How big of a problem is a rat?

cmom said:

Not necessarily true. Secondhand poisoning can happen but is rarely fatal. If a animal eats the poison directly then yes. I use bait stations and put the bait stations in pet carriers on shelves in our barn. Rats are good climbers and nothing but the rats can get to the poison baits. I have also noticed tunnels around the coops which I think the rats have made. I did not find dead rats laying around so I assume they went into their tunnels and died. I had a coop that was infested and when I renovated the coop, dozens of rats of all sizes poured out. During renovation I did find rats nests in the ceiling and walls.

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https://www.nativeanimalrescue.org/rat-poison-is-killing-birds-of-prey/

https://www.pethealthnetwork.com/dog-health/dog-toxins-poisons/dangers-rat-poison-dogs-and-cats

We had rats in the coop a few years ago, and they ate eggs and killed three nice bantams at night. Traps won't ever get them all!
Ours were tunneling in through breaks in the concrete foundation, which we covered in hardware cloth. They also chewed through particle board into the insulated walls, which had to be torn out. And bait stations finally got them all. Most will go into their tunnels to die, and sometimes bait is the only solution, in an imperfect world, sorry.
Mary

Folly's place said:

We had rats in the coop a few years ago, and they ate eggs and killed three nice bantams at night. Traps won't ever get them all!
Ours were tunneling in through breaks in the concrete foundation, which we covered in hardware cloth. They also chewed through particle board into the insulated walls, which had to be torn out. And bait stations finally got them all. Most will go into their tunnels to die, and sometimes bait is the only solution, in an imperfect world, sorry.
Mary

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I've found rat holes around the pens and shoved a poison bait cylinder down the hole as far as I could. Then covered the hole with a paver. A few days later you can smell the dead rats.

I did the same thing, shoved bait cubes into the tunnel, and covered with a big paver. Nobody came out, and when no more bait was eaten, closed it up permanently.
Mary

First thing is to get a treadle feeder so you aren't feeding the rats. Without a major source of food they will be forced to leave. If you don't have a lot of money, find some do it yourself plans for a wooden treadle feeder and make it yourself. If you have $100 extra buy one as it will be much better than a homemade feeder. Do your homework and don't fall for the fake reviews. The negative reviews are always the place to start as those are the ones where people actually had a rodent problem. Once you weed out the few crazy people complaining about things like packaging or the thirty pound raccoon getting into the feeder you are going to get a good idea of if the feeder stops rodents.

There is one review site for chicken feeders that can easily be found using Google.

I like your idea of putting bait cubes down their holes and covering with pavers. This is what I saw this morning when I checked my trail camera. I saw at least five out there. They can come up from various spaces since the chicken run is attached to the barn. I think they are completely "out of hand" at this point. I am now going to read all the suggestions out there. Hopefully, I can do something before baby chick time.
Helen

They can also kill chickens, while they are roosting. Happened here a few years ago.
Chickens need very safe housing, at least overnight. No openings larger than 1/2" diameter!
Rats never come alone, always family groups, growing exponentially!
Mary

I'm on it! I already ordered that Rat Killer - Just one Bite from Amazon. I can see that this is really a problem. I don't know if they can jump 6 ft up into the roosts but maybe they can climb up the walls and onto the roosts. I'm not going to wait to see! They are coming up from under the ground from the barn into the coop.
Helen

I caught four in a week in one of the small cage traps I use, I'm sure the first one was a female the second was a huge male.

Things got away from me the past year and I have some cleaning up around that needs done that adds to the problem. So does being surrounded by pasture.

We have woods beside our barns and chicken coop. We have a natural paradise for fox, racoons, skunks, lots of squirrels, an Eagle's nest down the road from us and lots of hawks both red tailed and coopers. I'm sure I could name a few more critters that are around here! I pretty much have to babysit them when they go out for a few hours during the nice days.

I just checked my pictures timeline and te rats were foraging around in the coop from the time the chickens went to bed until they got up - about 8 total hours.

Helen