How to Keep Rats Out of the Chicken Coop
Are you looking for ways to keep rats out of the chicken coop? If so, welcome.
It doesn’t matter if you’re raising a small suburban flock of chickens or you have a large flock out on a country homestead. If you have chickens, you’ll eventually wind up with rats or mice.
I’m also on a mission to keep rats out of the chicken coop. Last week, a predator consumed an entire nest of eggs that were just two weeks away from hatching. I was incensed. We’re still not sure of the culprit, but I suspect rats. The varmints are living up in our barn loft, feasting on spilled chicken feed at night. I think the smell of those fertilized eggs finally became too much for them.
I don’t care how much my boys love “Ratatouille.” Now that the rats have shattered my hopes of home-hatched baby chicks and caused our broody hen to stop sitting, the war is on.
5 Things You Never Wanted to Know About Rats
I’m guessing that there’s a lot of things you’d much rather read about than rats. Yeah, me too. I love animals, and I can even appreciate snakes (although I do use natural ways to keep snakes out of the yard). However, rats are a different story. They’re gross, they’re creepy, they destroy things, they skulk, and I hate them. Did I mention they’re gross?
I know you don’t need more reasons to keep rats out of the chicken coop, and your home, but here are a few.
1. Rats Carry Disease
Rats can carry a number of life-threatening diseases. They carry viruses and bacteria in their system, and they also carry fleas, mites, and ticks that can spread additional disease to humans and livestock.
According to the CDC, rats can carry:
- Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome
- Hemorrhagic Fever
- Lassa Fever
- Plague
- Rat-Bite Fever
- Salmonellosis
- And more
The mites they carry can quickly cause harm to your flock of chickens. The ticks they carry can spread disease and illness like Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever or Alpha-gal Syndrome (which I have.)
2. Rats Reproduce Quickly
According to Britannica, rats begin breeding as early as five weeks of age, and continue until they are up to two years old. A rat’s gestation lasts three weeks, and their litter size is 6 to 20 babies.
If you do the math, you can see that one pair of rats can very quickly produce a huge infestation in a barn or home. As in, up to 2,000 offspring per year. That’s not a typo.
3. Rats Can Enter Your Home Through the Toilet
It pains me to write this, but I have to. Rats can hold their breath for several minutes, and tread water for up to three days without drowning. Which is why they can enter a home or building through the sewer system.
I’m trying really hard not to visualize this.
4. Rats Can Chew Through Almost Anything
If you want to keep rats out of the chicken coop or your home, you’re really going to have to work at it.
Rats can chew through anything that is not harder than their teeth. In 2013, Dr. Robert Corrigan, a rodent expert, gave a presentation in Washington, D.C. to help residents learn how to reduce local rat populations. According to Corrigan, a rat’s teeth measures 5.5 on the Mohs Hardness Scale. For comparison, talc is a 1 on the Mohs scale, while a diamond is 10. This means that rat teeth are harder than iron, copper, and platinum.
As a result, these rodents can chew through things that no living being should be able to chew through, such as:
- Concrete cinder blocks
- Chicken wire
- Lead pipes
- Wood
- Plastic
- Aluminum
- Drywall
5. Some Rats Might Be Immune to Rat Poison
Here’s more good news. Some mice and rats might be adapting genetically to rat poison.
According to a 2011 article by the BBC, some European mice have already developed an immunity to most poisons. The British Pest Control Association, citing a report commissioned by the Campaign for Responsible Rodentcide Use, said that large numbers of rodentcide-resistant mice are now spreading through south-central England.
Hopefully, these populations won’t gain a foothold in the United States. But rats are experts at survival, so it’s likely only a matter of time before these genetically-evolved rats make their way over here and start breeding (if they’re not doing so already).
How to Keep Rats Out of the Chicken Coop
Think about how great coops are for rats. They’re warm, sheltered, filled with hay or other great bedding, and they come with a steady supply of food and water. Heck, I wouldn’t want to leave either. So, to keep rats out of the chicken coop you’ve got to make it as uncomfortable for them as possible.
1. Secure Feed and Water
First, make sure that your feed and scratch is completely secure. Keep it stored in steel garbage cans with a tight fitting lid.
Next, don’t feed your chickens inside the coop. Chickens are messy eaters, and they spill almost as much food as they eat. Put feeders out in your yard or run during the day, and put them up at night. Clean up all spilled feed before nightfall.
If you feed your chickens crumble feed, consider switching to pellet feed. Pellets are harder for them to spill, and less food is wasted. You might also want to invest in rat-proof feeders.
Rats also need water, so dump out all water founts every evening and refill in the morning. You can also switch to a nipple-style waterer to skip this evening chore.
