How do you keep Rats out of the Run?

[Wolfman]

My chicken run / hooch is about 4' x 12' with 2x2 wire for the walls. The actual hooch is made from plywood and is off the ground so I don't think I have a problem in their, but every once in a while I do have broken eggs.

The floor is dirt, and on the outside I have the 2x2 wire going out about a foot. They seem to dig under the wire as apposed to going through the wire. I keep finding tunnels and them I will fill them with rocks or something to block them up. I would be very hard to cove the entire floor with wire. It's a big coop with a roof and I would guess it weighs a few hundred pounds.

I know that over all getting rid of the rats would be best, But I live on a "Green Built" that is brush and lots of water so I don't think that is possible over all. I also don't want to use poison because the chickens may eat it.

I am at a loss oh how to deal with these buggers so any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. No other pest problems, in fact most of the time the chickens come and go in the yard as they want. Although I am building a fenced enclosure that is 10' x 60' to keep them looked up in. Getting tired of the poo all over the place.

Wolfman

 

[seminolewind]

2 x 2 foot wire is not going to keep rats out. You'll need hardware cloth. Then you need to go over everything and close up all the small openings and holes. You need a rat trap, and maybe extend your apron to 2-3 feet.

 

[kateseidel]

I don't think you can keep them out. I recently had a bad mouse problem inside my coop, which I have resolved mostly by moving the food out into the run. But while researching, I had decided I would go with this trap (the Rat Zapper) http://www.amazon.com/Agri-Zap-RZCO...5ZTC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1329958536&sr=8-2

 

[seminolewind]

Yup, they sure disappear fast when there's no food.

 

[Rockyriver]

Place rat traps outside the run with peanut butter on them for bait.
Take a cardboard box or wooden box if outside an place over the trap with a small opening cut in it like a miniture dog house door.
This protects the other animals you dont want in the trap and the rat goes in and gets killed.
You will have to really keep the traps out awhile to get rid of most of your rats, because when you take the traps up and think they are all gone the rats come back and start to repopulate.

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

Put ferret poop around the run

 

[27strong]

this may be out of place but u kill them all. Me and my father built a coop. Before we put the fence up for out coop I dug 2 feet into the ground, then filled the dig with cement so it will hold the fence and keep rodents out. I got 1 rat running around and I had hundreds of mice the next day. They like to go there to escape rain and predators. They were so hungry...they dug tunnels to my coop like north Korea did and then they chewed through the fence. Mice did this... The I got ******, because suddenly every time I visited my hens...all 23 of them were running around with baby mice...or pieces of rat...then on January over a month I killed them all with mouse traps. I got 2 kills a day over a period of 7 weeks. I took the dead mice and put them on tops of fence poles. So that hawks and vultures could eat them. and they did. Then they all waited for more. Sitting there patiently. See that? I feed my chickens and wild scavenger birds. Anyway I exterminated them all. The only way is to set up mouse traps and kill them all. I mean let me recap that my coop has cement lining 2 feet down into the ground that is pretty much hard clay and rock...and they still got in. They ate through 3 sets of fences... so kill them all don't prevent start killing.

 

[Wolfman]

I Like the Killing idea Nothing against anyone that doesn't want to but they have been driving me crazy sense we move in 5+ years ago. I have done round with poison but I did not want to do this with chickens around. I tried some traps, got fur but no rats. These are big buggers 6" + long in the body, not counting the tail. A small Hawk got one last summer and it was close to 10" long, the poor Hawk could only fly about a foot off the ground! I have not seem many mice, I think the rats eat them, maybe not but, but not much in the way of mice anyway.

So with the trap and peanut butter ( I have heard that before) what kind of traps work and any recommendations on where to get them?

I use the wood and metal ones from HD before and like I said, fur but no rats. They were about 6" long traps.

 

[Sharisr32]

get a good cat and I know that is low tech but It still the most dependable -a good cat will leave your birds alone but bring you mice/rats- I had an issue before I moved into the home I have now but my cat takes care of anything dumb enough to come in and you need a creeper If you see one rodent there are ten hiding

 

[7L Farm]

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