ATTACK OF THE RATS (Graphic Photo Warning)

[The Angry Hen]

The chocolate will work for sure... I ain't taken my eyes off that chocolate!! They gonna have to fight me for it.

True!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Well, I got some snap traps. And within a minute of setting it with top ramen and walking away we heard it trip!

Sadly upon seeing it, had it's leg snapped in the trap and was trying to free itself. So I grabbed a bucket of water and dropped the trap in the bucket. The trap floated and even turned upside down the rat was using it as a flotation device. So we pushed the trap to the bottom of the bucket and he could just get his nose out of the water. Yes the rat knew which way was up. Had to go get more water and still hold it down. It was a terrible experience. Mouse traps are too small and rat traps are too big.

I saw that dead rats' sibling looking at me out the dryer vent from my house, that isn't hooked up. So I sat a couple traps around that area. Two with peanut butter and one with ramen. The only hit I got so far was a slug ate the PB without tripping the trap! Only way I know it was a slug is from the tell tell slime left behind. I just got ducks to combat those! BUT... I'm afraid the ducks are going to make it MUCH harder to control rodent issues, they are sooo messy.

Oh and someone did tell me that I needed to upgrade my can spinny bucket trap into a trash can instead of a bucket since the bucket is way to small for my purpose and the rats just stand on the edge and eat the bait. Since this WILL be an ongoing battle, I will probably put that together too. I truly feel like this MUST be a multifaceted attack. So far in my arsenal is snap traps, can bucket (not effective), a zap trap, before long a trash can trap.

Please note, no drowning wasn't humane. But neither would the rat suffering until it slowly died. Didn't want to use a bullet for various reason. And not comfortable trying to smash it's head against something. So I did the BEST I could.

 

[chickendreams24]

Hi guys mind if I join you?

We have been dealing with a rat problem in southern WI since last year. We are very rural and until then I had never seen or had signs of a rat.

I now hate them with a passion.

I want to get the story out of what we experienced in hopes it can save/help someone else.

It started with a rat attacking a juvenile chick about 8 weeks old last fall. It killed the chick overnight but couldn't pull the chick through the one inch gap. That chick was gone when we found it, it's crop and skin over it's breast meat eaten. It's leg was broken, a compound fracture. We reenforced the coop but a day or two later we came out to find a slightly larger chick crippled with bite marks all up and down it's right leg and hock. The chick recovered but had been permanently crippled I believe the rat must have severed a tendon. The chick(a lavender Orpington) grew to be a handsome cockeral. He gets around but has some trouble balancing due to his healed injury. During his healing process he got and infection. After that chick was attacked we moved all of those chicks to a more secure coop that night.

It wasn't until I saw a rat digging under our porch that I was even sure that our chicks were being attacked by a rat(s). We filled the hole being dug with concrete not seeing any tunnel in it. We later discovered that indeed they had gotten in and climbed the wall and came out a hole that used to be the exhaust for the dryer in our laundry room. This hole was patched on the outside but not the inside. Before we were aware there was a rat in the house it had quite a time of it. It ate an entire 20lb box of dog biscuits that were being stored and tunneled down the wall back up and under the foundation (our laundry room has only a crawl space under it which made this possible) and out two feet from the foundation came up. Mind you we have 5 indoor cats all good mousers. They'd never seen a rat. They hunted it but were intimidated by it's size. It was actually one of our cats that finally showed me the rat one day. Imagine my surprise.

We set out snap traps upstairs and in the basement which connects to the crawl space. We caught a mouse in a rat trap and the trap in the laundry room went off twice more. Nothing. It was then we found the hole out. At this point I was angry and felt sure this was the killer rat. We ended up catching 2 massive rats in the basement and I thought that was the end of it.

About that time it was Christmas. Around January we discovered holes being chewed through our coop. The walls and the foundation, poured concrete, extending 6+ inches up the foundation. Yes they ate through concrete. We had seen a few mice but then we decided it had to be the rats.

Ugh. We brought the fight to the coop. Snap traps being the only things that ever caught anything. We placed baited snap traps in the rat trails under milk crates so the chickens could access them. We picked the feeders up at night.

Yes I admit we used to free feed in the coop and didn't have a problem for more than a year or two. Lol it's late and I don't remember.

We stopped free feeding. Eggs started being stolen and broken. The rats inadvertently taught members of our flock to eat eggs. Despite us collecting eggs multiple times a day. We have since built roll out nesting boxes.

Then a couple months back we moved our juveniles (chicks 12 weeks give or take) out into our small coop. We had cockerals growing out in there for meat before that. We did have one attack on a cockeral that nearly was fatal. He was brought in the house and recovered. Since he's a small oegb bantam he wasn't really on the menu anyways just surplus. The whole was pretty decent sized and I never found out what it was. I believe something dug under and grabbed him by the head while he was asleep but couldn't fit through the hole. We found him perched on a tarp lining the coop gushing blood and nearly unconscious. The wall sprayed with blood. (I now wonder if that could have been a rat.)

The cockeral recovered completely and now runs with our main flock. You can not even tell he was injured.

That night after tending to the injured bird we lined the entire outside of that coop with cinder blocks and tin so nothing could dig under the coop. Or so we thought.

We had no more events until the babies were moved out there. At first it was calm and peaceful. Days passed.

The following is a very graphic telling of the events that followed and some people may find this hard to read. If you do not wish to read it please skip ahead until you see a number of skipped lines. Thank you.


We went out one night at bed check and found a quail missing from our quail run and another missing from our second quail run. We never found the body of the one in the second quail run. However the body in the first run is what alerted us to the problem. The rats had developed a taste for meat despite having access to feed. The body of the quail had been reduced to legs and feet from the hock down some pelvis skin feathers a few spine fragments some ribs and the beak and front portion of it's skull. All the rest had been completely consumed overnight. There was only minimal blood found, a few drops, perhaps they lapped the rest off the shavings. This run is 3.5 feet off the floor has a wood bottom and is chicken wire to the ceiling the holes in the door were larger and we immediately made new doors for each of the quail runs.

We were needless to say horrified by what had happened but didn't know how the rats had climbed the run.

One morning we went out and found a chick dead in the little coop. Later that same day we found another couple chicks injured. We blamed a group of older chicks thinking it was cannibalism and moved them to our main coop(which is a two room old milk house perfect for raising multiple ages of birds). Although we had never had an episode of cannibalism to that point, even with injured or sick birds. One of the chicks was quite badly injured a chunk of flesh missing above it's tail including it's oil gland. The others were minor injuries and we blue koted anyway who wasn't fully feathered still thinking it was cannibalism.

More chicks died. Worse still we found some alive. Their vents eaten and their insides eaten out of them. These poor walking dead babies. We immediately put down any chick found injured in such a way and there were many. We continued to set traps in both coops. We tried making sure there was feed outside the little coop. It didn't help.

Some days we had as many as three chicks attacked. The time of day didn't matter. What's more the injured chicks were even attacked by their siblings on more than one occasion attracted by the blood and raw flesh. Our first cannibalism experience involved the intestines of a living chick being drug out of it after a rat had attacked and eaten into it and strung all over the place. Never would I wish that on anything. My heart went out to these poor hurting babies and I cried over their wounds and our failure to protect them. Thankfully the above tale of cannibalism was the worst one we witnessed.

We began to dread chores knowing what could well be awaiting us. In spite of me going out there several times between chores each day the losses continued. Usually one every day or two. We were continually filling holes inside the coop under the walls but it didn't matter.
We were catching as many as three rats of varying sizes a day in the big coop in snap traps. We discovered they had tunneled into the insulated walls and were living inside. They became more and more bold until they would come out with us standing there, and one night during chores a massive one ran out of a hole they had eaten in the center wall across my foot around the coop and out the hole in the foundation which actually went up into another wall as well as out. The birds predator called but in spite of nearly 40 chickens in the coop and several big roosters no one went after the rat.

I continued to wrack my brain and do research. I couldn't find a single mention anywhere online of rats attacking in this way. I began to think we had a weasel. But then we finally saw it. A rat. A huge rat! In the little coop.

We ended up on a whim picking up the tin and cinder blocks outside the coop to try and see if we could find out how they were digging the holes again so fast. The truth was shocking. Under the cinder blocks and tin we found a network of tunnels and burrows just under the time level. Inside we saw two of the largest rats I could imagine. One got away. The other we stomped on not having any other weapon. This rat was so large it was literally lifting my DH2B'S booted foot despite him putting lots of pressure on it. It didn't die from being stomped so we tried to suffocate it. It finally took both of our weight and pressure to kill it. I know it's not humane but it was out of necessity. It was snapping at us before we stepped on it and we had both of our dogs out with us. We then filled in all the shallow burrows and holes and left everything exposed to deter the rat from coming back.

I would also like to point out that while we were trapping and killing the rats we were burning their bodies after a few were collected to make burning worth while. DH2B researched and built a rocket stove(I think he called it) using cinder blocks to allow us to burn the bodies of the rats as well and the dead chicks. We do this to keep predators away as well as flies and because our first year of keeping poultry I insisted on burying every animal we lost which we couldn't keep up doing or we would run out of space. Anyway now only a select few get burried. So we would out the rats aside and over and over again the bodies went missing from under a milk crate covering the trap and burrow entrance. The rats were cannibalising their dead. As gross and awful as that is better that than our chicks.

We were still struggling and still losing chicks although less frequently. We were also still seeing more and more rats and catching them less frequently. We also still saw the big one. They were coming out in broad daylight in front of us, except the big one it was too smart for that. Too cunning.

One day we went out to do evening chores and found a rat on the back side of the coop maybe three feet from where a broody oegb named Dovey was setting on a nest. We grabbed shovels afraid for our tiny vulnerable girl. She had unfortunately decided to nest behind a stock tank containing some quail which made checking her nearly impossible. We began to get ready to swing and kill the rat which was in an awkward place to hit it when Dovey came running out from around the corner off her nest and fluffed up in all her angry broody glory she attacked and chased off the rat! I picked up my brave little girl to scold her for being reckless and saw dried blood on her chest. The rats had eaten her developing eggs. Some at least. It made me fear for her more as she was right by one of their holes.

The next night when we went to lock the birds up for bed we discovered one of our EE Belle in the main coop under the nest boxes and acting odd. She had been treated for an impacted crop earlier this year so I didn't think too much as I picked her up. Then I saw and sobs filled my throat. Belle had been attacked and between her hips lay nothing more than a gaping hole. This hole extended almost down to her keel. My sweet little Belle was a gentle reserved girl who enjoyed people and company but didn't care much for being held. She was one of the birds we call our lifers here. Our birds that cross the line to pet and have a home here for as long as they're able to live. Belle and her sister Pebbles are among these few.

