Does anyone have ideas on how to discourage rats from entering the coop to get at the chicken food? They are not messing with eggs at all, just the food. I have tried traps, and only managed to injure myself. My husband has maintained a nightly ritual with a pellet gun for the last several early evenings, and the little buggers seem to be wise to him.

I was thinking of adding cayanne pepper to the feed for a while. The chickens don't seem to care if something is spicy or not, but I thought that the rats might dislike it. Any thoughts?

It is fortunate that the rats have not yet bothered the eggs, because they will eventually. They will also kill baby chicks and can spread disease. I have found the best solution to be rat poison, just be sure and place it somewhere where the birds can't get to it. I use bait blocks from "Tom Cat" and have had good results. If anyone knows of some other way to get rid of rats without killing, I would love to hear about it.

You can put the rat chunks in a cage that the chickens can't get into, but with holes big enough for a rat. If there are tunnels nearby, try using the garden hose to flood them out, then whack 'em. Your coop should be build so that there aren't any holes big enough for a rat to enter. And you'd have to be very lucky to hit a rat with a pellet gun. Perhaps .22 birdshot would work, but they must hold still in view long enough to get a shot. Good luck.

You could use a rat trap and try using chicken feed as bait. Just make sure you put the trap where the chickens will not get into it.
Once I had a problem with mice getting into my chicken feed. I put a few mouse traps out and put a little pile of chicken feed on the traps as bait. I caught three mice, but after that the mice got smarter and could carry all the feed off the trap without setting it off.