Trust me on this, people are not paying good money for an expensive treadle feeder if it doesn't work. We have plenty of customers that are outfitting their multiple chicken pens a few at a time because they save so much in stolen feed, predators aren't drawn to the rodents, and the health of the flock increases once the vermin that bring in pests like mites and lice are no longer coming around. The rats do leave unless the flock owner is providing another buffet for the vermin. Most natural territories have little natural food and it takes a lot of feed to support a rat colony.
What makes a cheap chicken feeder such a draw to rodents is that it has pounds of high protein feed available and is usually in a protected location where the natural predators can't get to. Foraging for natural food is a very hazardous task for prey animals so most rodents are going to live a few yards or a dozen yards from their main food source to avoid being eaten while traveling. The rodents also can somewhat regulate their populations and breeding to fit the available food.
Killing rats is a never ending task. Short of owning a rat terrier or the like you aren't going to trap enough of them or poison enough of them to make a dent in their population as long as you have the rat buffet sitting out for them. Rodents are smart, they figure out what is dangerous and pass it along to the others.
What does work is starving them out with a proper treadle feeder. Spring loaded door, narrow and distant treadle, no plastic parts, inward swinging door so you don't have to leave it open during training, and a heavy counterweight. You gotta keep the spring on it, they don't last forever and need replacement eventually. But they are a buck plus shipping if you order three at a time.
I always figured that water was pretty easy to find for rodents so that restricting the water would do little good. I might be wrong about that. I suppose it would be easy enough to put a plastic dish in the lower feed tray or silicone caulk the begezus out of the lower feed tray. Trouble is it wouldn't hold much water unless you made some sort of auto fill valve.
Still, once you remove the rodent's access to feed they move on to greener pastures. Howard E's research on dealing with rodents is still the best cache of info out there. Sanitiation, exclusion, elimination, in that order. Sanitation is a good treadle feeder and cleaning up all pathways to and from the coop so the rodents are exposed to natural predators and storing the bulk feed in metal barrels. Exclusion is much harder, impossible with free range flocks. Elimination works for some but it is a forever task as you never completely clean them out and a small breeding population will explode once sufficient feed is available.
What makes a cheap chicken feeder such a draw to rodents is that it has pounds of high protein feed available and is usually in a protected location where the natural predators can't get to. Foraging for natural food is a very hazardous task for prey animals so most rodents are going to live a few yards or a dozen yards from their main food source to avoid being eaten while traveling. The rodents also can somewhat regulate their populations and breeding to fit the available food.
Killing rats is a never ending task. Short of owning a rat terrier or the like you aren't going to trap enough of them or poison enough of them to make a dent in their population as long as you have the rat buffet sitting out for them. Rodents are smart, they figure out what is dangerous and pass it along to the others.
What does work is starving them out with a proper treadle feeder. Spring loaded door, narrow and distant treadle, no plastic parts, inward swinging door so you don't have to leave it open during training, and a heavy counterweight. You gotta keep the spring on it, they don't last forever and need replacement eventually. But they are a buck plus shipping if you order three at a time.
I always figured that water was pretty easy to find for rodents so that restricting the water would do little good. I might be wrong about that. I suppose it would be easy enough to put a plastic dish in the lower feed tray or silicone caulk the begezus out of the lower feed tray. Trouble is it wouldn't hold much water unless you made some sort of auto fill valve.
Still, once you remove the rodent's access to feed they move on to greener pastures. Howard E's research on dealing with rodents is still the best cache of info out there. Sanitiation, exclusion, elimination, in that order. Sanitation is a good treadle feeder and cleaning up all pathways to and from the coop so the rodents are exposed to natural predators and storing the bulk feed in metal barrels. Exclusion is much harder, impossible with free range flocks. Elimination works for some but it is a forever task as you never completely clean them out and a small breeding population will explode once sufficient feed is available.
