Best way I've found yet to deal with snake problems!!

[animals1981]

for you down south remember king snakes and indigo snakes will DECIMATE other snake populations like rat snakes, copperheads, corals, rattlers etc... My friend let a bunch of baby kings on her property no more snakes or rodents.

 

[animals1981]

i wish u guys lived near me i have birds who love to eat snakes like kookaburras

 

[centrarchid]

Here is how I protect vulnerable chicks from chick eating snakes. It is a management headache until chicks able to fly into pens just over three feet above ground. Losses stopped even though snakes very much still present.

Have them roost in the cab with door closed. Some of mine hop right.

On truck, put your chicks on bed of pickup truck each night.

Setup in pasture.

Joking aside, I use such pen placed on top of 55-gallon barrels in barn. Broods, with and without hens, learn to use the cages quickly. Snakes might be able to fit in but have yet to try. Getting on top of barrel also tough in barn where snake can only access to of barrel by standing on end which does not seem to be used to get onto barrels.

 

[Roxanne c.28]

That is pure genious!
I don't mind snakes all that much (although after pitchforking a nest of baby copperheads into the back of our pickup, I am MUCH more jumpy) we have a beautiful black racer, she just shimmers, almost irredecent purply color, but after finding a rat snake with a couple of egg shaped lumps, I have a zero tolerance for the run. No, I say that, but I really do not think I could kill racer. Feel free to study copperheads all you want but my family has lost two dogs, a cat and had two very sick horses, they will be dispatched.
Now I need to find out if I really want to know what's out there!

I've got a local back woods vet that recommended giving our dogs and cats Benadryl when bitten by a copperhead. Has worked every time.

 

[CapricornFarm]

I found this in the brooder today.

 

[Chickenpen]

Thank you, you answered my question about getting rid of my snake problem. I'm going to try your trap suggestion. The other question I have is : I caught 2 snakes Rat Snakes eating my eggs. I relocated them but I saw another one but couldn't catch him. I have noticed my chickens are laying other places than the nest box. Could it be they are afraid of the snakes?

 

[RevRico]

Sorry for dragging back an old thread on my first day, but this one is very relevant to my interests. I want to completely snakeproof my coop and run. I've been catching snakes in minnow traps since I was a kid trying to catch minnows, and while effective, I just don't want to deal with them at all.

I do have one benefit, I haven't started building anything yet. I picked out 1/4" hardware cloth, 4 feet wide and 50 foot long, actually bought 2 rolls. and now that I'm mathing it out I probably should have bought 4, but anyway. Will I be successful keeping snakes out if I dig the ground up where the run is going to go and bury the hardware cloth?

I'm thinking 6 to 8 inches down and overhanging the edges by a foot, then either covering it up with dirt again or filling it with sand. The coop itself will be solid plywood with caulked or epoxied joints and more 1/4" hardware cloth on the vents and windows. Whole theory being any snake small enough to get through will be a welcome snack for the birds.

 

[alwaystj9]

Thanks for dragging this out, as my rural area gets more developed, my snake issues have gone from rare to regular. The rat snakes prefer eggs to rats, probably because the eggs don't run...

 

[Rldad1]

Very interesting way to trap snakes. We have quite a few around and mostly I just leave them alone. The biggest problem I have is telling the difference between the harmless corn snake and the poisoness copperhead.

Look at the head. If it is clearly triangular then it is poisonous.

 

[GinnyHudson1]

Great read, good idea Thanks for sharing