Snakes Kill Chickens!

ConnieA said:

Rat snakes have venom, but it is just for paralyzing small prey. It has little no effect on humans, that I have heard.

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Sorry to disagree, but I wanted to clarify something ...
New World species of Rat Snakes are venomless AFAIK. A few Old World species have weak venom.

Which species occurs in your area ?
"Rat Snake" can mean several different species.

I would be very sad if my future Chickens were ever killed by a snake. I will plan to make the Coop very secure.

Guinea Fowl are very aggressive against Snakes, but even they are helpless at night.

I've owned several species of snakes. I used to manage a Reptile store and breed reptiles.

I hope you all manage to snake proof your Coops



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cull the snake!

I am sorry about your chickens. We have kept black snakes in another part of our property for mice/vole control. However, a 6 foot black snake showed up three days ago. You must use "hardware" cloth that squirrels cannot destroy. /This snake is eating eggs. I noticed that the egg harvest was smaller. He must be really fast because I cannot catch him out there. I am not afraid of any snakes, but I understand that I only have two options: kill the snake of move him miles away. I have 31 chickens, 1 rooster and 5 guineas and 3 dogs. At night the coop is snake proof. During the day the chickens go in and out of the chicken house to lay eggs. Phyllis Diller, my smallest silkie, had been throwing fits over the last two weeks. She is a very smart chicken and alerts me to different dangers. The ceramic egg trick will work. Collect the eggs frequently and put a ceramic egg in each nest. Eventually the snake will eat one and his days of egg eating will cease.

I am so sorry you lost Addie. Snakes will indeed kill a full grown chicken.
Here's a video from Justin Rhodes, He was shocked as well. Be aware
it's pretty graphic.

i had a snake yesterday in the egg laying house it was inches from my Punky who was laying and mohawkie as well, i don't know what it was had a black head and pink body, it was a bit over 4 feet long, scared me to death we had to cull it bc it was inches from her,

chickens can be so smart their instinct for survival is strong, they were still as statues so the snake couldn't see them, they didn't cry out even when whe came in with the shovel to get the snake

unfortunatly later that day i lost a hen to unknown causes though i saved those two earlier, crazy day.

I know this is an old thread, but I just want to dig it up to say I’m thankful for this thread and others like it.

A few weeks ago a white oak snake (a Florida variant of the grey rat snake) died on the electric fence around my largest run and coop. I pitied the snake, figuring a snake like him was only a threat to eggs and bitties. Tonight I found one of the same species in the coop when I was doing my nightly head count. A solid 5 foot long but skinny and of small head. I tried to get him out alive and he hid from me in the nest boxes. I decided to let him be figuring he wasn’t a threat.

But after reading this and similar threads that well document that snakes will regularly kill chickens too large for them to eat and effectively waste the chicken, I went back and found the snake. It was creeping up on a sleeping Wyandotte pullet when I found him, the smallest of the 6 Wyandottes I have.

Killing the snake probably saved a chicken’s life tonight. The documented killings of chickens too large for a snake to eat flies against conventional wisdom that snakes and other predators usually don’t cause unnecessary trouble and shouldn’t be persecuted.

It re-enforces lessons I’ve learned about dealing with other predators in other contexts; real life experiences of every day people are usually more accurate than talking heads on wildlife documentaries who may minimize or deny some truths in the name of conservation.

Thanks again to all who shared their experiences.

BTW, I lost a guinea several weeks ago and it had a wet slimy head when I found its body. I thought it was K9 drool from my yard dogs. There was a white oak snake feet away from the dead guinea. The guinea was half grown and way too large for the snake to eat, thats why I didn’t even factor in the possibility the snake did it. Now I know better.

I lost seven Silver-laced Orpington pullets and cockerels between 2.5 and 3.5 months old to the absolutely giant Texas rat snakes that apparently view my property as some sort of snake haven. Which when you could the wooded areas, water sources, pasture, and abundant prey available (frogs, toads, insects, crayfish, rodents, birds, eggs, etc) I'm sure it is unfortunately. They can't actually eat the chickens they are killing, but they strangle them and then get them down to about the breast bone before giving up and regurgitating the dead chicken. What really upset me was the three dead in one night. I'd locked them up and obviously the snake was either under the pine shavings I use for bedding or managed to get in after the door was closed. They couldn't get away from the snake and it would just kill another one and try again.

I was relocating them, but no more. Now they meet their end with a hoe or a broken handle from a shovel. And for the first time in nearly a month I'm getting an egg or two a day.

I just read the post about a rat snake chicken killer. I had googled this to see if I was the only one to ever see this. It's about 12:30 am. I heard the rooster clucking loudly. I grabbed my light and my shotgun after I saw the rooster OUTSIDE the coop. When I got there, I found a chicken snake (I think) wrapped around one of my RI Red hens. She was dead, so I blasted the snake with my 20 guage. For all you animal rights folk, I'll PM my address if you have a desire to report me, and nanny nanny boo boo to you too.
This snake was as long as I am tall, and I'm 6' 1". I never even HEARD of a chicken snake strangling a chicken....but I saw it, so I can add it to my list of things I have never seen before.
Oh, well. That's one less snake I have to worry about STRANGLING MY CHICKENS.