Rats!

[Bicoastal]

@Simkie

Oh, too–why are your hens wasting so much? Are they kicking out feed looking for the best bits? Are your feeders hung high enough? Do they just not really like the feed?

I don’t think they are intentionally sifting through the feed. It is a crumb feed and every morsel is the same as the next. As they peck, crumbs go spraying after each strike of their beak into the feeder. When I muck out the coop after using a gravity feeder, there is feed on the floor under the feeder. I may go weeks without using the gravity feeder, then have to use it for a weekend away. Bang! The rodent buffet is back.

I have tried the no-waste bucket feeders and the waste was worse. They were kinda scooping out feed as they withdrew their heads. Other people swear by them .

I don’t expect I’ll ever eliminate every rodent. Every place I’ve known that had poultry, also had rodents. But I need to prevent it from getting to my neighbors’ apocalyptic level.

[Simkie]

@Bicoastal

I don’t think they are intentionally sifting through the feed. It is a crumb feed and every morsel is the same as the next. As they peck, crumbs go spraying after each strike of their beak into the feeder. When I muck out the coop after using a gravity feeder, there is feed on the floor under the feeder. I may go weeks without using the gravity feeder, then have to use it for a weekend away. Bang! The rodent buffet is back.

Do you hang your feeders? If your coop is well protected with hardware mesh, how are the rats gaining access?

I’m not sure what I’m doing so differently to not have any waste, but I hang the feeder, and use a crumble. I have several different groups of chickens and I don’t think my birds are special or anything! But some small changes with your feeder might help keep waste down?

[Christa_P]

Bumping this because I have been dealing with rats this fall/winter and a couple have been getting very destructive lately. I won’t use poison and right now, even if I wanted to, a bucket trap won’t work because it will just freeze.

Instead, I picked up two electronic zap traps yesterday. One is under the house, I haven’t checked it yet, but I set the second by my feed barrels and got a HUGE rat last night. Its body filled the trap with tail sticking out.

This is what I bought - it runs on 4-AA batteries so it can be placed anywhere out of the weather:

Victor Electronic Indoor Rat Trap M241B - The Home Depot

It has mixed reviews, and I’ll see what happens over the next few days, but so far I’m impressed.

[endlessclimb]

Use antifreeze in the bucket trap, or a saturated salt water solution.

Rats are clever, so check the traps as often as you can. If they see a dead brethren, they will learn to not enter the trap (or so I’ve been told).

[Simkie]

I feel like any trap type thing gets mixed reviews because of how danged smart rats are! They learn so quickly.

I’ve been struggling with a pair of rats that burrowed in between the coop & barn. Not under either, but between the two. Super weird & that’s definitely a first.

So I picked up one of these:

https://a.co/d/8XhHK75

And rigged it up so they had no choice to enter by placing it over the entrance to their tunnel. Baited with peanut butter in the trap and a sprinkling of oats down the hole and got them the second night.

Thankfully it looks to have just been the two. No evidence of any further activity. Setting up the trap was a bit of an effort, but very happy to have evicted them. It’s not a bad tool to have around.

It’s been such a terrible year for rodents.

[Christa_P]

I know I have more because I have seen smaller ones and the trap is right by my feed barrels for now, so it’s very easy to check. Live trapping wasn’t an option, they need to be dead, as I have nowhere to relocate and there is no way to truly rat-proof my barn. Feed is contained, but the horses drop grain, the rats dig through the manure, and there are too many holes to keep them out.

[Simkie]

Yeah, I’m not a fan of live traps either. I’d love to find a snap trap type thing that sits right at the rat hole–something they have to trigger when they exit–but couldn’t turn up anything like that.

I don’t let them go. I drown them in the trap. Again, not my favorite. But pretty quick, sinking to the bottom of an icy trough. (Not in use for horses.) Faster than a bucket trap, where they swim until exhaustion, and then drown.

I’ve always thought this trap looked interesting:

A24 Starter Trapping Kit

But a heady investment.

[Pico_Banana]

I bought two different snap traps, 4 total. Baited them without setting them first as suggested. The bait was definitely eaten - you could see the teeth marks on the traps. Rebaited and then set. And now - nothing. Very frustrating.

I may have to try the electronic ones.

[Tarlo_Farm]

I have been able to place poison where NO other critters than rats and mice can get at it, and that works.
Rats are definitely smart and will evade most traps. Glad some of you have had success. The antifreeze idea in a bucket is a good one, use RV type, but make SURE no other critters have access to it, since it smells and tastes sweet. And is fatal.

[Simkie]

@Tarlo_Farm

I have been able to place poison where NO other critters than rats and mice can get at it, and that works.

Rats will carry bait around, which is why it should always be secured in a bait box. If you’ve got bait loose, it doesn’t matter that no other animals can get to it. Rats will pick it up and move it.

[Bogey2]

I caught three in the traps the first week and not one in the past 3 weeks! They are smart. The barn cat rid them for a year and now they are back! I am hoping she gets back on them when the qweagther its better…she usually catches them tunneling in and out of barn.

[Pico_Banana]

I put out snap traps in all of the spots where there were holes. Baited but did not set them at first and they ate the bait. Rebaited and then set. Have not caught a single one.

[LazyA1]

Drowning things is incredibly cruel. It is not quick. They are in terror trying to swim, then slowly die.

As for poison, I can’t begin to tell you how often I see wildlife rescue pages with poisoned birds of prey.

Don’t kill your rat snakes. They are the best at this job.