Time to go on the offensive...enough is enough.

[Debby R]

We've always adopted a policy of 'live and let live' and during our first summer here in the UK with chickens we have been aware that we were frequently 'visited' by rats that would pick off the uneaten crumb, pellet and seed that our flock of chickens left in the runs.

We could live with that. And all has been well all summer...we left the runs open and the rats left the coops and sheltered areas alone and were happy just to hoover up the titbits left behind by our chickens....

During the nights our girls have secure cages within a log cabin with wood shavings and meadow hay for bedding so they are well protected from predators and, I guess, live a life of luxury.

The temperature over the last week or two has plummeted and we have seen a sudden change in the behaviour of our 'visitors' ... a hole was gnawed in one of the connecting tubes between the outdoor areas and the sheltered areas have been entered....some eggs have been taken and corn and crumb feeders raided.

To top it all my wife's favourite bantam chicken was attacked this afternoon. We think she took refuge by perching on top of a water feeder whilst a number of young rats jumped up and took lunges at her neck....there was blood all over the feeder and the poor girl had lost a clump of feathers from around her neck but thanks to my wife responding to the commotion she heard in the garden and intervening our precious Mrs.Chicken (as we call her) looks like she will be fine. Her wounds were superficial and after bathing them with cotton balls soaked in antiseptic and a lot of TLC, cuddles and a meal of live mealworms she perked right up, so we reunited her with her lifelong partner...the slightest bantam you ever saw, we call Ms.chicken...who took over and looked after her.....she'll be fine, now.

So, now I'm PISSED....Live and let live? phuck that! I've been to our local outlet and armed myself both with traps and poison bait. I baited the 2 runs with the poison blocks and a third in the gully between the tool shed and the perimeter fence earlier this evening....within a couple of hours all 3 lots of bait had been taken and the trap in the gully had taken out a juvenile rat.

I've re-baited the same areas. i expect the poison will be taken again. It's a warfarin based product which makes the target's blood thin to the point were they start to bleed internally...resulting in an agonising death.

Good enough for em' - they started this!

So glad your little Bantam is okay. I'd be livid, also!
I have just gone through this same thing though I tried every kind of trap before resorting to poison. I put it inside a "rat hotel" and they gorged themselves on it for 5 days before they died. Two I found inside of the pen but the chickens had taken no interest in them. I buried them all (5) and thought I was through. Noticed today that the "rat hotel" had been moved from where I placed it on top of the pen under the roof. So I guess I'm up for round 2. Was hoping for more of a respite. Dang rodents!

 

[Double Yolked]

Wow! I’d be mad at the rats too. I don’t know if you have this in the UK but it’s called bluekote and is the best disenfectant/wound cover available. It’s made for livestock but works for chickens, if you can get any spray some on her wounds until they are fully healed.
With poison the problem is the rats don’t die immediately and die in another location. If possible get yourself or borrow a barn cat or rat terrier. You can move your hens to a more secure place for a few days and the rats will be gone.
You mentioned bantams, but if you can find a guard rooster who is sweet with your girls he will scare the rats or kill them.

I'll second the vote for Bluekote. I keep it in my pet first aid kid and use it when anyone gets a scrape or scratch. The only slight down side is it dyes feathers very blue. One of my little ladies got in a close encounter with a string weed whacker and ended up with a lot of cuts and abrasions. After liberally applying BlueKote to her injuries the rest of the flock didn't recognize her! I had to isolate her and reintroduce her slowly to them. In her already fragile state I was afraid they'd murder her.

 

[HennyPenny2019]

Fair point(s) in some situations....but a chihuahua couldn't physically eat a rat....and our particular ones wouldn't have any interest in that anyway... they have exacting standards and insist on 'Royal Canin' Also our plot is so small that any rodent corpses would be spotted instantly and be removed before the girls were let out...

