trouble with snakes eating eggs

[Southern28Chick]

I was really bothered when the snake spit the chick out after swallowing it up to its shoulders, it couldn't fit the rest in.

I've witnessed this as well. Snakes actually spit up their prey when confronted. So he wasn't spitting out the chick because he couldn't fit it in, he was just scared by you. Sorry about the chick. A black snake did the same to my 7 week old roo last summer. I wanted to kill it in a fit of rage but got my head straight and we rehomed him out in the swamp land about 5 miles away.​

 

[Scrambled Egg]

I'm surprised a snake would eat a light bulb, especially considering how they can weed out rotten and otherwise bad eggs. You'd think they'd notice a light bulb was a bad egg. Sounds cruel.
Can you build a roosting/nesting area for the chickens that is snake proof, with a door you can shut at night so the snakes can't get in? Our run is built of wire large enough for snakes to slither through, but we used wood and hardware cloth to keep out potential egg eaters. It is open during the day to allow the chickens out, but the only time I've ever had trouble with snakes in a chicken coop was at night.
If that's not possible, I would think there's nothing to it but to kill the snakes, as they've obviously found their hunting ground and it would be a hard job to convince them otherwise. You could feed the snake meat back to the chickens . . . an odd sort of circle of life thing, but I can never kill a wild animal without using it somehow.


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I "ditto" exactly everything said above.......​

 

[ruth]

Since my original post on here in April we have another rat snake, or two, that are showing up in barn and staying in nest boxes, in broad daylight, and eating the eggs. This one is not as big around as the first one but is still at least 5 feet long. So far I have been taking the "live and let live" approach and when gathering eggs and I see it on nest I move to next stall. However, it is getting to where the nonvenomous rat snake can become a deadly snake in that it can give me or someone else a heart attack. My hubby was helping gather eggs the other day and jumped and screamed when he reached in nest without looking and there was Mr. Resident Snake.

Now either one or two things have started happening because I am no longer getting any eggs from barn. One - he is eating them all - or two - the chickens have returned to laying in coop or somewhere else but I'm not getting as many from coop as I should. They have stopped hanging out in barn which I regret because it is nice and dark and cool for them and a shelter from predators. They now hang out in their coop for the heat of the day. I guess they got tired of having to share nest boxes with the snakes. So far I haven't seen one in the coop and good thing because it's where I lock up all chicks, chickens, ducks and ducklings for the night with baby chicks in hutches and pens a snake could easily get into. Yeah I know I could try snake proofing everything but for those who give that advice it just isn't practical for a 100 year old hen house and barn. If Mr. Resident Snake doesn't move on soon, and I'm sure he won't when there's a hot free meal to be had, I may have to serve eviction papers on him.

 

[dacjohns]

It's a tough call. My coop is an old smoke house (we think) that is really not worth the expense of fixing up. Snake proofing would prove to be expensive and a lot of work.

Snakes help keep the rodent population down and I'm not convinced cats by themselves would do a good job. Unless you are extremely careful in keeping no bits of chicken food around you are going to have mice. Mice attract snakes.

According to different things I've read on the natural history of various snakes there are many North American snakes that eat bird eggs. The last time I checked chickens were birds. Now you have mice and eggs. A smorgasboard for snakes. Throw in the small chicks. We are asking snakes to come and take up residence.

We do what we can and what we feel we should do. Moving the snakes to the next stall won't work. Someone on another thread said that rat snakes have a home range of 1/4 mile. You have to move it far away. I just moved one 1/2 mile away because the 1/8 wasn't far enough. It came back the next day. I'm sure I lost eggs to it because I have seen it in the nests and I lost a 5 week old chick. Head and neck were wet but the rest of the body was dry.

Sending it to snake heaven may be what you have to do after all other reasonable options are tried.

 

[amazondoc]

Perhaps you could simply tack cheap wire fencing material across the openings of your 100 year old hen house?

 

[Chickafoog]

We use golf Balls too.

 

[Struttn1]

I would not kill the snakes but would instead capture all the egg eaters I see and haul them to the nearest wildlife refuge and set them free.

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

Dont know if it really works but I have heard that you can put a line of DE around your coop and it will keep snakes at bay. I have only had one snake get in the coop and my son took it away so far this year no snakes

 

[ruth]

Hey DacJohns - I agree with you - trying to snake proof a hundred year old building would just prove too costly, time consuming and would probably not work anyway - they can get through the smallest crack or hole or burrow under dirt - or climb anything - sometimes you do just need to send them to snake heaven which is where the latest one in my barn may be going.

Oh, by the way, I wasn't moving the snake to the next stall, I was moving to the next stall. In fact, I move right out of the barn when I see it and let it have all the eggs it wants because I saw how aggressive the first one was, coiled up, rattling it's tail and striking at husband and pitch fork while he was trying to move it. Even the chickens have moved out of the barn. BUT.....I need my barn so he can go back to the ten thousand acres of woods that surround the barn or he can go to snake heaven. I'm quite sure the animal rights lovers will take issue with that but I also bet most of them wear leather and eat meat.

 

[ruby]

OK y'all I got lots of experience with this one! I even live near a veterinarian college. I was over run with snakes. I was getting a new one twice a week at one point. I didn't want to kill the non-venomous ones. And was sad when they ate the plastic easter eggs I put in there for the new hens. Fortunately I have a supper cool neighbor that would come over and remove the snake and take it to his barn. The others my hubbie caught we relocated at LEAST 5 miles from the house. To a hay field, away from me! I have found venomous snakes eating eggs too! Finally a couple of year a go I bought some guineas, since I have had only on snake. And this is with a pond not to far from the pen. It seems it was worse when there was a drought. We had a bad one last year and only had one snake. Yes I do believe they will return it not relocated. I used a pickle bucket, hubbie put it in and me and the kids would take it for a ride.