So Upset, Crying. Snake Killed Chick :(

[Lesleyhg]

I am just beside myself. I have a rooster and let my broody hen hatch. 3 of 4 hatched. We are day 23, one egg left... Waiting to see if it'll hatch.

Went outside about 20 minutes ago, heard bumping and commotion in the brooder coop. My hen was trying to fight off a corn snake. I grabbed it up as it was trying to swallow the chick. I just instinctively threw it over the fence about 20 feet and tried to revive the chick via CPR but to no avail. I'm crying. Mad at myself for not killing or taking the snake further away. Scared to death it's gonna come back for the others. I spread urine (I know) around the coop and spread lemongrass clippings. I don't know what else to do. I'm crying and so upset. I'm so worried for the other chicks, and don't even know if the egg is still in there. The hen took the babies and they are under her now, hopefully with the egg. I need to sleep but I keep thinking the snake is gonna come tonight and I will be sleeping.

Update: btw she is in a wood dog house with a square large chicken wire box over it. I was never scared of predators like racoons because she's in the dog house and they can't get through the chicken wire. Never ever thought of snakes. I rigged some scrap hard wire and added more chicken wire around it, everything I had. Sprinkled clove and cayenne powder everywhere around the perimeter... Until I heard something made a weird sound 20 feet behind me, and ran like hell, lol, super late and by myself outside. Tomorrow gonna make my husband permanently hardwire the whole thing.

 

[Chickies11]

I am just beside myself. I have a rooster and let my broody hen hatch. 3 of 4 hatched. We are day 23, one egg left... Waiting to see if it'll hatch.

Went outside about 20 minutes ago, heard bumping and commotion in the brooder coop. My hen was trying to fight off a corn snake. I grabbed it up as it was trying to swallow the chick. I just instinctively threw it over the fence about 20 feet and tried to revive the chick via CPR but to no avail. I'm crying. Mad at myself for not killing or taking the snake further away. Scared to death it's gonna come back for the others. I spread urine (I know) around the coop and spread lemongrass clippings. I don't know what else to do. I'm crying and so upset. I'm so worried for the other chicks, and don't even know if the egg is still in there. The hen took the babies and they are under her now, hopefully with the egg. I need to sleep but I keep thinking the snake is gonna come tonight and I will be sleeping.

I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't offer advice as I'm a newbie to chicken keeping, but I hope that the snake doesn't bother your chicks again. I hope this works out for you!

 

[Lesleyhg]

I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't offer advice as I'm a newbie to chicken keeping, but I hope that the snake doesn't bother your chicks again. I hope this works out for you!

Thank you so much

 

[rosemarythyme]

What's your brooder covered with? For most snakes, 1/2" hardware cloth should do but if you have small venomous snakes that could be a concern, I'd go down to 1/4"

 

[Lesleyhg]

What's your brooder covered with? For most snakes, 1/2" hardware cloth should do but if you have small venomous snakes that could be a concern, I'd go down to 1/4"

It's a wood dog house with a square large chicken wire box over it. I was never scared of predators like racoons because she's in the dog house and they can't get through the chicken wire. Never ever thought of snakes. I rigged some scrap hard wire and added more chicken wire around it, everything I had. Sprinkled clove and cayenne powder everywhere around the perimeter... Until I heard something made a weird sound 20 feet behind me, and ran like hell, lol, super late and by myself outside. Tomorrow gonna make my husband permanently hardwire the whole thing.

 

[rosemarythyme]

It's a wood dog house with a square large chicken wire box over it. I was never scared of predators like racoons because she's in the dog house and they can't get through the chicken wire. Never ever thought of snakes. I rigged some scrap hard wire and added more chicken wire around it, everything I had. Sprinkled clove and cayenne powder everywhere around the perimeter... Until I heard something made a weird sound 20 feet behind me, and ran like hell, lol, super late and by myself outside. Tomorrow gonna make my husband permanently hardwire the whole thing.

Hope that'll work for the night until you have time to get extra hardware cloth in place. Best of luck!!

