A snake bit me yesterday!

[chicmom]

Yep, a six foot long, black snake bit my foot yesterday when I didn't see it and stepped right on it!

I was walking across the yard, and I was carrying a chicken pen (kinda heavy), so I was in a hurry to put it down.....Soooo my husband looks out the window (he was cooking dinner) and he says, "Watch out for that big black snake."

Now, he says it kinda funny like he's teasing.....and I'm intent on getting this pen across the yard into a shady spot to put my chicks in it.......And by the time I actually process what he's saying to me, I step on the snake, it bites the top of my foot (I was wearing flipflops), I scream and drop the pen and flail around like an idiot!

Luckily, it really only scratched the top of my foot with it's fangs, and it was a non venomous snake....So I am fine! I watched is slither away and I was shocked at how large it is.....I'm sure it could eat my baby chicks, or hatching eggs, or my older chicks.......

Spooked me a bit, and I have to admit, when I walk out into the yard, I'm kind of freaked out a little bit......

Just wanted to share!

 

[wayneh]

you might want to call your Dr. you should have a tetnis shot. they are not poision, but they do carry all sorts of bad things that could make you very sick.

 

[zookeeper15133]

Yes it will eat larger chicks. Many years ago, I had one come into the house go into my cockatiel cage and eat a bird. Then it was stuck because it couldn't get out. My husband was 6' tall, when he held the dead snake up, it was over his head. Cockatiel cage bars are spaced at 3/4". This happened in the middle of the night, 2 or 3 AM.

 

[luvmesomechicks]

Ouch. Very lucky it wasn't venomous. And yeah if it broke skin definitely go get a tetanus shot.

 

[eggcited2]

Quote:
Yup, they will bite if stepped on or even cornered. Even though they are not poisonous, you should get a tetanus shot. All doctors will tell you to do that, cause of the bacteria and germs in the snakes mouth. They very highly recommend getting a tetanus shot! Please get one.

 

[GiddyMoon]

ah hail naw

 

[triplej]

Oh man you just skivved me out!!! Where your babies all okay??

Snakes....I bought a hoe just for the inside of my pen in case one of Satan's hand puppets decides he wants to try and come in my pen while I'm in there.

Glad you weren't bitten any more severely.

 

[eggcited2]

I remember when I was a kid in the country and a big ole black snake would be sunning itself with bumps all down the body of it. Had a meal of eggs and was getting warm in the sun.

And yes, they would get chicks too. We lost plenty of goose eggs and young goslings that way.

They do get big. It was nothing to be driving into town and have a big ole black snake stretched across the entire width of the country gravel road, sunning itself.

It was common for the farmers to keep a black snake, king snake, or bull snake in their barns for rodent control.

 

[eggcited2]

Quote:
What you going to do when one is inside the nest box? LOL Sorry, couldn't resist asking. My dad and brother would most often gather the egss and would sometimes reach under a broody hen to get the eggs and find a snake curled up under her. They hated when that happened. Expecting to find an egg, but grabbing or feeling a snake instead. That was the reason mom would not go collect eggs if any of the hens went broody.

 

[triplej]

What you going to do when one is inside the nest box?

See...the moment I hit the submit button I knew someone was going to bust this newbie for that one!!! LOL I will probably at the very least urinate down my leg, most likely faint too!!!

I'm not afraid of them if I see them before they make contact with me, it's just the "startle" factor that skivvies me out. Since we moved here and have been clearing so much land off, we have come in to close contact with some rattlers but a least they were kind enough to give us a warning and then, well I hope I don't offend anyone since I'm new here and all but, they are now dead. A garden hoe is a country girl's best friend in my book!!​