so sad - *graphic pix* has this chick been killed by a snake?

[AHappychick]

Quote:
I would not worry about the layer pellets the chicks probably wont bother to try to eat them, but the hens might prefer the starter. Make sure you have some oyster shell at their disposal if they deside that the starter is yummier.

 

[mountain gma]

Hi all, the floor of my makeshift coop consists of 4x4 wood pallets which gives plenty of room for snakes to get under. I see snakes at least once a week as I live on the side of a wooded mountain. For a period of time I was getting NO eggs and couldn't figure it out. Then a fellow chicken-lover told me about moth balls. I scattered a box of moth balls around and under the coop and voila! I'm getting eggs again. Now if someone could please tell me what to do about a vegetarian groundhog who squeezes under whatever barrier I install and eats the chickenfeed I'll appreciate it. He's too smart for my humane trap and quite honestly I'm tired of driving the 10 miles to the Blue Ridge Parkway to relocate wild critters. Good luck.

 

[Barnyard]

Just an FYI..... moth balls work really well for Venemous snakes, but not to well on the non-venemous... try using sulfer dust....

 

[RIVERA69R]

I agree snake sorry

 

[Sillystunt]

wow, that's horrible. in the 4th picture i see a wood pile. Is that still there? Snakes love stuff like that. My cat just caught one today~ It was to late for the snake.

geesssh your poor chicken

 

[ausamerican33]

Yes, it is a wood pile. We've been meaning to burn it. Good idea - we'll burn it as soon as this rain stops here. I think we're going to join up the baby chicken pen and the big hen coop tomorrow morn. Tonight.... I'm not sure.... I think we'll put a flood light up and do some snake patrol.

 

[Poupoulles]

Well since you are in NC, I guess I can show you what happened to your chicken... this is a baby turkey...

 

[ausamerican33]

Yuck! Poor little fella. I'm sorry that it happened to you, too.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

A snake definitely did that. Killed my last Minorca pullet also.

You can get strawberry netting and loosely drape it across the fence, coop, etc. Mothballs also seem to work fairly well. Just put them on the border of the fence but not close enough that the birds can eat them.

You can also try putting out fake eggs that the snake will eat and eventually die from. Strawberry netting is my favorite choice because it lets me know that I killed the sucka.

 

[ausamerican33]

We just attached the coop to the chick yard - no going back, now. They are all together - so far, so good. Although my big hens are looking at the fence like what is that?!

We are waiting for my toddler to fall asleep for her nap, and then we'll go finish it up. We've got chain link, poultry wire fencing on the bottom, and we bought poultry netting to put over the top, b/c the holes in the wire are 4 inches. Fingers crossed this will work, and that my hens don't terrorize the chicks.