2. Keep Compost Piles Far Away From the Coop
Rats love to live in compost piles. It’s full of soft bedding, and we bring them food everyday. It’s like the Ritz for rats. So, you need to keep the compost pile far, far away from the coop.
This is a huge mistake on my part. Our compost pile is directly behind our barn and coop. I put it there for convenience, so I wouldn’t have to walk so far when I was cleaning out the coop or dumping kitchen scraps. However, I’m giving the rats an all-you-can-eat buffet every night.
If you’ve made the same mistake and put your compost pile near your home or coop, move it as far away as possible. This week I’ll be moving our entire compost pile much farther out into the pasture.
Another option is to keep food out of your compost pile. You can compost food separately in a lidded steel garbage can with holes drilled in the sides and bottom.
3. Clean Up
Do you have a wood pile near your coop? A pile of junk you’ve been meaning to clean up but haven’t gotten to yet? A pile of feed bags you haven’t disposed of?
If you have a pile of something, chances are there are rats living in it. Clean up your piles of clutter, including yard work or farm equipment in your barn, so the rats have nowhere to hide. If you have a woodpile or brush pile, relocate it or burn it.
You also need to make sure grass around the coop is kept short. Don’t give rats any place to hide if you can help it.
4. Secure the Coop
Securing your chicken coop against rats is not exactly an easy project. In some coops (like mine), it might be next to impossible.
Rats can squeeze through a hole the size of a quarter. And, they can easily chew through chicken wire and wood. They’re also adept diggers. So where does that leave us?
Well, we’re left with hardware cloth. Hardware cloth is made with galvanized steel and you can get it with a .5 inch weave. It’s expensive, but effective, at keeping out predators.
Start with your coop floor. If your coop floor is dirt or wood, you need to cover it completely with hardware cloth, stapling it down every couple of feet. Where the floor meets the wall, take the hardware cloth up the wall at least a foot and staple it securely. Make sure that there are no gaps in the corners where a rat could wiggle through.
If your coop or run has a dirt floor, bury the hardware cloth at least 12 inches in the ground.
If rats have chewed holes in your coop, fill them with steel wool and then cover them with hardware cloth. If they have dug holes in the dirt outside the coop to get in, fill these in with gravel.
5. Get a Barn Cat
A good barn cat can make a huge dent in your rat infestation.
Ask around at your local co-op to see if they know of anyone with extra kittens they need to re-home. You can also find cats at your local humane society, or at Petfinder. You’ll have the best success with kittens versus an older cat. Set up a home base for them in your barn, and feed them daily. Be careful not to overfeed them, however. Cats that are fed daily will still chase mice, but cats that have unlimited access to food probably won’t.
6. Keep Chicks Inside
Rats will eat eggs and baby chicks. Make sure you pick up eggs throughout the day, and never leave eggs in the coop overnight.
If you’re raising baby chicks, keep them in a brooder box in your house at night for safety.
7. Use Rat Poison (With Extreme Caution)
We’ve used traps in the barn loft to get rid of the rats, with no success. Now, we need to think about using rat poison.
I don’t like the idea of rat poison for several reasons. First, rat poison is highly toxic. Even the “non-toxic” rat poisons on the market still contain harsh chemicals that can cause dangerous side effects if handled improperly. Rat poison is a risk to everyone including children, pets, and livestock, all whom might consume it accidentally.
Another downside is that when rats consume poison (especially fast acting poisons,) that poison stays in their system after they’re dead. Any animal, be it dog, chicken, or other wildlife, that eats the carcass will also consume that poison and potentially be harmed.
If you want to try poison, it’s important to understand that there are two primary types: slow acting and fast acting. Each has their benefits and downsides.
Slow Acting Vs. Fast Acting Rat Poison
Fast acting poison is best used when you have a large infestation. It kills rats quickly, over a day or two. However, rats will quickly avoid the poison once they see other rats dying from the food. And, rats that die from fast acting poison have high amounts of toxins in their system when they die. Any animal that eats the carcass will also likely get sick, and possibly die.
Slow-acting poisons kill rats slowly, over several days. This is beneficial because it means the colony won’t correlate what it’s eating with feeling sick and dying.
You can find an informative rundown of the best rat poisons, both slow acting and fast acting, at Bob Vila.
Last Word
This week, I’m starting the war to keep rats out of the chicken coop. I have to move our compost pile, invest in new feeders, and think about moving the woodpile that’s in the barn (for a soon-to-be-built treehouse.) I’m also going to clean up every crumble of spilled feed, and make sure that I remove feed and water when I shut the chickens up at night.
I’d love to hear back from you. Are you battling rodents in your coop? What’s working for you so far?
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