Solutions for Rats?

[ScorpioHen]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has any solutions on how to rid rats from the Chicken coop/yard effectively? I have tried for years to get rid of them and they have just grown worse over time. I am sitting here now, watching them run all around the chicken yard....about 20 in total and it just disgusts me to no end knowing these vermin are around my girls! I lost 2 chickens last month and swear it is due to these diseased and disgusting rats. I keep the area clean, pick up every scrap of food and be sure nothing is left out to attract them...including standing water. The chickens feed and water are high enough in proper containers where the rats can not get to them, so I am good there. But I give my chickens little treats from time to time, veggies or even the 5 grain scratch feed and if there is anything left behind, I do my best to pick up every piece. But they still are all over the place casing the yard looking for anything they can get. I have tried on these rats: bait blocks, trap buckets, spring loaded traps, DIY bait killer (such as the flour, yeast mixtures and corn meal etc.), sticky glue runners that were of commercial grade, and all the scents they are supposed not to like (peppermint, vinegar, ammonia, etc). I am sure there are 50 more I am forgetting because if it is sold out there, I have bought it and if not, I have made it! But NOTHING works to get rid of them. I have taken to now heading out at night with my BB gun because they will run run across my feed when I go to lock in the girl at night. It is totally our of control and I do not know what else to do to get rid of them. My yard and the chicken yard looks like Swiss cheese for all the holes and no matter what we fill them with, they just dig around it to make new holes. The hardware wire has not stopped them either. I am at my wits end. If anyone has a solution, PLEASE share. I would be eternally grateful, as would my girls! Thank You.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Wow.....how arrogant, thanks!
FYI....I have only 21 chickens, I give them what they eat in 5 minutes...I DO NOT LEAVE UNTIL THE FOOD IS ATE OR PICKED UP! They free range the rest of the time. These rats were here on my property, living under my shed, for years before I even got the chicken. EVERYTHING you have said in this post, I have done!
No offense, I hope everyone in this forum is not as mean as you!

You gotta forgive Al, he gets a little too excited when a rat thread pops up.

 

[ScorpioHen]

There are literally hundreds of posts on rodent control and for the life of me I do not understand why anyone would make another post when there are so many posts that have discussed the topic and provided solutions.

But you came here looking for answers so search the forums for Howard E.'s posts on rodent control. You will find there are three methods, sanitation, exclusion, and elimination.

Sanitation is locking the feed up in steel barrels with tight lids, buying a proper treadle feeder with a spring loaded door and hopefully an inward swinging lid so the darned thing doesn't have to be left open for weeks for training, and cleaning up the avenues and paths used by the rodents to get to and from the chicken feed. This lets the natural predators do their job and control the numbers of the vermin. You need most of your hens to be full size as the tiny hens won't be able to operate a treadle feeder that is set stiff enough to stop the rats.

Exclusion is build a Fort Knox chicken coop. $$$$$$ and no free range is possible.

Elimination is trapping, hunting, and poison. A never ending trouble and expense. And they wise up quickly so usually it doesn't work.

And forgive me for being blunt, but if you have think you have 20 rats you have three to five times that many and YOU ARE FEEDING THEM or the colony wouldn't be that large. Doesn't matter that you take the feed in at night or pick up every scrap when they can gorge all day.

Number of laying hens or broilers x .25 pound per day gives a rough estimate of feed your CHICKENS will eat in one day. Figure out how long a bag of feed is lasting and you will realize how much feed is going to the rats. Yes,sanitation has a cost but you are already paying that cost and not getting the benefit of stopping the feed theft.

The week you stop feeding the rats they will die or leave. It is that simple.

Now please, humor me and do a forum search using the key words rats, mice, chickens and you will have days of reading ahead of you but add Howard E. to those key words and save yourself a bunch of time of people repeating the old wives tales of peppermint, mashed potatoes, and sonic repellers.

Stop
Feeding
Them

There are literally hundreds of posts on rodent control and for the life of me I do not understand why anyone would make another post when there are so many posts that have discussed the topic and provided solutions.

But you came here looking for answers so search the forums for Howard E.'s posts on rodent control. You will find there are three methods, sanitation, exclusion, and elimination.

Sanitation is locking the feed up in steel barrels with tight lids, buying a proper treadle feeder with a spring loaded door and hopefully an inward swinging lid so the darned thing doesn't have to be left open for weeks for training, and cleaning up the avenues and paths used by the rodents to get to and from the chicken feed. This lets the natural predators do their job and control the numbers of the vermin. You need most of your hens to be full size as the tiny hens won't be able to operate a treadle feeder that is set stiff enough to stop the rats.

Exclusion is build a Fort Knox chicken coop. $$$$$$ and no free range is possible.

Elimination is trapping, hunting, and poison. A never ending trouble and expense. And they wise up quickly so usually it doesn't work.

And forgive me for being blunt, but if you have think you have 20 rats you have three to five times that many and YOU ARE FEEDING THEM or the colony wouldn't be that large. Doesn't matter that you take the feed in at night or pick up every scrap when they can gorge all day.

