Snake - Chicken Predators - How To Protect Your Chickens From Snakes

Snake

General Information & Description

Snakes are long, legless carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes. Fifteen families of snakes are currently recognized, comprising of more than 2,900 species. The largest living species are the reticulated pythons, which can reach 30 feet long, and the aquatic anaconda, the heaviest existing snake, which measures 25 feet. Most snakes are relatively small animals measuring 3 to 4 feet in length. The smallest is only 4 inches long, the Leptotyphlops cariae. Because they cannot chew their food, snakes swallow their prey whole. The average snake feeds on small animals like lizards, rodents, birds, and eggs. Larger snakes like pythons, on the other hand, can consume an entire deer or antelopes.

Range

Snakes are found on most islands and in every continent except Antarctica. Those that attack poultry are often called chicken snakes. While they prefer rodents, it is also common for them to swallow whole chicken eggs and linger around poultry and livestock farms. Chicken snakes are small snakes with only a few reaching 7 feet. 

Snakes use their sense of smell when hunting their prey. They use their forked tongues to smell and collect airborne particles so they know where to go. This is why you see snakes regularly flicking their forked tongues out of their mouths. Snakes are also sensitive to both air and ground vibrations and can sense their prey approaching. While they live on the ground, they do not like open spaces and prefer to move around tall grass, weeds and rocky terrain so they can easily hide.

Methods of Kill

Most snakes kill their prey by swallowing it alive or constricting them to death before they devour them. Their highly flexible lower jaws allow them to take in large prey. For instance, the African egg-eating snake can take in eggs larger than his own head. Its spine acts like teeth, breaking the egg shells as it passes through the body. Venomous snakes, on the other hand, use poison to incapacitate or immobilize many creatures before swallowing them whole. Large chickens can be eaten by venomous snakes, but smaller snakes are often pecked to death by adult chickens. Eggs and small chicks are those that are most often eaten by snakes.

Prevention & Treatment
Snakes usually eat the eggs when they get inside the chicken coop. Depending on the snake, they can also go for the chicks and growers. Chicken wire is not an effective deterrent. Those living in areas known for snakes should fortify the base of their chicken coops. Check for cracks or holes, and fill them in, as these could be places where snakes could enter. You can also use mothballs since snakes are known to hate them.

Because snakes do not like open spaces, it is also recommended that you mow tall grass around chicken coops. Make sure you clear away their favorite hiding spaces like wood piles and rocks. Compost piles in your backyard are excellent breeding grounds for the snakes. These should be cleared or relocated far from your chicken coops. 

When you find a chicken snake slithering around your poultry backyard, it is suggested that you catch them and throw them as far away from your backyard as possible. Do not kill them, because they also play a part in reducing the rodent population.

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