BackYardChickens Forum

chilling in muscadine wrote:

What we do every spring is to catch a black race. Black racers have a bad attitued but they are not venomous. We will blow on the racers face, get it good and mad and then let it latch onto each of our dogs noses, all 16 of them. Then we will have to prise the snake off our dogs snouts. This usually will break the dogs wanting to go after snakes. This may sound mean to some but it seems to work. Just an idea if you have a dog bad about going after snakes.

I don't mind the good snakes, but I an NOT going there! No way Jose!

ranchhand wrote:

Luckily, the neighbors can't see our house, and this is a hunting allowed area. That way, they won't be alarmed when I start carrying a shotgun around!

The whole property is heavily wooded with brush, even the chicken coops and pens. Yikes!

DH and the Lab found a canebrake rattler outside the back door a few years ago. Luckily, no one was bitten. And Mr. Snake went away, permanently.

Non venomous snakes are tolerated, to the extent of letting a 6 foot yellow rat snake get a few eggs daily! I have actually been thinking of a snake house/shelter, and 2 eggs per day as enticement to stick around but not eat all the eggs. They are great varmint control!

This is a pic of one of the smaller rat snakes, with Bantam Cochin Goldie. She is oblivious to snakes, as all the chickens are.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/u … _snake.jpg

This is what trips me out about people that are afraid of snakes. They want to kill every snake just because its there. What alot of people don't realize is that snakes like the rat snake and king snake will eat other snakes so they are definately good to have around especially if you are scarred. They can eat the venomous snakes for you.

As far as your yellow rat snake, if that is the only one you have it will only need to eat every week or so. Snakes do not eat everyday. To me its a small price to pay for not getting over run with rats that carry disease.

chilling in muscadine wrote:

ranchhand wrote:

Luckily, the neighbors can't see our house, and this is a hunting allowed area. That way, they won't be alarmed when I start carrying a shotgun around!

The whole property is heavily wooded with brush, even the chicken coops and pens. Yikes!

DH and the Lab found a canebrake rattler outside the back door a few years ago. Luckily, no one was bitten. And Mr. Snake went away, permanently.

Non venomous snakes are tolerated, to the extent of letting a 6 foot yellow rat snake get a few eggs daily! I have actually been thinking of a snake house/shelter, and 2 eggs per day as enticement to stick around but not eat all the eggs. They are great varmint control!

This is a pic of one of the smaller rat snakes, with Bantam Cochin Goldie. She is oblivious to snakes, as all the chickens are.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/u … _snake.jpg

This is what trips me out about people that are afraid of snakes. They want to kill every snake just because its there. What alot of people don't realize is that snakes like the rat snake and king snake will eat other snakes so they are definately good to have around especially if you are scarred. They can eat the venomous snakes for you.

As far as your yellow rat snake, if that is the only one you have it will only need to eat every week or so. Snakes do not eat everyday. To me its a small price to pay for not getting over run with rats that carry disease.

If that's the case, I have at least seven, because I can leave eggs daily and they always get them. I know we have at least two- one I busted had 3 eggs in his throat- his getaway was pretty funny. Ssssss, bump, bump, bump, ssssss, bump bump, bump........

Update following, we caught a snake.

Whew. The adrenaline is almost through pumping.

I took Tiger out in the yard for an evening run at dusk. He was noodling around in the anise trees again, and I followed.

And there was a copperhead, just under the edge of the trees! Small, about 2 feet. Called Tiger, who ignored me as usual, so I hauled butt in the door, used the NOW DEAR voice again and went to get Tiger. I couldn't get him in the house, but he did go into the garage, DH grabbed a shovel and I grabbed a flashlight. 

The snake was still frozen in place, but started under the trees when the light hit him. DH waded in while I held the somewhat shaky light for him. He finally got a whack, dragged it out with the shovel and finished the job.

I got a plastic bag, Reynolds Handi-Vac gallon size, and the long tongs I use for crabs, and we bagged the body and the head, after the head stopped it's reflexive actions. Which is very eerie, BTW.

Copperhead is now vacuum packed and in the fridge, ready to go to the vet tomorrow with Tiger. Opening the fridge is a real adventure around here anyway. So no biggie!

I am worried that we have a nest of them in the anise grove, it's an ideal environment for snakes.

Here's the copperhead-

Please keep an eye on it.  We've had several snakebit dogs, and two of the bites became necrotic despite vet treatment.  Both recovered but had nasty scarring.  It will be apparent if there's a problem, it will smell dreadful.  It seemed to hit the hounds worse, I think because of all the pockets in their skin to trap the venom/blood.  Ours were Diamondback bites, hopefully the Copperhead doesn't have the same effect.

Our vet is also a long way away, so we keep Dexamethasone, Vitamin K and antibiotics on hand just in case.  It might be worth contacting your vet to see if they're willing to supply you with an emergency kit.  We also take them to 'snakeproofing' training, and give them a refresher anytime we have a dead but wiggling snake to use (headless of course!).

This is what the snake did to two of our dogs: