Ditto on taking the food in every evening. It’s a PITA, but the only thing that controls the rats. They aren’t gone, but there are fewer of them. I also only feed in the run, never the coop, so the rats I do get aren’t in the coop.
The black bird in my avatar is an Ameraucana. Was supposed to lay me beautiful blue eggs, unfortunately he wouldn’t comply and had to be rehomed. He was gorgeous 🙂