A smell of death in the garden

The ongoing, sporadical saga of what came first - the chicken or the rat?

After putting down the yummy blue rat treats for what seems like all summer, they finally stopped being taken. Sigh of relief, as at one point, the additional pets were costing more to keep than the chickens Anyway, last weekend I put a massive pile of rat treats down, and it seems to have done the trick. Two days later - massive pile still there.... but a god-awful smell coming out from under the decking.

I'm assuming it's the dead rodents, unless I'm completely barking up the wrong tree and one of my neighbours has had a nasty trip on a garden implement and is slowly decomposing in their own garden.

Had a quick head count up and down the street, and happy to announce that nobody seems to be missing....