How do you get rid of snakes?

[Its Just Us Chickens]

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That's what my dh said, so we let it stay, but it's killed 2 of my birds now.... so it's time to get rid of it.

Don't your chickens eliminate the crickets? I know those guineas do, nothing they seem to like more than bugs. I guess you could relocate it since you know what it is. Do they bite they sure do seem to aggressive.

Oh yeah... they eat bugs. They eat mice too. But there is a rat in the shed! Dh thought if we kept him around that he'd help control mice, but that he wouldn't mess with the chickens. We put snake away around the coop, and hydrated lime in the coop but it didn't keep him out.

 

[Gypsi]

I figure the chickens will take care of really small mice, and I designed the coop and run to reduce hiding places for rodents, AND snakes.

 

[ottovan]

Just lost another guinea hen to a snake last night. Just suffocated it let the bodythe head always looks slimed. Lost power to electric fence and it was raining will need to change the wiring from that poly rope to wire. The poly rope just get soaked. Or it could be that the snakes are gettin in through old gopher holes. Sometimes I do see holes in the ground - Am I going to have to cement the whole floor!?

 

[Gypsi]

Maybe put hardware cloth under the floor and around the lower parts of the run? Totally. Expensive, but so are chickens. I went to your page to look at your run / coop setup, but there are no pictures!

 

[peepinator]

OMG!!! I'm so glad I don't have to deal with snakes where I live! I wouldn't kill them though...they're great predators for other pests ad others have mentioned. I'd just beef up my coop with small hardware cloth, it isn't that expensive. Even if we had snakes around here...they're not gettin' through my hardware cloth to my run or inside my coop. It's like fort knox. Good luck all you folks who have to deal with creepy crawlers!

 

[bburn]

Yesterday I went to visit my chickens.....I sometimes just like to go out and watch them. I was walking to the chicken yard, in my sandels and bumped into a copperhead. I jumped back and starting looking for a shovel...ran and got it and the snake was continuing on towards the chicken house. Stopped it in it's tracks and then started yelling for my husband who was in the house....he heard me and came running. He toted off the snake. I am now Snakeslayer! I will not leave a poisinous snake alive. I have grandchildren that are up here all the time. But, I was not sure I would know what kind of snake I was looking at. I KNEW this was a copperhead as I had just looked up online what snakes were in Arkansas.
When my husband built the chicken house he dug a trench and buried the metal siding in hopes for keeping predators out. They are safe at night when they are locked in their house...so far. I would feel terrible if we lost a chicken to a predator. We also covered the top of the chicken yard with wire and put corragated metal all around the bottom of the yard. We have done everything we could think of to keep them safe.
However, we are now talking about getting Gieneas.....anything to keep them safe.

 

[aduplantis]

We live in Southeast Louisiana and we use moth balls. It seems to work very well. I hope this helps!!

 

[Thamnophis]

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Once again - moth balls poison the environment and do not deter snakes - at all. It is a bad idea to spread poison around against manufacturers recommended uses. Birds, including pets and your chickens, may eat them.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

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Heck No you've got babies to protect!! If you got some hardware cloth, build a little box that you can toss some mothballs in. This will keep your birds from getting to them. Set them around your chicken yard or any dark cool place snakes may hide, woodpiles, sheds, etc. Works for many of us.

 

[crossedwires]

we only realy get grass snakes here in the uk tho i have seen an adder once! on the rare occasion i come accross a snake on the farm i am in the relocate camp, and i duely relocate them to the after life