Hello, I need advice on eradicating some nasty rats from my chicken coop! So far I’ve tried 3 different concoctions I found online that would hopefully kill them (cornstarch recipes)-none were touched even once that I could see, also purchased the large mouse traps, set them for 3 days, every stupid one was tripped, caught ZERO & tonight I broke down & purchased Tom Cat poison, but I’m afraid to use it . We have dogs & my fear isn’t that they’ll get the poison, but get a dead rat that has eaten it! Anyone have experience with this? We have 3 outdoor cats, they usually kill everything, but because of where they are, they just aren’t catching them! I’m at the end of my rope with these nasty creatures & don’t know what to do??? The worst part of all is that I found one of my chickens dead tonight, I’m feeling really defeated & would appreciate any advice you all might have! TIA
That’s the same worry I have! The only thing I can suggest is only put the poison out once a week and then keep the dogs under close watch the next day.
Don't know if this will work for you, but if you have any large barrels, metal sided or food grade plastic, you can put a couple inches of corn based feed or sunflowers plus the poison, and they will go in there and not be able to get out. We had one in the barn. We weren't trying to catch it but it ended up in the one pig feed barrels that wasn't covered and I went out one morning to find it trapped. Had my husband come shoot it with his air rifle before work. It knew it was done too because it was screeching to high heaven. :-/
Google "rat water barrel trap" and see if that works for you. Many folks have really good success. But I think you would have to remove your chicken feeder for a few days and just feed the chickens twice a day instead to eliminate the free unlimited feed source for the rates.
Thanks everyone! I have closed up the coop & let the cats have free range of their run several times overnight, I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think the rats come out when they’re around!! We have a couple of those blue barrels, I’m going to try this out! I’m off work this afternoon, so here goes nothin! I’ll report back in a few days! This is war
In past, we've caught rats in small live traps with bait. We were really trying to catch raccoons at the time, but we've ended up with more rats in the traps than anything else.
Rats are REALLY intelligent animals. I'm sorry your chickens are being terrorized Complete and total good luck wishes going your way. I'd take the chickens out and stash them elsewhere for a few days, and shut the cats in the coop for a few days with plenty of cat food, chicken food, and water, for every one, for a few days. I'd also put the Tom Cat poison in sideways turned vases, so the rats could get to it but nothing else. They are smart animals, there is a reason they are used in laboratories. I personally don't like them at all.
I second the removing chicken food overnight. And also trying to find where they are getting in. Cuz if you can trap them in, THEN take away the free food source, they are forced to try the barrel. They may be smart but they are still animals...
I ‘renovated’ my coop this afternoon, made one of these barrels, removed their hiding spot & am hoping for the best!! I hope to get rid of them soon!!
Well, I’ve only caught one rat, this fight is still going! I starved them out of the chicken coop but now they’ve moved to the goat’s area
Argh. Such smarties..it'd be admirable if they weren't so disgusting. You said you tried the big mouse traps but did you try the enclosed rat traps that tomcat makes? We got them from TSC and we've some luck with it....sometimes because they learn so readily to avoid things it helps to just keep varying it up. I am no advocate of poison but I do know all the old farmers around here used it every fall back in the day and constantly recommend it. So..worst case scenario it probably would work
Maine Coons are excellent ratters, as a whole. BUT!!!! Be sure to feed them. You don't want them going feral and starting in on your chickens...
We have 11 cats and our chickens are in coup. Two of them like to hunt. We feed them all every day at 4:30.