Peppermint working?!

It has now been 10 days since we sprayed the peppermint oil in the coops/rabbitry and on the rat holes and I am cautiously optimitic. The only other thing we have done is to place one bite poison down the few rat holes we found inside the coop....but the only rats I have seen so far- dead or alive is one in the goat barn tonight that had been stomped by the goats. No evidence of poisoned rats that I have seen in the past when I have used one bite, so thinking the peppermint oil IS working.  I am going to check the poison to see if it is still in the holes or if it has been touched tomorrow.  It will be great if I can keep the rodents away without risking the lives of my livestock, cats (mine or the ferals), hawks or the great horned owls that nest in my trees. Honestly, the mice that used to frequent the chicken feeders did not bother me, they ate little and never bothered the other animals...but I can't have rats killing and maiming my poultry and rabbits everytime they find the feeders empty.  The French Lop that was attacked is recovering. She is back to her old self...thumping in her cage for her dinner tonight, trying to climb out of the cage to nibble out of the scoop when I open the door and wanting a scratch behind the ears. The ears are healing well, and she is putting her weight back on. She was thin because the rats were eating alot of her food and we were not aware of it. I probably made it worse - attracting more rats to her feeder by feeding her sunflower seeds when I noticed she was getting thin- here I thought it was just that she was more active and it was winter.  I am going to watch for a couple more weeks and if it appears that the problem is solved, I am going to start breeding the rabbits again.