Rats. Any tips for getting rid?

[Oodlives]

My mum has seen one tonight in the run. We assumed they were around as it's an allotment site full of hens (& other stuff) next to a stream but we had only seen mice until now.

The run has a couple of feet of mesh spread out from it all the way round which is covered in weed fabric. But of course rats can dig far!

Food is kept in the shed overnight and sacks are in a plastic box. It's hung during the day.

We haven't been shutting them in at night, should we start again?

What else can we do?

I have a similar issue! We have food in containers inside the chickens run, but the rats jump / climb up into the food container - during daytime - and help themselves. I've tried putting hot chilli powder in food which I heard rats don't like but the chickens can't detect, but that's not working. Going to investigate suitable traps / poison that the chickens won't be able to get to next....

We've not had any more signs/sightings. Spoken to the allotment rep who said that it's more a problem at the other end of the site.
Dh blocked the holes with some bricks and there's no new holes anyway.

I figured if we blocked the hole, they'd just dig through another way. Maybe not though! Might give that a go.....

We thought that and it was a temporary fix but it's been a few days

The rats will always follow food, especially if any is left/spilt which makes it almost impossible to totally irradiate. Try a decent rat poison but make sure the chickens can't eat it! So it must be covered in its own container...Other than that manual traps?

Cats? I only have 4 hens and they are in the garden but my two feral felines do a wonderful job.

I have a Jack Russell - allegedly brilliant ratters but not mine, she barely even notices them and if she does she has no idea what she's supposed to do
Fortunately, the hole they've dug, to their nest / run, is in the ground just outside the chicken coop, so we've been and bought some poison, stuffed it as far in as possible (last night) and covered the area over so that the chickens can't accidentally get at it. Hopefully that'll do the job for now, and will just have to be more vigilant about taking food / drink in at night. Though mine are messy buggers and drop the food all over the ground anyway!

Cats and a jack russell!

This is why we now have 4 cats. Sorry

Oh god, there are babies now! They've dug another hole and are successfully avoiding the poison. Off to buy some traps tomorrow and have also contacted council as feel we might need some professional help now
Though this is the best thing I've found to keep the kids occupied all holiday, they're stationed next to the chicken run armed with garden forks and catapults. Don't fancy their chances of success but it's keeping them busy at least
I think this may be why the chickens have barely laid for the last 4-5 weeks, think the almost constant presence of a rat in their feeder is stopping them getting all the nutrients they need. Vile things.

We've not seen any more signs of ours. Next door allotment said they saw 2 rats nearby but not in our allotment but there's bound to be a few in the area.

Glad to hear you've not got too much of a rat problem. Phew!

Rats eat the eggs and also take ducklings or chicks back to the nest to eat.

Sounds like you have an infestation. Best thing to do is rehome your chickens somewhere else temporarily while you put rat bait directly in the coop and keep topping up the poison until no more is taken.

May take 3 weeks or so. Less if they don't have access to water.

While you are 'resting' your coop, get someone to help lift it at least 2 feet off the ground on breeze blocks or something to stop rats nesting underneath.