Most of our original flock was wiped out by predators last year. Belle and Pebbles were two of the few originals left. They also always roosted on the second to top roost on the roost ladder approximately 4 feet off the ground. In the middle of the roost not to either end. I can come up with no other thought than that she was attacked on the roost as they usually roost early. The roosts are 2x4s and I didn't really think wide enough.








Either way it didn't matter. This was the end if my patience. We weren't making headway we were losing ground. I am against poison unless extreme circumstances and care is taken.

We put out poison that night and continued putting it out. Our plan was to pick it up in the morning, but for nearly a week no matter how much we put out there was never any left. They ate more than 20 cubes in that time. We placed it outside the large coop and outside the little coop under milk crates. We made sure nothing else could reach it. When poison started being left over we picked it up each morning and put it out each night. We haven't had any out for several days and plan to set more out soon.

About 3-6 days after first putting poison out we stopped seeing rats running around. We only saw them twice after the initial wave stopped. And only one or two each time.

We found the bodies of four large rats on various days and continue to sweep for more daily. At this point I believe they died in their burrows and were either consumed by their fellows or are just dead in the burrows some of which were under ground. By as much as three feet. We know this because we found an entrance in an old fence post hole two-three feet down through concrete in our barn lot. Literally under the concrete.

After poisoning started we lost 1-2 more chicks but nothing so far for nearly a week now.

Below is a picture of one of the rats we poisoned. The water bottle is for scale and is 10 inches long.

Below that I will also share a photo of Belle the adult ee hen that was killed.

I would also like to say that I believe sharing this story is important because as I said I couldn't find anything about this anywhere and finally found a story on you tube about (i think it was albatross chicks) being eaten alive in the same way but by giant mice on an island and that its decimating the population. I was grateful to find the video when I began to again question myself.

I hope no one else ever has this experience but if they do I hope they find this post and find it helpful.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi guys mind if I join you?

We have been dealing with a rat problem in southern WI since last year. We are very rural and until then I had never seen or had signs of a rat.

I now hate them with a passion.

I want to get the story out of what we experienced in hopes it can save/help someone else.

It started with a rat attacking a juvenile chick about 8 weeks old last fall. It killed the chick overnight but couldn't pull the chick through the one inch gap. That chick was gone when we found it, it's crop and skin over it's breast meat eaten. It's leg was broken, a compound fracture. We reenforced the coop but a day or two later we came out to find a slightly larger chick crippled with bite marks all up and down it's right leg and hock. The chick recovered but had been permanently crippled I believe the rat must have severed a tendon. The chick(a lavender Orpington) grew to be a handsome cockeral. He gets around but has some trouble balancing due to his healed injury. During his healing process he got and infection. After that chick was attacked we moved all of those chicks to a more secure coop that night.

It wasn't until I saw a rat digging under our porch that I was even sure that our chicks were being attacked by a rat(s). We filled the hole being dug with concrete not seeing any tunnel in it. We later discovered that indeed they had gotten in and climbed the wall and came out a hole that used to be the exhaust for the dryer in our laundry room. This hole was patched on the outside but not the inside. Before we were aware there was a rat in the house it had quite a time of it. It ate an entire 20lb box of dog biscuits that were being stored and tunneled down the wall back up and under the foundation (our laundry room has only a crawl space under it which made this possible) and out two feet from the foundation came up. Mind you we have 5 indoor cats all good mousers. They'd never seen a rat. They hunted it but were intimidated by it's size. It was actually one of our cats that finally showed me the rat one day. Imagine my surprise.

We set out snap traps upstairs and in the basement which connects to the crawl space. We caught a mouse in a rat trap and the trap in the laundry room went off twice more. Nothing. It was then we found the hole out. At this point I was angry and felt sure this was the killer rat. We ended up catching 2 massive rats in the basement and I thought that was the end of it.

About that time it was Christmas. Around January we discovered holes being chewed through our coop. The walls and the foundation, poured concrete, extending 6+ inches up the foundation. Yes they ate through concrete. We had seen a few mice but then we decided it had to be the rats.

Ugh. We brought the fight to the coop. Snap traps being the only things that ever caught anything. We placed baited snap traps in the rat trails under milk crates so the chickens could access them. We picked the feeders up at night.

Yes I admit we used to free feed in the coop and didn't have a problem for more than a year or two. Lol it's late and I don't remember.

We stopped free feeding. Eggs started being stolen and broken. The rats inadvertently taught members of our flock to eat eggs. Despite us collecting eggs multiple times a day. We have since built roll out nesting boxes.

Then a couple months back we moved our juveniles (chicks 12 weeks give or take) out into our small coop. We had cockerals growing out in there for meat before that. We did have one attack on a cockeral that nearly was fatal. He was brought in the house and recovered. Since he's a small oegb bantam he wasn't really on the menu anyways just surplus. The whole was pretty decent sized and I never found out what it was. I believe something dug under and grabbed him by the head while he was asleep but couldn't fit through the hole. We found him perched on a tarp lining the coop gushing blood and nearly unconscious. The wall sprayed with blood. (I now wonder if that could have been a rat.)

The cockeral recovered completely and now runs with our main flock. You can not even tell he was injured.

