All you snake lovers...

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Got The Blues
14 Years
Nov 22, 2007
6,071
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Florida
My Coop
My Coop
I want an "attagirl". This evening I pulled out a bale of hay, and under it was a red rat snake. I didnt scream, or run, or my heart didnt start racing. It wasnt huge. It was all curled up, so it was probably 2 foot at least, but it was thin, not really fat. Im sure he's putting a big dent in the mouse population, I havent seen near the numbers of them, and I was wondering why. So as long as he stays out of the chicken pens, he can stay.
 
I bet you won't have much trouble with that one since it's small. I had to deal with a 5 foot rat snake in the pen with my baby chickens/turkeys a few weeks ago. I never like to kill them if I don't have to (even the venomous snakes) but my family members were freaking out anyway b/c he was about 15 feet from the house. Good job not panicking! I probably would have been pretty startled and I'm not particularly afraid of snakes.
 
I'm not a fan of snakes but I really try not to kill anything if I don't have to. I even have a rule of thumb in my house with spiders. They can stay as long as they stay out of my personal space.

The only exceptions are Black Widows and Brown Recluse. Although a Black House spider bit me in the ear 2 months ago and I was in pain for a week.

So if there's a snake around...it can stay...two conditions. If its not venomous and its not in my personal space.

Kudos to you for not killing it!

Laurie
 
If he finds his way into the chicken pen with full grown chickens your chickens may discover a new delicacy amongst chickens. Good job on not freaking.
 
The red rat snakes we get in Florida are very docile, you probably could have reached out & picked it up. It probably won't ever bother your adult birds nor their eggs, but instead eat up lots of the mice & rats that come after the feed.

But they can eat baby chicks. I've lost a few, mostly at twilight or overnight, to these kind of snakes. I know, because I found one coiled around a chick it had just killed. Then the stinker didn't even consume it! It swallowed it up to the shoulders, then had to spit it out because it must have been too big to finish. I've found a few other chicks left in the same condition every so often, so I assume it was also done by the same kind of snake.

Now I bring my chicks up to the house to sleep in boxes until they're really big & chunky, to protect them from the snakes. And we now keep 5 of these red rat snakes as pets, all caught in the yard. But we now run a mouse ranch to feed them all.
 
Well, apparently I was running a Mouse Ranch, too, in my barn, which is probably why he showed up. Since he wasnt huge and black, it didnt scare me to death. I will leave him be and hope he doesnt give me a heart attack next time I see him. I do have baby chicks right now out in the kennel, but I run them back in a dog carrier at night and bring them inside, especially since I found Mr. Snake inside the barn on the other side of the wall where the kennels are.

I will say that my mouse population is waaaaay down, which is a wonderful thing.
 
Attagirl!
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I like snakes just fine. I've taken care of a lot of snakes, and I've owned several myself. But even MY heart goes pitterpat when I discover one unexpectedly. It takes a moment to decide whether it's poisonous or not!

Good for you for not panicking!
 
Quote:
Good for you!

Last summer we were having a bad time with mice in the feed barn, one day I saw the tail end of a corn snake going into the barn and behind a bunch of feed bags. I wasn't about to move all that feed so I just told Sharon to keep an eye out for the snake. Within less than a week no more mouse problem. I hope it's still around!

Steve in NC
 

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