Black Snakes

[slipshift]

I went out to check our 2 1/2 week old chicks and found a dead one with a black snake wrapped around it. I turned it into a "good" black snake with a bullet in the head. People tell me they are beneficial, they kill mice and copperheads. Mice and copperheads don't kill chickens and all the snakes I have caught killing chicks or eating eggs were black snakes. End of rant. Will mothballs around the chicken wire keep snakes out? I have an electric wire around the pen, 1" from the ground and found a few that touched the wire and threaded themselves through the chicken wire and died. This last one may have dropped from a tree.

Jim

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I went out to check our 2 1/2 week old chicks and found a dead one with a black snake wrapped around it. I turned it into a "good" black snake with a bullet in the head. People tell me they are beneficial, they kill mice and copperheads. Mice and copperheads don't kill chickens and all the snakes I have caught killing chicks or eating eggs were black snakes. End of rant. Will mothballs around the chicken wire keep snakes out? I have an electric wire around the pen, 1" from the ground and found a few that touched the wire and threaded themselves through the chicken wire and died. This last one may have dropped from a tree.

Jim

Hardware cloth is going to be more effective with regards to snakes than moth balls.