[snow white]

know this has been done before but .... Even though I bring my girls feeder in every night into an old fridge, we are attracting rats.  I put some poison down at their entrance to our garden and the damn rat ate it and entered the run, died and laid there for me to find.  this is all in broad daylight.  Next day caught a rat about to enter the run, so I picked up my rake and killed it.  .  My poor chicks must be terrified.  I have been reading about treadle feeders and think it might be the solution, but have read that a big rat could still work the treadle.  What are your experiences with them.  

[8doubles]

If you have rats big enough to operate a treadle feeder i would not want to go out in your garden !  :blink:

 The only downside of a few treadle feeders is that young hens can sometimes flick food under the treadle plate where they cannot reach it afterwards.

There is no quick fix and the war against rodent pests is liable to continue for ever.

[Hen 1-0 Fox]

You could try hanging your feeder off the ground, perhaps suspend it underneath a table and have it hang about the height of the chickens back off the ground... Rodents would struggle then.

[grinling]

You need to  dig around the outside of the run and bury weld mesh or chicken wire in. I dug down at least a spade depth and doubled over chicken wire before attaching to the run wire.
I don't do poison as the chooks might eat it, but use a trap. I bait traps with peanut butter or chook food in the cage trap.