That night after tending to the injured bird we lined the entire outside of that coop with cinder blocks and tin so nothing could dig under the coop. Or so we thought.

We had no more events until the babies were moved out there. At first it was calm and peaceful. Days passed.

The following is a very graphic telling of the events that followed and some people may find this hard to read. If you do not wish to read it please skip ahead until you see a number of skipped lines. Thank you.


We went out one night at bed check and found a quail missing from our quail run and another missing from our second quail run. We never found the body of the one in the second quail run. However the body in the first run is what alerted us to the problem. The rats had developed a taste for meat despite having access to feed. The body of the quail had been reduced to legs and feet from the hock down some pelvis skin feathers a few spine fragments some ribs and the beak and front portion of it's skull. All the rest had been completely consumed overnight. There was only minimal blood found, a few drops, perhaps they lapped the rest off the shavings. This run is 3.5 feet off the floor has a wood bottom and is chicken wire to the ceiling the holes in the door were larger and we immediately made new doors for each of the quail runs.

We were needless to say horrified by what had happened but didn't know how the rats had climbed the run.

One morning we went out and found a chick dead in the little coop. Later that same day we found another couple chicks injured. We blamed a group of older chicks thinking it was cannibalism and moved them to our main coop(which is a two room old milk house perfect for raising multiple ages of birds). Although we had never had an episode of cannibalism to that point, even with injured or sick birds. One of the chicks was quite badly injured a chunk of flesh missing above it's tail including it's oil gland. The others were minor injuries and we blue koted anyway who wasn't fully feathered still thinking it was cannibalism.

More chicks died. Worse still we found some alive. Their vents eaten and their insides eaten out of them. These poor walking dead babies. We immediately put down any chick found injured in such a way and there were many. We continued to set traps in both coops. We tried making sure there was feed outside the little coop. It didn't help.

Some days we had as many as three chicks attacked. The time of day didn't matter. What's more the injured chicks were even attacked by their siblings on more than one occasion attracted by the blood and raw flesh. Our first cannibalism experience involved the intestines of a living chick being drug out of it after a rat had attacked and eaten into it and strung all over the place. Never would I wish that on anything. My heart went out to these poor hurting babies and I cried over their wounds and our failure to protect them. Thankfully the above tale of cannibalism was the worst one we witnessed.

We began to dread chores knowing what could well be awaiting us. In spite of me going out there several times between chores each day the losses continued. Usually one every day or two. We were continually filling holes inside the coop under the walls but it didn't matter.
We were catching as many as three rats of varying sizes a day in the big coop in snap traps. We discovered they had tunneled into the insulated walls and were living inside. They became more and more bold until they would come out with us standing there, and one night during chores a massive one ran out of a hole they had eaten in the center wall across my foot around the coop and out the hole in the foundation which actually went up into another wall as well as out. The birds predator called but in spite of nearly 40 chickens in the coop and several big roosters no one went after the rat.

I continued to wrack my brain and do research. I couldn't find a single mention anywhere online of rats attacking in this way. I began to think we had a weasel. But then we finally saw it. A rat. A huge rat! In the little coop.

We ended up on a whim picking up the tin and cinder blocks outside the coop to try and see if we could find out how they were digging the holes again so fast. The truth was shocking. Under the cinder blocks and tin we found a network of tunnels and burrows just under the time level. Inside we saw two of the largest rats I could imagine. One got away. The other we stomped on not having any other weapon. This rat was so large it was literally lifting my DH2B'S booted foot despite him putting lots of pressure on it. It didn't die from being stomped so we tried to suffocate it. It finally took both of our weight and pressure to kill it. I know it's not humane but it was out of necessity. It was snapping at us before we stepped on it and we had both of our dogs out with us. We then filled in all the shallow burrows and holes and left everything exposed to deter the rat from coming back.

I would also like to point out that while we were trapping and killing the rats we were burning their bodies after a few were collected to make burning worth while. DH2B researched and built a rocket stove(I think he called it) using cinder blocks to allow us to burn the bodies of the rats as well and the dead chicks. We do this to keep predators away as well as flies and because our first year of keeping poultry I insisted on burying every animal we lost which we couldn't keep up doing or we would run out of space. Anyway now only a select few get burried. So we would out the rats aside and over and over again the bodies went missing from under a milk crate covering the trap and burrow entrance. The rats were cannibalising their dead. As gross and awful as that is better that than our chicks.

We were still struggling and still losing chicks although less frequently. We were also still seeing more and more rats and catching them less frequently. We also still saw the big one. They were coming out in broad daylight in front of us, except the big one it was too smart for that. Too cunning.

One day we went out to do evening chores and found a rat on the back side of the coop maybe three feet from where a broody oegb named Dovey was setting on a nest. We grabbed shovels afraid for our tiny vulnerable girl. She had unfortunately decided to nest behind a stock tank containing some quail which made checking her nearly impossible. We began to get ready to swing and kill the rat which was in an awkward place to hit it when Dovey came running out from around the corner off her nest and fluffed up in all her angry broody glory she attacked and chased off the rat! I picked up my brave little girl to scold her for being reckless and saw dried blood on her chest. The rats had eaten her developing eggs. Some at least. It made me fear for her more as she was right by one of their holes.