Number of laying hens or broilers x .25 pound per day gives a rough estimate of feed your CHICKENS will eat in one day. Figure out how long a bag of feed is lasting and you will realize how much feed is going to the rats. Yes,sanitation has a cost but you are already paying that cost and not getting the benefit of stopping the feed theft.

The week you stop feeding the rats they will die or leave. It is that simple.

Now please, humor me and do a forum search using the key words rats, mice, chickens and you will have days of reading ahead of you but add Howard E. to those key words and save yourself a bunch of time of people repeating the old wives tales of peppermint, mashed potatoes, and sonic repellers.

Stop
Feeding
Them

Wow.....how arrogant, thanks!
FYI....I have only 21 chickens, I give them what they eat in 5 minutes...I DO NOT LEAVE UNTIL THE FOOD IS ATE OR PICKED UP! They free range the rest of the time. These rats were here on my property, living under my shed, for years before I even got the chicken. EVERYTHING you have said in this post, I have done!
No offense, I hope everyone in this forum is not as mean as you!

 

[The Moonshiner]

Gosh, that's horrific! I saw you said you tried cornmeal. Did you try it 50-50 with baking soda? My farmer friend had issues and tried that, and she had more dead lying around than she even knew she had.

Really? I tried a few of the homemade concoctions including that one and same but also adding powdered sugar. I never found even one dead rat.
I even caught one in a live trap and feed him that for about 2 weeks and it never killed him.

 

[FloorCandy]

I never had issues, then we had a bad flood, and suddenly I was overrun with rats, I think the flood killed and displaced the stray cats that were keeping the rats away. I kept my quail under my deck for 2-3 years and had no issues, but once the rats found their way in, they made themselves at home. An apron didn’t help, I had cinderblocks lining the outside, so they couldn’t even start the dig near the apron, but they still got in. They killed most of the quail and the ones left were mentally unstable and didn’t really lay after the event. The only way I found to keep them out 100% is wrap the whole enclosure in hardware cloth.

I built a large aviary out of a greenhouse frame, and I laid hardware cloth on the ground, wired them to the HC on the walls with no more than 1 inch apart (literally wire connects every other half inch square). Then I put pavers over the HC and put my wood chips over the pavers. I never leave the door open, even though I don’t have any more quail, and my turkeys can handle rats. I’m so afraid of rats getting in my aviary I’m like a maniac about the door and I’m building an airlock chamber because, kids haha.

I have seen the rats climbing the aviary walls to see if the roof is covered with HC too (it is) and once they checked it out and figured out they can’t get in, they have moved on, and I don’t see them running around the yard at night.

The first night after the second big attack on my quail pens, I was kind of bitter and angry. You know in Jurassic park when it’s real quiet and the giant eye of the t-rex opens in the background…. I assume that’s how the rats felt when they showed up for another easy helpless meal of quail and met my angry tom turkey I had put in for the night haha. Sometimes it’s nice to feel karma kicking them back a bit

I know many people don’t mix turkeys and chickens, but I hatched all of mine from eggs so the only illness vector really is contact with wild life and they would experience the same risks alone or together. But my Tom is great at yard protection, I don’t let him out of the aviary, but he watches the whole yard and yells at anything out of place, he doesn’t sleep inside unless it’s raining, he sleeps on top of the shed I have in the aviary, and watches over everyone as they sleep, I’m certain if vermin could get in, he would take care of them. The females usually sleep inside the shed or coop with the chickens, so they aren’t as vigilant as the male, but they come to see the commotion if he sounds the alarm. turkeys make great guardians from small pests in my experience.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Mouser cats have been the solution for me. Traps weren't doing the job and I refuse to use poison.

Any old cat won't do. Most will kill rodents occasionally, but certain ones are more skilled. Semi-feral cats are great for this because they have a better instinct for it than most cats raised indoors.

I was seeing rats and mice almost daily and now I never see them unless my cat is bringing them to me (which is less lately, because I don't think there are many around). I swear even just their presence deters the rodents. But also make sure you cut off any food sources rats like, such as spilled chicken feed and food scraps in compost, although it seems you are doing that. It could be your neighbors leave out a food source and unfortunately you can't do much about it.

 

[Ponypoor]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has any solutions on how to rid rats from the Chicken coop/yard effectively? I have tried for years to get rid of them and they have just grown worse over time. I am sitting here now, watching them run all around the chicken yard....about 20 in total and it just disgusts me to no end knowing these vermin are around my girls! I lost 2 chickens last month and swear it is due to these diseased and disgusting rats. I keep the area clean, pick up every scrap of food and be sure nothing is left out to attract them...including standing water. The chickens feed and water are high enough in proper containers where the rats can not get to them, so I am good there. But I give my chickens little treats from time to time, veggies or even the 5 grain scratch feed and if there is anything left behind, I do my best to pick up every piece. But they still are all over the place casing the yard looking for anything they can get. I have tried on these rats: bait blocks, trap buckets, spring loaded traps, DIY bait killer (such as the flour, yeast mixtures and corn meal etc.), sticky glue runners that were of commercial grade, and all the scents they are supposed not to like (peppermint, vinegar, ammonia, etc). I am sure there are 50 more I am forgetting because if it is sold out there, I have bought it and if not, I have made it! But NOTHING works to get rid of them. I have taken to now heading out at night with my BB gun because they will run run across my feed when I go to lock in the girl at night. It is totally our of control and I do not know what else to do to get rid of them. My yard and the chicken yard looks like Swiss cheese for all the holes and no matter what we fill them with, they just dig around it to make new holes. The hardware wire has not stopped them either. I am at my wits end. If anyone has a solution, PLEASE share. I would be eternally grateful, as would my girls! Thank You.

