Rats & Mice games begin, Solutions?

[IdyllwildAcres]

'I pray the eruptions are a quicker demise

Oh well then in that case..

 

[TXchickmum]

Having a secure coop and run has been the best deterrent, here. Our coop/run setup is constructed from hardwood with no gaps or spaces. All ventilation and run are covered in hardware cloth and that is trimmed out, bolting down the edge. The bottom is completely covered as well as skirted with hardware cloth. We periodically check all eaves and corners to make certain there aren't attempts at gnawing. The feed and water are secured at night. In the event we see evidence of a rat around the law, old school snap traps are used. I don't care for poison (because of the potential of a poisoned rat being consumed by another animal, including my dog, and I don't prefer needless suffering of any critter). I don't care for sticky glue traps that just capture (without a quick death). -just my opinions. Do what works best in your situation to protect your flock and family from disease that can be spread by rodents. That's the bottom line.

 

[MotherofOrpies]

Remove all water, if possible, if rats don’t have any water, they move on

 

[rembrandt]

Remove all water, if possible, if rats don’t have any water, they move on

Thank you so much for the advice. I will remove it during the night. There is a big stream (and woods) at the end of my yard, and I think that's where they originally migrate from. I also have a lot of gardens and some compost piles on my property, which I'm learning attracts also.

Remove all water, if possible, if rats don’t have any water, they move on

 

[rembrandt]

having a burst intestine is extremely painful, and the peritonitis is also terrible. Nothing 'humane' about it.
Mary

I absolutely don't want to cause suffering, or even harm any living creature. Please don't judge until you've experienced one actually RUNNING ACROSS YOUR FOOT, (like I just did 2 days ago) and an infestation! Horrifying! As well as my garage wreaking of excrement, so bad I can hardly stand to go inside (where the coop is located) anymore. And tho I've sprinkled a lot of peppermint oil to deter and freshen, I'm sure I'm still INHALING hideous and DANGEROUS amounts of who knows that causes serious illness! As well as fearing they enter my house! At this point, it's them or me!

I at least need to get the infestation manageable with aggressive measures, as they reproduce faster than I can catch them, (and they've become wise to the traps.) I may try to order an Uhlik, as the Ratinator and others no longer work. I def don't use sticky traps.

 

[TXchickmum]

I also have a lot of gardens and some compost piles on my property, which I'm learning attracts also.

The compost will for sure. We invested in a 186 gallon closed composter. There are air holes throughout the container construction, but nothing that is large enough to allow rodents in. (We only have a large yard, not acreage, so this works.) You definitely want to consider how to manage your compost areas.

 

[rembrandt]

Thank you so much on sharing your wisdom.
Any actual human food waste I put in a contained compost also, so not to attract raccoons and fox, etc (living in nearby woods) a danger to chickens - tho my garage, coop and out enclosure are very secure from them with hardware wire everywhere, including aprons.

But I have several 'yard waste only' composts consisting of greens and browns (leaves, sticks, grass, etc, and some chicken droppings, but last year once in a while last year I tossed some old chicken food into the open compost pile.
I'll def not do that anymore!

I recently read the rats are attracted to gardens also, but I do have hardware wire lining the bottom of my beds, (I only have raised beds.)

 

[Lady Clucks-a-Lot]

We keep all of our chicken food inside the house and our chicken coop is 100% rat proof. Most rats get in from the bottom, so this time when we moved our chicken coop we didn't directly place it on the ground. Instead built up a level of hieght with 3 wood crate (3 fits perfectly for our coop) roughly 5 cm high and 2 layers of wires on top & organic class on the sides (leaving out the front) for even better preventions (it also blocks out most of the wind).
The root of your problem would be the chicken food bag outside and the food inside the chicken coop. We used to keep our chicken food outside, it really didn't work out; the rats would always get in, and they dug a bunch of wholes in our chicken coop. The simplest solution is to just take the food inside (both the bag and the food in the coop) at night and put them out in the morning. But you could also make your coop rat-free. Now there's no more rats at all.

 

[rembrandt]

Thanks so much for your helpful advice. I greatly appreciate it.

The actual coop itself is rat proof, (even no mice) with a solid concrete floor & hardware wire, and is located in my older garage - not rat proof. I'll try to remedy that iwhen it's warmer, up, plus fill in a big crack in the concrete floor.

Surplus food is secured in metal trash cans. The rats have colonized in my garage, in the rafters & everywhere/thing else they can get into in there.

I'll remove food from the coop, (tho it's secure from rats (so far) at night to also discourage the rats from possibly chewing thru a couple of wooden areas.

I've wondered if the rats come out during the day and eat off of the food container I leave for my chickens. I've recently considered changing to the big tube feeders.

 

[Al Gerhart]

There is one sure way of dealing with rodents and it is quite easy; stop feeding them and they will leave. Because of natural predators they have to live within a few dozen yards of their main food source as travel is quite dangerous for rodents in natural environments.

So, you can hand feed what the flocks will clean up while you stand there and watch, or spend the money on a proper treadle feeder. What is a proper treadle feeder? Narrow and distant treadle to prevent rats piling up and operating the feeder or pushing with their feet on a close in treadle while pushing on the lid to get inside. Next is an inward swinging door for safety. Next is making sure the door is spring loaded to prevent the rodents from pushing the door or lid open, which is why the inward swinging door is so important. Next no plastic on the feeder that can and will be chewed through, sheet metal, no aluminum.

Bringing in the food at night or the water for that matter just teaches the vermin to eat their fill during the day. Some flocks will eat the smaller mice, rats usually are fearless around chickens.

Treadle feeders pay for themselves in feed savings if they are properly designed with a inward protruding lip of at least 1/2" and sides with a side flange on each side. 99% of hens won't rake feed out of a feeder that is fully enclosed unless you are mixing treats with feed or feeding a mixed grain and they are looking for the goodies. For that last 1% make sure the feeder has a feed lip extender available. Rarely needed but when it is needed it is needed.

Trapping and poisoning rarely work, rodents are very intelligent, and if they did there is no end to both as new populations are born or move into a now vacant territory.

Stop feeding the rats by not setting out a buffet for them. The natural food available will severely limit rodent populations of any area and the constant hustling about searching for food limits the rodents as well. If you have a severe infestation put the treadle feeder into operation first and then trap and poison as both are far more effective on a starving rat colony. Another point is to avoid any feeder that requires you to block it open for days or weeks during training as the rats are being trained as well.

Good luck with getting rid of the vermin. Do a forum search on rats and chickens and you will find Howard E.'s posts or my posts where I have linked to his posts on the issue. Best information out there on controlling rodents is Howard's work.