The next night when we went to lock the birds up for bed we discovered one of our EE Belle in the main coop under the nest boxes and acting odd. She had been treated for an impacted crop earlier this year so I didn't think too much as I picked her up. Then I saw and sobs filled my throat. Belle had been attacked and between her hips lay nothing more than a gaping hole. This hole extended almost down to her keel. My sweet little Belle was a gentle reserved girl who enjoyed people and company but didn't care much for being held. She was one of the birds we call our lifers here. Our birds that cross the line to pet and have a home here for as long as they're able to live. Belle and her sister Pebbles are among these few.

Most of our original flock was wiped out by predators last year. Belle and Pebbles were two of the few originals left. They also always roosted on the second to top roost on the roost ladder approximately 4 feet off the ground. In the middle of the roost not to either end. I can come up with no other thought than that she was attacked on the roost as they usually roost early. The roosts are 2x4s and I didn't really think wide enough.








Either way it didn't matter. This was the end if my patience. We weren't making headway we were losing ground. I am against poison unless extreme circumstances and care is taken.

We put out poison that night and continued putting it out. Our plan was to pick it up in the morning, but for nearly a week no matter how much we put out there was never any left. They ate more than 20 cubes in that time. We placed it outside the large coop and outside the little coop under milk crates. We made sure nothing else could reach it. When poison started being left over we picked it up each morning and put it out each night. We haven't had any out for several days and plan to set more out soon.

About 3-6 days after first putting poison out we stopped seeing rats running around. We only saw them twice after the initial wave stopped. And only one or two each time.

We found the bodies of four large rats on various days and continue to sweep for more daily. At this point I believe they died in their burrows and were either consumed by their fellows or are just dead in the burrows some of which were under ground. By as much as three feet. We know this because we found an entrance in an old fence post hole two-three feet down through concrete in our barn lot. Literally under the concrete.

After poisoning started we lost 1-2 more chicks but nothing so far for nearly a week now.

Below is a picture of one of the rats we poisoned. The water bottle is for scale and is 10 inches long.

View attachment 1105743

Below that I will also share a photo of Belle the adult ee hen that was killed.

View attachment 1105745

I would also like to say that I believe sharing this story is important because as I said I couldn't find anything about this anywhere and finally found a story on you tube about (i think it was albatross chicks) being eaten alive in the same way but by giant mice on an island and that its decimating the population. I was grateful to find the video when I began to again question myself.

I hope no one else ever has this experience but if they do I hope they find this post and find it helpful.

Wow! Your story makes what I'm dealing with sound like preschool.

Thank you so much for sharing. So sorry for your losses and what you had to see.

I already knew I was at war... but I didn't know how heinous the enemy was. Thank you for yet another wake up call in addition to the OP sharing.

I go through days where I catch a rat a day, usually mid day, in my snap traps. And then several days with no catch. Your experience tells me that this will be an ongoing effort that I cannot afford to let my guard down. Even more than that, I might need to double down my efforts.

The last 2 rats I caught were snapped in half at their abdomen but still alive and chewing on the trap. Both were drowned afterwards. So far I have tossed the bodies out to the front of my property for the wildlife. Thinking it was hawks, crows, or vultures originally.. now I see I might be feeding the rats!

Your EE was pretty girl!

I will keep up my fight!

 

[chickendreams24]

Hi guys mind if I join you?

We have been dealing with a rat problem in southern WI since last year. We are very rural and until then I had never seen or had signs of a rat.

I now hate them with a passion.

I want to get the story out of what we experienced in hopes it can save/help someone else.

It started with a rat attacking a juvenile chick about 8 weeks old last fall. It killed the chick overnight but couldn't pull the chick through the one inch gap. That chick was gone when we found it, it's crop and skin over it's breast meat eaten. It's leg was broken, a compound fracture. We reenforced the coop but a day or two later we came out to find a slightly larger chick crippled with bite marks all up and down it's right leg and hock. The chick recovered but had been permanently crippled I believe the rat must have severed a tendon. The chick(a lavender Orpington) grew to be a handsome cockeral. He gets around but has some trouble balancing due to his healed injury. During his healing process he got and infection. After that chick was attacked we moved all of those chicks to a more secure coop that night.

It wasn't until I saw a rat digging under our porch that I was even sure that our chicks were being attacked by a rat(s). We filled the hole being dug with concrete not seeing any tunnel in it. We later discovered that indeed they had gotten in and climbed the wall and came out a hole that used to be the exhaust for the dryer in our laundry room. This hole was patched on the outside but not the inside. Before we were aware there was a rat in the house it had quite a time of it. It ate an entire 20lb box of dog biscuits that were being stored and tunneled down the wall back up and under the foundation (our laundry room has only a crawl space under it which made this possible) and out two feet from the foundation came up. Mind you we have 5 indoor cats all good mousers. They'd never seen a rat. They hunted it but were intimidated by it's size. It was actually one of our cats that finally showed me the rat one day. Imagine my surprise.

We set out snap traps upstairs and in the basement which connects to the crawl space. We caught a mouse in a rat trap and the trap in the laundry room went off twice more. Nothing. It was then we found the hole out. At this point I was angry and felt sure this was the killer rat. We ended up catching 2 massive rats in the basement and I thought that was the end of it.

About that time it was Christmas. Around January we discovered holes being chewed through our coop. The walls and the foundation, poured concrete, extending 6+ inches up the foundation. Yes they ate through concrete. We had seen a few mice but then we decided it had to be the rats.

Ugh. We brought the fight to the coop. Snap traps being the only things that ever caught anything. We placed baited snap traps in the rat trails under milk crates so the chickens could access them. We picked the feeders up at night.

