roos in was having a rat problem I was having trouble solving, as I don't want to poison wildlife to kill rats. A day or so after putting the new young roos in the coop there was a dead young rat in the floor of the coop. It's body looked a little rumpled but no blood or obvious injuries. My first thought was the roo's killed it as it looked young. Now another rat is dead in the same place. This one was very big for a rat, had a much thicker coat and looked like it would be a major challenge to kill it. During the same time period I saw three rats at night on the wildlife camera coming out of the front of the coop, which hasn't happened in the two years I've been filming. Normally, I breed for temperament and these roos would be culled, but now I'm starting to wonder about that strategy. My fears are the rats are dying from a plague or something besides roosters. It would also seem to me if a wild predator was doing the killing it would kill the chickens as well and eat the rats, but I'm worried about that as well. Any ideas what's going on?

 

[ABQ chicken keeper]

I was using a very gentle Blue Wheaton roo on my hens and hatched dozens of chicks with him. Despite being very attractive, and gentle with hens I decided it was time to do bring in some new blood as I'm working on a breeding project. The two young new roos I put in are more aggressive, as in one flogged my leg, and they brutally attacked another roo hurting him badly in about 5 seconds, that roo was a former housemate I tried to reintroduce to the bachelor pad. Meanwhile, the coop I put the roos in was having a rat problem I was having trouble solving, as I don't want to poison wildlife to kill rats. A day or so after putting the new young roos in the coop there was a dead young rat in the floor of the coop. It's body looked a little rumpled but no blood or obvious injuries. My first thought was the roo's killed it as it looked young. Now another rat is dead in the same place. This one was very big for a rat, had a much thicker coat and looked like it would be a major challenge to kill it. During the same time period I saw three rats at night on the wildlife camera coming out of the front of the coop, which hasn't happened in the two years I've been filming. Normally, I breed for temperament and these roos would be culled, but now I'm starting to wonder about that strategy. My fears are the rats are dying from a plague or something besides roosters. It would also seem to me if a wild predator was doing the killing it would kill the chickens as well and eat the rats, but I'm worried about that as well. Any ideas what's going on?

PB,
How are rats getting into your coop?