Do Chickens Attract Rats and Mice?

Rats and mice don’t have a natural attraction to chickens. Nonetheless, these rodents have an attraction to the foods that chickens eat. Rats will usually frequent your coop if the coop has an excess amount of food. You can stop rats and mice from accessing your chickens by fool-proofing your yard against these two animals.

Get Rid of Rodents in Chicken Yard

The chicken yard can be a magnet for rats and mice since the foods in the chicken yards keep luring the rats into the yards. Chicken owners can quickly get rid of rats and mice from their chicken yards. Check these tips below on how you can prevent your chicken yard from rats and mice.

– Food Storage

Never keep your chicken feed in a place where rats and mice can access the food with ease. Consider storing the chicken feed in covered containers. Industrial drums are perfect for keeping chicken feed. These drums are thoroughly clean, making them suitable for preventing mice and rats from coming to your chicken’s yard.

Industrial drums aren’t that expensive compared to other forms of drums. You can cheaply get industrial drums measuring between 30 and 50 gallons at a low price, particularly if you are purchasing these drums from a farm supply dealer.

You can also use metal trash cans to preserve your chicken feed if you don’t have drums to keep the chicken feed safe from rodents.  Ensure the trash cans can tightly cover the chicken feed to avoid the possibility of rats and mice accessing the chicken feed.

The other way to keep your chicken feed safe from mice and rats is by removing your chickens’ water containers when night comes. Rats and mice show up in huge numbers if they get access to water, particularly in the dry season.

Be sure to discard the water in your chickens’ water containers each morning to deny rodents a supply of freshwater that can attract them to your yard.

– Treadle Feeder

A treadle feeder offers an excellent way of keeping rats and mice away from your chicken yard. These feeding containers come with a lid to help prevent rodents such as mice and rats from accessing your chicken feeding containers. A treadle feeder also allows you to conserve your chicken feed for long without necessarily attracting potential predators.

– Clean Chicken Coop

Keeping many chickens in a single coop means that there will be plenty of food leftovers after feeding your birds. Consider cleaning your chicken coop frequently to discourage rats and mice from frequenting the coop as they try to feed on the leftovers.

It would help if you ideally cleaned the chicken coop at least once per week. Cleaning should be more frequent if you are keeping several birds in one coop. Mice and rats detest a clean environment. These rodents won’t thrive in a clean environment. Keeping your chicken yard clean throughout will deny rodents an opportunity to inhabit your yard.

– Guard Dog or Cat

The presence of a guard cat or dog in your chicken yard can stop rats and mice from entering the chicken yard. Rodents and mice are timid, and the presence of a predator such as a dog or a cat will scare them away.

Hence, consider keeping a dog or a cat in your home to deter rodents from accessing your chicken yard.  Having a dog or a cat in your home can also help safeguard the safety of your birds. These two pets will scare away any predator that tries to come across your chickens.

– Use Traps

Traps are particularly great for dealing with a rodent infestation in your home. Try trapping rodents with traditional traps to avoid a potential rat and mice infestation in your chicken yard. Nonetheless, consider keeping the traps safe for your birds since these traps can harm your chickens.

Some of the best traps for rodents include poison containment boxes. Poison containment boxes act like multiple traps in trapping all types of rodents. Furthermore, these boxes can easily trap rodents. Moreover, these boxes can deter any object from getting through the holes of your chicken coop.

Consider placing larger traps around the walls of your coop. Large traps can help catch more giant rats and mice with ease. Keep these traps closer to the walls of your coop since rats and mice use walls to access a chicken yard. Rats worry over the presence of traps in a chicken yard. Avoid keeping traps in areas where the rodents will detect them with ease.

– Rat Poison

Rat poison may be the last option for deterring rodents from inhabiting your yard.  The poison works exceptionally well at eliminating rodents from your yard. Placing rat poison in your chickens’ containment boxes helps kill most of the rats and mice that try to enter your chicken yard.

Rat poison comes in several forms. For instance, some rat poisons are available in the form of pellets. Other poisons come in the form of blocks. Blocks are better than pellets since they fit better in the containment boxes. Pellet rat poisons are also suitable for killing small rodents because such rodents can quickly eat these pellets unaware.

Do Rats Eat Chicken Poop?

Yes, rats and mice can feed on chicken droppings.  Having chicken droppings in your chicken yard can attract a large number of rats into the yard. It’s therefore essential to remove chicken poop from the coop to deter rats from getting to the coop.

Rats also like chicken poop since it has some remnants of chicken food. Avoid keeping large heaps of chicken manure in your yard to lower the possibility of rats inhabiting your yard. Ensure you dispose of or use the waste before it accumulates into large hips.

Do Chickens Eat Mice and Rats?

Chickens can quickly attack and eat any rodent that crosses their path. Mice and rats are appealing to chickens. Free-range chickens won’t hesitate to eat any rat or mouse in the yard.  It is nevertheless hard for chickens to kill and eat rodents at night. Chickens concentrate more on their sleep during nighttime, and they have no time to notice any rodents in their presence.

Make Your Chicken Coop Rat Proof

Keeping your chicken coop safe from rats and mice shouldn’t be difficult. You can deter rodents from entering your chicken yard by rat-proofing your yard. Below are some of the ways you can make your chicken’s coop rat-proof.

– Remove Food Sources at Night

Rats will always come to your chicken coop since they know your birds are sleeping at night.  Consider removing all food sources from the coop to deny rats a chance to invade the coop at night. Empty all the chickens’ food bins before going to sleep. Mice and rats won’t come to the coop if they don’t find food in the coop.

– Install High-Quality Locks In Your Chickens’ Coop

Keep the doors of your chicken coop adequately closed. Rats can use the small spaces in your chicken coop’s area to access the food you feed to your chicken. Nonetheless, these rodents will not access your chicken yard if you have quality locks that hinder rats from frequenting your yard.

– Ensure Your Coop is crafted From High-resistance Timber

High-quality timber is suitable for constructing chicken coops. This timbre binds well and leaves no spaces for rats, and mice o enter your chickens’ coop. Predators can’t also break in a coop boasts with high-resistance timber.

– Keep The Remaining Chicken Foods From Your Chicken Yard

Rats will likely frequent your chicken coop if there is food remaining in the yard. You can deter rats and mice from entering your yard by keeping away any foods that are likely to attract rodents to your yard.

Conclusion

Chickens can attract mice and rats due to their food and diet preferences. Chicken owners can, however, stop their birds from attracting these two annoying rodents. Ensure your chickens don’t have the chance of attracting rats and mice in your yard.