Yes I admit we used to free feed in the coop and didn't have a problem for more than a year or two. Lol it's late and I don't remember.

We stopped free feeding. Eggs started being stolen and broken. The rats inadvertently taught members of our flock to eat eggs. Despite us collecting eggs multiple times a day. We have since built roll out nesting boxes.

Then a couple months back we moved our juveniles (chicks 12 weeks give or take) out into our small coop. We had cockerals growing out in there for meat before that. We did have one attack on a cockeral that nearly was fatal. He was brought in the house and recovered. Since he's a small oegb bantam he wasn't really on the menu anyways just surplus. The whole was pretty decent sized and I never found out what it was. I believe something dug under and grabbed him by the head while he was asleep but couldn't fit through the hole. We found him perched on a tarp lining the coop gushing blood and nearly unconscious. The wall sprayed with blood. (I now wonder if that could have been a rat.)

The cockeral recovered completely and now runs with our main flock. You can not even tell he was injured.

That night after tending to the injured bird we lined the entire outside of that coop with cinder blocks and tin so nothing could dig under the coop. Or so we thought.

We had no more events until the babies were moved out there. At first it was calm and peaceful. Days passed.

The following is a very graphic telling of the events that followed and some people may find this hard to read. If you do not wish to read it please skip ahead until you see a number of skipped lines. Thank you.


We went out one night at bed check and found a quail missing from our quail run and another missing from our second quail run. We never found the body of the one in the second quail run. However the body in the first run is what alerted us to the problem. The rats had developed a taste for meat despite having access to feed. The body of the quail had been reduced to legs and feet from the hock down some pelvis skin feathers a few spine fragments some ribs and the beak and front portion of it's skull. All the rest had been completely consumed overnight. There was only minimal blood found, a few drops, perhaps they lapped the rest off the shavings. This run is 3.5 feet off the floor has a wood bottom and is chicken wire to the ceiling the holes in the door were larger and we immediately made new doors for each of the quail runs.

We were needless to say horrified by what had happened but didn't know how the rats had climbed the run.

One morning we went out and found a chick dead in the little coop. Later that same day we found another couple chicks injured. We blamed a group of older chicks thinking it was cannibalism and moved them to our main coop(which is a two room old milk house perfect for raising multiple ages of birds). Although we had never had an episode of cannibalism to that point, even with injured or sick birds. One of the chicks was quite badly injured a chunk of flesh missing above it's tail including it's oil gland. The others were minor injuries and we blue koted anyway who wasn't fully feathered still thinking it was cannibalism.

More chicks died. Worse still we found some alive. Their vents eaten and their insides eaten out of them. These poor walking dead babies. We immediately put down any chick found injured in such a way and there were many. We continued to set traps in both coops. We tried making sure there was feed outside the little coop. It didn't help.

Some days we had as many as three chicks attacked. The time of day didn't matter. What's more the injured chicks were even attacked by their siblings on more than one occasion attracted by the blood and raw flesh. Our first cannibalism experience involved the intestines of a living chick being drug out of it after a rat had attacked and eaten into it and strung all over the place. Never would I wish that on anything. My heart went out to these poor hurting babies and I cried over their wounds and our failure to protect them. Thankfully the above tale of cannibalism was the worst one we witnessed.

We began to dread chores knowing what could well be awaiting us. In spite of me going out there several times between chores each day the losses continued. Usually one every day or two. We were continually filling holes inside the coop under the walls but it didn't matter.
We were catching as many as three rats of varying sizes a day in the big coop in snap traps. We discovered they had tunneled into the insulated walls and were living inside. They became more and more bold until they would come out with us standing there, and one night during chores a massive one ran out of a hole they had eaten in the center wall across my foot around the coop and out the hole in the foundation which actually went up into another wall as well as out. The birds predator called but in spite of nearly 40 chickens in the coop and several big roosters no one went after the rat.

I continued to wrack my brain and do research. I couldn't find a single mention anywhere online of rats attacking in this way. I began to think we had a weasel. But then we finally saw it. A rat. A huge rat! In the little coop.

We ended up on a whim picking up the tin and cinder blocks outside the coop to try and see if we could find out how they were digging the holes again so fast. The truth was shocking. Under the cinder blocks and tin we found a network of tunnels and burrows just under the time level. Inside we saw two of the largest rats I could imagine. One got away. The other we stomped on not having any other weapon. This rat was so large it was literally lifting my DH2B'S booted foot despite him putting lots of pressure on it. It didn't die from being stomped so we tried to suffocate it. It finally took both of our weight and pressure to kill it. I know it's not humane but it was out of necessity. It was snapping at us before we stepped on it and we had both of our dogs out with us. We then filled in all the shallow burrows and holes and left everything exposed to deter the rat from coming back.

I would also like to point out that while we were trapping and killing the rats we were burning their bodies after a few were collected to make burning worth while. DH2B researched and built a rocket stove(I think he called it) using cinder blocks to allow us to burn the bodies of the rats as well and the dead chicks. We do this to keep predators away as well as flies and because our first year of keeping poultry I insisted on burying every animal we lost which we couldn't keep up doing or we would run out of space. Anyway now only a select few get burried. So we would out the rats aside and over and over again the bodies went missing from under a milk crate covering the trap and burrow entrance. The rats were cannibalising their dead. As gross and awful as that is better that than our chicks.