When we setup our coop and run, my final defense was to add a hot wire about 2” high all around the perimeter of coop and run. So far it’s repelled a fox and my contractor

 

[Augustina]

After a very cold winter here in North Wales, I lined the walls of my stone coop with bales of straw to keep the girls and cockerel cosy. After a few months they started getting ill and just dying, one after the other. So I decided to spring clean the coop. As I removed the bales, rats ran out and down a hole in the floor, there were piles of food and feathers and what looked like nests too. A farm vet told me, the hens were so frightened of the rats, it knocked their immune system, and they couldn’t fight off even the simplest bug. So we made everywhere rat free and straw bale free. But recently the rats are back and I’ve put out traps. On the ‘Barn Owl conservation Website’, they tell you not to use poison because owls are often killed by eating poisoned rats. I live in the country and have lovely tawny, barn and little owls living all around.
So it’s a real quandary as to how to get the rats away from my lovely hens. I might have to spike a cage with poison so they’ll die in there and I can safely dispose of the bodies. Anyone else got any good tips for the revolting rat and it’s retinue?? Thank you

 

[Howard E]

If you are concerned about birds of prey eating the deado's, use a vitamin D3 bait like Terad3 or Agrid3.

 

[cmom]

I've been using a block type bait and have witnessed the rats physically removing the blocks of bait from the runs and disappearing down a rat hole that goes under the boundary fence into the garden next door.

Over the last 24 hours or so...since we started baiting...we have re-set the bait a dozen times or more over the three areas we have been leaving the bait. The areas are within the eglu run, the second run that I built and the space between the concrete floor the cabin is built on and the floor of the cabin...which is maybe 75 mm....big enough for a rat but not a chihuahua.

It's been taken within a couple of hours every time we have re-baited. Earlier this evening I re-baited and since then only one of the bait blocks has been taken...the first sign that the tide may be turning. I have been scanning the garden next door and have recovered just two rat carcasses...I'm convinced that most of them are dying underground.

I have not found any rat bodies laying around after I set my rat bait boxes out in certain locations so that other critters are not likely to get to the bait. I had a severe infestation. When I started tearing out parts of the coop that was infested, dozens of rats of all sizes poured out. At first I was replacing the rat baits pretty often but now hardly ever. I'm pretty sure the rats went down in their tunnels and died because I only found a couple of dead rats too behind the coop which I disposed of. Compared to the number of rats that came out I don't think there was any secondary poisoning. Here we have a lot of coyotes which I see around my coops almost every night. Nothing preys on coyotes but they will prey on most everything else including a bobcat or fox if they can catch them. I personally wouldn't care if they ate a dead rat. I don't think a dead rat would kill a coyote because it would probably take a lot more poison since they are much larger and I haven't see any dead coyotes.

 

[cmom]

When we setup our coop and run, my final defense was to add a hot wire about 2” high all around the perimeter of coop and run. So far it’s repelled a fox and my contractor

I have electric wire around my coops and pens. The bottom wire is 4 to 6 inches off the ground then about a foot apart going up. The predators know the wire is there and don't mess with it. Prior to putting the electric wire up I lost birds to some predators. I put concrete under the gates to the pens and covered the pens with heavy duty netting. The electric wire has been up around 10 years and still works well.

 

[Double Yolked]

When we setup our coop and run, my final defense was to add a hot wire about 2” high all around the perimeter of coop and run. So far it’s repelled a fox and my contractor

"and my contractor" Thanks! I needed a good laugh this morning.

 

[Double Yolked]

(still laughing about the "and my contractor")
On a serious note regarding rat predation. My main coop (which holds about 10 hens) is built on stilts. Stands about 2 ft above the ground. I set it up to allow for easy cleaning as a wheelbarrow fits perfectly under it. I wasn't really thinking about rats at the time. Just about protecting my back from a lot of bending over. (I'm partially disabled) But the terrific thing about my design? Rats can't make safe hidden burrows under the coop. They have nowhere they can hide unless they burrow entirely underground. (and it's a lot easier to spot and attack underground rat holes)
I took the idea from an English ladies design posted on YouTube.

If this doesn't show up just search YouTube for Self cleaning Chicken Coop. I simply enlarged her idea and used sturdy 2x4's for legs, built it to fit my flock's size at the time. Not only does it make clean outs easy but I don't have rat issues inside the coop at night. Outside the coop the war rages on but at least my ladies sleep safely at night.

 

[Ted_Harrell]

sounds like your contractor should ask for hazardous duty pay, just kidding...