 

[dawg53]

Clove powder, cayenne pepper, urine, lemon grass, sulfur, moth balls wont stop snakes; been there, done all that.
I've lost chicks, pullets and cockerels to snakes. Enclosing a chicken pen with hardware cloth is too expensive.
The best that can be done is to make your coop impenetrable. Put hardware cloth over all the vents as well as window screen to keep mosquitos and flies out of the coop. Ensure the coop entrance is secured at night. You can put screen over the entrance to deter mosquitos and flies. See pics below.

 

[Lesleyhg]

Thank you very much for taking the time to help me. We added hardwire all over now.

 

[Folly's place]

So sorry for your loss.
Chicken wire will keep chickens in, but has no value as predator protection! Hardware cloth, well secured, is what's necessary everywhere. Adding it across all openings, with fence staples and then wood strips screwed over it, will be much safer. Here we also have 2"x 4" woven wire over the lower 4' of our hardware cloth, with 1"x 4" boards screwed to the framing over both layers.
Mary

 

[Dhinshaw]

I am just beside myself. I have a rooster and let my broody hen hatch. 3 of 4 hatched. We are day 23, one egg left... Waiting to see if it'll hatch.

Went outside about 20 minutes ago, heard bumping and commotion in the brooder coop. My hen was trying to fight off a corn snake. I grabbed it up as it was trying to swallow the chick. I just instinctively threw it over the fence about 20 feet and tried to revive the chick via CPR but to no avail. I'm crying. Mad at myself for not killing or taking the snake further away. Scared to death it's gonna come back for the others. I spread urine (I know) around the coop and spread lemongrass clippings. I don't know what else to do. I'm crying and so upset. I'm so worried for the other chicks, and don't even know if the egg is still in there. The hen took the babies and they are under her now, hopefully with the egg. I need to sleep but I keep thinking the snake is gonna come tonight and I will be sleeping.

Update: btw she is in a wood dog house with a square large chicken wire box over it. I was never scared of predators like racoons because she's in the dog house and they can't get through the chicken wire. Never ever thought of snakes. I rigged some scrap hard wire and added more chicken wire around it, everything I had. Sprinkled clove and cayenne powder everywhere around the perimeter... Until I heard something made a weird sound 20 feet behind me, and ran like hell, lol, super late and by myself outside. Tomorrow gonna make my husband permanently hardwire the whole thing.

I am just beside myself. I have a rooster and let my broody hen hatch. 3 of 4 hatched. We are day 23, one egg left... Waiting to see if it'll hatch.

Went outside about 20 minutes ago, heard bumping and commotion in the brooder coop. My hen was trying to fight off a corn snake. I grabbed it up as it was trying to swallow the chick. I just instinctively threw it over the fence about 20 feet and tried to revive the chick via CPR but to no avail. I'm crying. Mad at myself for not killing or taking the snake further away. Scared to death it's gonna come back for the others. I spread urine (I know) around the coop and spread lemongrass clippings. I don't know what else to do. I'm crying and so upset. I'm so worried for the other chicks, and don't even know if the egg is still in there. The hen took the babies and they are under her now, hopefully with the egg. I need to sleep but I keep thinking the snake is gonna come tonight and I will be sleeping.

Update: btw she is in a wood dog house with a square large chicken wire box over it. I was never scared of predators like racoons because she's in the dog house and they can't get through the chicken wire. Never ever thought of snakes. I rigged some scrap hard wire and added more chicken wire around it, everything I had. Sprinkled clove and cayenne powder everywhere around the perimeter... Until I heard something made a weird sound 20 feet behind me, and ran like hell, lol, super late and by myself outside. Tomorrow gonna make my husband permanently hardwire the whole thing.

I am sorry! Same thing happened to me this week. I have a Mama Hen with 3 ten day old chicks. I've been checking on them twice a day. Yesterday I opened up the coop door, and there was a big chicken snake in the coop. I grabbed it by its tail and slung it out. I tried to find something to kill the snake with, but it got away from me before I could. Mama Hen and chicks were all ok. However, today the snake came back and had to have killed and ate one of my babies because there was one chick that was totally gone. It was no where to be found. I ended up moving the Mama Hen and chicks to a more secure coop with hardware cloth. My opinion is to always kill the snake if you have babies because they will definitely kill them if they are able to get to them. I was heartbroken.