Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[Fancychooklady]

Hi Everyone,
I'm in Queensland & new to chickens.  I have 5 utility chicks that are 5 weeks old and coming along nicely.  They are living in their converted coop but we still have to build the run. Our neighbour has a dog so I can't afford to let them adventure over the fence.  I'm quite paranoid about snakes so I'm interested to know if any of you do anything to deter snakes apart from building a fortress for your chickens? 
Catherine

Hi Catherine,
I haven't had any snakes about my chooks but I did have a dog attack so if I were you I'd be more worried about the dog next door. I too am constantly worried about snakes ( tiger ) in particular around our livestock and horses. Since we have been here several of our friends have lost horses to snake bite. I am considering investing in one of those new snake repellers. I am told that they do emit a beep, not sure if it is going to send the dogs loopy. We've seen some huge tiger snakes here and some smaller 1 m copper heads. The snake repeller is available at hardware stores. @sydneychickens, had a python get into her chicks and @satay is very fond of snakes , I'm sure they will be happy to advise you.

 

[cwrite]

You are lucky! We live in a suburb and have an area of bush over our back fence. We have had to keep our cats indoors because Tiger started bringing snakes home. It started with a legless lizard he proudly dropped in my bedroom doorway. At first glance I thought it was a brown snake & nearly smashed the window to get escape! The he tried to herd a baby whip snake inside, followed a week later by the daddy whip snake. My limit was the baby carpet snake he dropped on the patio and sat next to proudly. I've also seen a tree snake right outside the laundry! There are clearly a lot of reptiles around here. We have gone for vermin mesh that will cover three quarters of the sides and I'm hoping avairy netting over the top will be sufficient. I'm pretty much willing to try anything to make sure I don't see another snake or have my kids see one in the back garden.

 

[cwrite]

My lucky remark was directed at oz-e-chick. Tiger snakes & copper heads not so much! I'll look into the snake repeller. If you get one please post if it works. We get brown snakes here (my biggest fear) & the school four houses down had to go into lockdown because of a large king brown snake on one of the fields!

 

[TheChookPatch]

Fancy guinea fowl are great for snakes seeings you have lots of space where you are. I cant inagine neighbours would appreciate their calling in the suburbs though cwrite.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Fancy guinea fowl are great for snakes seeings you have lots of space where you are. I cant inagine neighbours would appreciate their calling in the suburbs though cwrite. 

Lol chook, we have ' turbo chooks ' water hens. They make more noise than a banchee. We also have plovers nesting in every direction. Combined they all make too much noise . Problem is determining what they are screaming at. At night it's possums.

 

[Fancychooklady]

My lucky remark was directed at oz-e-chick. Tiger snakes & copper heads not so much!  I'll look into the snake repeller.  If you get one please post if it works.  We get brown snakes here (my biggest fear) & the school four houses down had to go into lockdown because of a large king brown snake on one of the fields!

You do have a snake problem, you should change your cats name to ' lucky '. Last week our local feed store had a big tiger snake climbing up the roller door.
They called the snake handler to come get him. They said he was throwing himself at the door. I said ' maybe he's been in there all the time and you locked him out. tigers can lay up to 200 live babies in one go. I hate snakes!!!

 

[TheChookPatch]

We have plovers here too which get set off at night by the wallabies and foxes. I have put off getting a male guinea fowl as they are meant to be noisier than females, but Immogen is fantastic. Last night the moon made the paddocks look like it was daylight and all the cockerels were trying to out do each other... I think my birds are a tad too close to the house

 

[cwrite]

I checked our regulations before getting the chooks & we are literally allowed 6 chickens & that's it! No turbo chooks or anything at all. I would be tempted to 'release' a few guinea fowl over the back fence if I could be sure that the snakes wouldn't head my way to escape.

Quote: Lol. Maybe he really was annoyed at being locked out! I'm sure we wouldn't have seen half the reptiles we have without Tiger trying to bring them home. I also hate snakes! I like to think of myself as a reasonably humane sort of person but when it comes to snakes I could quite easily get someone else to kill the last breeding pair of a species. Not me obviously since most people get bitten trying to kill the snake. ; )

 

[satay]

My lucky remark was directed at oz-e-chick. Tiger snakes & copper heads not so much!  I'll look into the snake repeller.  If you get one please post if it works.  We get brown snakes here (my biggest fear) & the school four houses down had to go into lockdown because of a large king brown snake on one of the fields!

They are out and about for sure. Poor things are looking for water as it's so dry. Not good when they have to get close to humans to do so though. They will also be looking for food from now til end of may when they start winter hibernation.

 

[satay]

You are lucky!  We live in a suburb and have an area of bush over our back fence.  We have had to keep our cats indoors because Tiger started bringing snakes home.  It started with a legless lizard he proudly dropped in my bedroom doorway.  At first glance I thought it was a brown snake & nearly smashed the window to get escape!  The he tried to herd a baby whip snake inside, followed a week later by the daddy whip snake.  My limit was the baby carpet snake he dropped on the patio and sat next to proudly.  I've also seen a tree snake right outside the laundry!  There are clearly a lot of reptiles around here.  We have gone for vermin mesh that will cover three quarters of the sides and I'm hoping avairy netting over the top will be sufficient.  I'm pretty much willing to try anything to make sure I don't see another snake or have my kids see one in the back garden.

lol please excuse me cause I am a snake lover and have them as pets (non venomous) we have tree snakes and carpets and all sorts of venomous ones out here. I live by the theory that we all live in harmony. If they leave me be I leave them be.. Of couse if I had to kill a venomous one for a reason I would but I hope I never have to. Thankfully my cat has never brought a snake home, Big bush rats ... but not snakes thankfully.