How to discourage rodents without poison

[LaurasNew]

Hi,
On the advice of others here and my own concern, I got a shed to house my rooster and his girls. I'm happy they are safe from burrowing predators during the night as the colder days come in Now, however, I am worried about what might try to live under the new shed...especially since we back onto a forest. The panel at the bottom can easily be removed to fill it with something, just what, I'm not sure and it can't be too expensive as my husband is losing the plot already I'm mostly worried about rats to be honest. The cats take care of the rest and I'd really prefer not to use poison as we have dogs too. Will be grateful for any advice, thanks

 

[nuthatched]

Hardware cloth.
Rat x

 

[swamphiker]

Hardware cloth x2

 

[PatriciafromCO]

Feed management. I never had mice issues until I started putting chicken feed down in the barn. Having different size flock I just put the food down in rubber tubs. Boy was that quick to bring in the mice. Besides putting the food up off the ground, and feeding outside the barn in good weather I also rely on predators, barn cats, rat snakes having access to the barn.

 

[LaurasNew]

Feed management. I never had mice issues until I started putting chicken feed down in the barn. Having different size flock I just put the food down in rubber tubs. Boy was that quick to bring in the mice. Besides putting the food up off the ground, and feeding outside the barn in good weather I also rely on predators, barn cats, rat snakes having access to the barn.

Rat snakes! I'll be looking them up! No snakes in Ireland thankfully! Good tips RE food, I do secure it away at night Hardwire is expensive here, but will do what we can! Thank you

 

[LaurasNew]

Rat snakes! I'll be looking them up! No snakes in Ireland thankfully! Good tips RE food, I do secure it away at night Hardwire is expensive here, but will do what we can!

 

[Al Gerhart]

One simple rule to deal with rodents, once you stop feeding them, they have to leave. Look up Howard E's posts on rodent control but the basics are three methods, sanitation, exclusion, or elimination.

Sanitation, clean up all pathways that shelter rodents to and from their food source to their burrows. Let natural predators take some of them out. Bulk feed in metal drums with tight lids. Feed in a good treadle feeder and pay the most attention to the negative reviews, most are complete crap. Spring pre loaded inward swinging door AND a narrow and distant treadle step, nothing else will be rat proof. No plastic parts. Your rodent problems will be done as long as you have mostly full sized birds, the occasional small bird will get by, no chicks, no poults, four to eight pound birds only. Budget $200 for everything, roughly 60% for the treadle feeder.

Exclusion, hardware cloth, fort knox style coop. Very expensive, no free range is possible.

Elimination, poison and traps. Never works long term, rodents are smart. A never ending task and expense. Does work wonders if you do the sanitation step first, but wait three days and you don't need to do the elimination. They will starve or leave.

 

[Down Under]

I agree with the stop feeding them, these feeders were a great investment for me:

Along with locking the spare bags of feed away in a lockable wheelie bin with a waterproof cover... until someone went and planted pumpkins near the coop (rats and mice love pumpkin) so some pet proof traps and some mesh around each pumpkin on the vine took care of those dirty vermin

 

[Al Gerhart]

No way any chinese made plastic feeder is going to be rat proof. Might work for a while. Might be half the cost of a decent feeder. But you haven't solved the problem.

 

[Down Under]

Al what does the green triangle with the gold kangaroo sticker on it mean mate ?