Rats in the Run?!

I couldn't believe my eyes. As bold as you please, a rat walked along the inside of my chickens' run and helped itself to my hens' food.

- Susan Brackney

And it happened in broad daylight. Never mind that I'd taken pains to fortify the coop and run to keep my hens safe.

Something had gone very wrong. It's taken me several weeks to fix the problem. In hopes of saving you similar trouble, here's what went wrong and what I did to make things right.

RAT PARADISE

My first mistakes? Locating my large compost bins too close to my chicken run and falling down on its maintenance. I'd generally kept my compost well-watered and turned until emergency surgery took me out of commission.

So, for a month or two, food scraps accumulated on top of the pile. This created a potential draw to the chicken run for rats.

I'd also gotten lazy with my feed. Although I kept my opened bag inside a galvanized trash can, I kept additional, unopened bags on my garage floor. Had I been paying closer attention, perhaps I'd have noticed that something had gnawed holes in those bags. A small feast of pelleted food had spilled out.

ASSESSING THE PROBLEM

That I saw a rat at all was bad enough. But that I saw it during the daytime suggested this was a serious infestation. Rats aren't only vectors for disease. They'll also eat young chicks. Their presence can have a chilling effect on egg-laying, too.