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Of course! This is our first flock, too, and believe me we have learned a lot, often the hard way! Happy to pass on those lessons to others. Also, the BYC community has been a godsend! :bow

I would just recommend patching up those potential entry points, perhaps with 1/4" hardware cloth? Smaller ones are less likely to be a problem but I still wouldn't risk it. Once we figured out how snakes were getting into our coop, we sealed it up and haven't seen one since. Way better to...

Yeah it seems the neighbors run butts right up to a big wood pile--which is where we saw the snake leave (we almost caught the guy!). I'm sorry about your losses--its crazy how infrequently rat snakes are brought up as potential predators. After posting about this I'm learning so many people...

We store the feed indoors overnight so there's never food left out in the run. Any scraps are removed too each night. That said, I think our visitor came for the eggs... I don't blame him, there is nothing like farm fresh eggs! Sadly the neighbors poultry are young and not laying yet, so...

It's good to know this. I don't plan to go hunt and kill any and all snakes in my radius, but if our poultry are dying in this way and I find the culprit in their coop...well... Fair game.

I'm new to keeping chickens, and my mama bear side is certainly coming to the forefront on this. Docile so long as not poked (aka so long as my livestock are not threatened).

It's tough. That's my ideal approach, and the one I respect most (I have trouble killing any living thing, down to insects). But I put a lot of time, resources, and care into my very small backyard flock, so even just one loss is a huge one. Of course, since we upped security in our coop I...

Yes, I was misled by info about keeping them around if you find them in your coop. I understand they do help with rodent problems. So we initially just coaxed them out and let them on their merry way. Now that I know they're behind poultry kills in our neighborhood I may have to take a different...

Hey everyone. I'm posting this as a warning about large rat snakes, which are commonly regarded as helpful to keep around for pest control. We recently had seen several in our coops--one of them over 5 feet long--and caught/released them thinking they were harmless (despite the egg casualty) and...