Hi @ScorpioHen

Not sure if you still have a rat issue, I have had rat issues also (no I didn’t check out solutions here on BYC so I don’t know if there are 14,000 threads on this ), but I did go online to google and did some research on rat behaviour.

I already knew they are incredibly intelligent and very suspicious of different things. They can jump to incredible heights (3’ straight up, 4’ horizontally). Some rats can dig down 4’, chew through cement, and some metals.
https://www.cascadepest.com/fun-fac...umpers: Rats can jump,a half-inch in diameter.

I personally have watched rats on my barn cameras running around at night which drives me nuts. There is an electric zap trap that will electrocute them, but you will need to move it frequently, I placed mine along the wall of a stall behind a board leaning against the wall, and I left it unarmed a few days for them to get used to. The first night I armed it I got a rat immediately when I checked for my evening chores yay! I rearmed and next morning had a second one.

This continued for about a week with my getting a couple every night. Then I had to move it as they got wise. It’s a game to keep one step ahead of them.

I can’t put out poison because my chooks will kill mice so I don’t want to poison the chooks accidentally. Hopefully you were able to deal with your vermin issue, it’s a constant battle.

 

[Al Gerhart]

There are literally hundreds of posts on rodent control and for the life of me I do not understand why anyone would make another post when there are so many posts that have discussed the topic and provided solutions.

But you came here looking for answers so search the forums for Howard E.'s posts on rodent control. You will find there are three methods, sanitation, exclusion, and elimination.

Sanitation is locking the feed up in steel barrels with tight lids, buying a proper treadle feeder with a spring loaded door and hopefully an inward swinging lid so the darned thing doesn't have to be left open for weeks for training, and cleaning up the avenues and paths used by the rodents to get to and from the chicken feed. This lets the natural predators do their job and control the numbers of the vermin. You need most of your hens to be full size as the tiny hens won't be able to operate a treadle feeder that is set stiff enough to stop the rats.

Exclusion is build a Fort Knox chicken coop. $$$$$$ and no free range is possible.

Elimination is trapping, hunting, and poison. A never ending trouble and expense. And they wise up quickly so usually it doesn't work.

And forgive me for being blunt, but if you have think you have 20 rats you have three to five times that many and YOU ARE FEEDING THEM or the colony wouldn't be that large. Doesn't matter that you take the feed in at night or pick up every scrap when they can gorge all day.

Number of laying hens or broilers x .25 pound per day gives a rough estimate of feed your CHICKENS will eat in one day. Figure out how long a bag of feed is lasting and you will realize how much feed is going to the rats. Yes,sanitation has a cost but you are already paying that cost and not getting the benefit of stopping the feed theft.

The week you stop feeding the rats they will die or leave. It is that simple.

Now please, humor me and do a forum search using the key words rats, mice, chickens and you will have days of reading ahead of you but add Howard E. to those key words and save yourself a bunch of time of people repeating the old wives tales of peppermint, mashed potatoes, and sonic repellers.

Stop
Feeding
Them

 

[2ndTink]

I've just started using treadle feeders in two of my three coops. No luck with snap traps, hit ans miss luck with the electric zap traps. I think between the zap traps and my rat killing obsessed dog, we've killed 8 to 10 in the last month. I think we're making headway against them. I haven't seen my cat do anything with the rats, she's gotten old though, she used to kill all the rabbits and squirrels that dared enter our property. The dog somehow killed a mouse about a year ago and ever since then she's done nothing but hunt. Literally obsessed, she'll come say hi when we get home then run straight back to the coops.

If a dog is an option, that might help. But you have to find one that likes to hunt and kill, but not hunt and kill chickens, we got ours from the shelter and no clue on mix. Treadle feeders I don't think are perfect, my chickens have been getting food piled on the lips on the sides, I looked for a photo but don't have one. But if you're already cleaning up all feed, that's better than what I have anyway.

I wonder if there is a food source nearby and they are just living at your place?

I expect an exterminator is expensive, but may be worth checking into?

Sorry for the ramble, just typing and thinking. I hate rats, so nasty. I don't like killing things but rats are an exception...

 

[2ndTink]

"....my chickens have been getting food piled on the lips on the sides, I looked for a photo but don't have one."
Might be able to help with that if you had a picture.

Happy for some help! The chickens took to the feeder right away, I used the training settings for the two weeks, but they were in there eating before I'd make it out in the morning to prop it open on the second or third day. Pretty neat.