We were still struggling and still losing chicks although less frequently. We were also still seeing more and more rats and catching them less frequently. We also still saw the big one. They were coming out in broad daylight in front of us, except the big one it was too smart for that. Too cunning.

One day we went out to do evening chores and found a rat on the back side of the coop maybe three feet from where a broody oegb named Dovey was setting on a nest. We grabbed shovels afraid for our tiny vulnerable girl. She had unfortunately decided to nest behind a stock tank containing some quail which made checking her nearly impossible. We began to get ready to swing and kill the rat which was in an awkward place to hit it when Dovey came running out from around the corner off her nest and fluffed up in all her angry broody glory she attacked and chased off the rat! I picked up my brave little girl to scold her for being reckless and saw dried blood on her chest. The rats had eaten her developing eggs. Some at least. It made me fear for her more as she was right by one of their holes.

The next night when we went to lock the birds up for bed we discovered one of our EE Belle in the main coop under the nest boxes and acting odd. She had been treated for an impacted crop earlier this year so I didn't think too much as I picked her up. Then I saw and sobs filled my throat. Belle had been attacked and between her hips lay nothing more than a gaping hole. This hole extended almost down to her keel. My sweet little Belle was a gentle reserved girl who enjoyed people and company but didn't care much for being held. She was one of the birds we call our lifers here. Our birds that cross the line to pet and have a home here for as long as they're able to live. Belle and her sister Pebbles are among these few.

Most of our original flock was wiped out by predators last year. Belle and Pebbles were two of the few originals left. They also always roosted on the second to top roost on the roost ladder approximately 4 feet off the ground. In the middle of the roost not to either end. I can come up with no other thought than that she was attacked on the roost as they usually roost early. The roosts are 2x4s and I didn't really think wide enough.








Either way it didn't matter. This was the end if my patience. We weren't making headway we were losing ground. I am against poison unless extreme circumstances and care is taken.

We put out poison that night and continued putting it out. Our plan was to pick it up in the morning, but for nearly a week no matter how much we put out there was never any left. They ate more than 20 cubes in that time. We placed it outside the large coop and outside the little coop under milk crates. We made sure nothing else could reach it. When poison started being left over we picked it up each morning and put it out each night. We haven't had any out for several days and plan to set more out soon.

About 3-6 days after first putting poison out we stopped seeing rats running around. We only saw them twice after the initial wave stopped. And only one or two each time.

We found the bodies of four large rats on various days and continue to sweep for more daily. At this point I believe they died in their burrows and were either consumed by their fellows or are just dead in the burrows some of which were under ground. By as much as three feet. We know this because we found an entrance in an old fence post hole two-three feet down through concrete in our barn lot. Literally under the concrete.

After poisoning started we lost 1-2 more chicks but nothing so far for nearly a week now.

Below is a picture of one of the rats we poisoned. The water bottle is for scale and is 10 inches long.

View attachment 1105743

Below that I will also share a photo of Belle the adult ee hen that was killed.

View attachment 1105745

I would also like to say that I believe sharing this story is important because as I said I couldn't find anything about this anywhere and finally found a story on you tube about (i think it was albatross chicks) being eaten alive in the same way but by giant mice on an island and that its decimating the population. I was grateful to find the video when I began to again question myself.

I hope no one else ever has this experience but if they do I hope they find this post and find it helpful.

Wow! Your story makes what I'm dealing with sound like preschool.

Thank you so much for sharing. So sorry for your losses and what you had to see.

I already knew I was at war... but I didn't know how heinous the enemy was. Thank you for yet another wake up call in addition to the OP sharing.

I go through days where I catch a rat a day, usually mid day, in my snap traps. And then several days with no catch. Your experience tells me that this will be an ongoing effort that I cannot afford to let my guard down. Even more than that, I might need to double down my efforts.

The last 2 rats I caught were snapped in half at their abdomen but still alive and chewing on the trap. Both were drowned afterwards. So far I have tossed the bodies out to the front of my property for the wildlife. Thinking it was hawks, crows, or vultures originally.. now I see I might be feeding the rats!

Your EE was pretty girl!

I will keep up my fight!

Thank you for your reply.

Yes it has been beyond horrible. The flock was constantly spooked.

I also want to say sorry about all the typos it was late and my phone hates me lol. Often it changes what I actually type to what it thinks I should say.

Never never never underestimate rats. They also carried in lice/mites from wild birds which we are now treating for. We had some bird nests we were watching on/in the walls of the coop this spring and many of their chicks went missing due to the rats.

I would also like to mention that when Dovey attacked the rat it was larger than her.

Absolutely keep up the fight! Double triple and quadruple your efforts. Don't give up also keep changing baits in the snap traps that helps. Change their position too. We tried glue traps as well but had no luck.

The huge rat that was living out by the little coop was smart enough to actually nudge the snap traps out of the way before entering. Keep an eye out for that. Unfortunately the enemy is smart and learns quickly. Most of the rats we caught in the traps were smaller probably young rats.

We found the rats likes pb but enjoyed egg yolk and chick feed(higher protein) as well. We order our special layer feed mixed from a local feed mill and the rats also loved that as it too is a higher protein.

I now know we can never get complacent and the war I'm sure will never be over. Sadly. As this place isn't our own we can not pour a foundation for the little coop much as we would like to. We will never in the future not have a coop without a foundation and we plan to lay hardware cloth within the foundation.

Our large coop is going to be stripped and rebuilt as time and money allow. We will be placing hardware cloth up several feet under the siding and probably under the ply wood inside as well. We also now need to re-insulate the coop as the rats pulled out much of the old insulation.

There is really no end to the damage they are capable of.

We lost 12+ juveniles, 2-3 quail(another was eaten overnight when it escaped the quail run unnoticed that I forgot to mention) and the adult hen Belle.

The juveniles we lost partially included a group of Buckeyes that were shipped from a heritage breeder for DH2B's birthday back in March. We lost 45$ worth of that group as well as many of our project breed chicks. And a few miscellaneous chicks.

Another chick was also injured in the panic caused by the rats and will not be able to be used for breeding. He doesn't appear to be hurting or anything so will be grown out and processed for meat.

More later. Fight the good fight everyone. Do what you can and be responsible if you must use poison. It saved our entire years juveniles.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I'm not using poison for real though. But even with me being anti poison it is still tempting. I can see how that would be the easy answer for some.

Its the only answer imo if you have a real issue with them.
I tried all the traps, homemade poison stuff and everything i could find to rid our rats without poison. NOTHING besides poison is going to work at any level to control them once you have enough to consider them a problem. They just breed faster then you can rid them.
I wish I would of started with poison. I'm on week number two now and love the smell of rotting rat carcasses in the morning.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Well, sure enough I caught another 1 today. Ants got to it before me.

Poison is no longer legal in CA. Though I am 20 minutes from the Oregon border, I do try to abide by the law. I will feel true remorse if I have to switch to poison. I know too much about the butterfly effect. Yes I consider it a problem BECAUSE I have chickens. But I live in a wildlife area... @The Moonshiner I'm not saying your wrong. But I will constantly wonder "what if" if I don't try. What would YOU consider a problem?

Also note... they are doing damage to our houses! Last year I could hear one chewing on the wood underneath during a storm. And I have a neighbor who spent $700 to have his car rewired due to rats. They are known car vandals in the area.

It's true right now I am catching mostly Juveniles, and I have only caught 2 full grown. So I will keep switching up both my bait and my locations. I'm not completely sure that gophers aren't joining the party... but they are on the hit list as well.

Oh and one other thing... yes, I now have to treat for at least lice, but the treatment works on other things as well.. though not ALL things that rats carry.

I better shut up! The more I say, poison keeps sounding EASIER.

 

[chickendreams24]

Lol while I do understand if it's not used responsibly it can be a danger to wildlife if you are careful I think the risk can be minimal.

Yes they were also in our car back when they were in the house. They were pulling the insulation out from the hood of the car and we actually killed one when it was in the engine when it started.

Funny you mentioned the gophers we have been over run this year and they have in fact completely wiped out our broccoli and cauliflower as well as most of our cabbage. We also saw them using the rat tunnels even into the coop. They were never seen in the coop though. The tunnels in the ground actually yielded many rats and two gophers. I was surprised to see them living together. Maybe it was just a fluke but I doubt it.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Well, sure enough I caught another 1 today. Ants got to it before me.

Poison is no longer legal in CA. Though I am 20 minutes from the Oregon border, I do try to abide by the law. I will feel true remorse if I have to switch to poison. I know too much about the butterfly effect. Yes I consider it a problem BECAUSE I have chickens. But I live in a wildlife area... @The Moonshiner I'm not saying your wrong. But I will constantly wonder "what if" if I don't try. What would YOU consider a problem?

Also note... they are doing damage to our houses! Last year I could hear one chewing on the wood underneath during a storm. And I have a neighbor who spent $700 to have his car rewired due to rats. They are known car vandals in the area.

It's true right now I am catching mostly Juveniles, and I have only caught 2 full grown. So I will keep switching up both my bait and my locations. I'm not completely sure that gophers aren't joining the party... but they are on the hit list as well.

Oh and one other thing... yes, I now have to treat for at least lice, but the treatment works on other things as well.. though not ALL things that rats carry.

I better shut up! The more I say, poison keeps sounding EASIER.

Before I would of said once you start seeing damage they're doing. Like chewing up your house or vehicle wiring for sure.
Are first issue was them eating wiring in the barn and killing chicks.
Now I guess I would say its a problem if you see any signs of them. Even just seeing droppings or even a rat or two.
Once you've seen one its likely there's many many more. Rats can breed at 5 or 6 weeks old. It takes 3 weeks to have babies and they average 7 or 8 babies per litter.
That's a lot of rats adding up in a hurry. It doesn't take long until you won't be able to out pace their breeding.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Before I would of said once you start seeing damage they're doing. Like chewing up your house or vehicle wiring for sure.
Are first issue was them eating wiring in the barn and killing chicks.
Now I guess I would say its a problem if you see any signs of them. Even just seeing droppings or even a rat or two.
Once you've seen one its likely there's many many more. Rats can breed at 5 or 6 weeks old. It takes 3 weeks to have babies and they average 7 or 8 babies per litter.
That's a lot of rats adding up in a hurry. It doesn't take long until you won't be able to out pace their breeding.

Yes, for me seeing ONE is enough to indicate a problem. Like you say, there are more in hiding.

Thanks for the info, regarding what I am up against. You are not the only person who insist poison is the ONLY way to really resolve the problem. And sadly, I think you might be right.