I think its living underneath my mobile home and worry about it getting in the house.I'd have a heart attack if I woke up with a big black snake stretched out in the house lol
This snake is huge nope!
I agree with you on snakes.I strive to give my chickens a stress free coop as much as possible.Snakes sharing the coop isn't tolerated.They have 1/2 " hardware cloth all over their coop and run and it also has an apron around all sides to keep snakes and mice out.A finch flew in and couldn't get out yesterday but I caught and release it .I don't know how long it was trapped maybe a couple hrsWhen I first saw a snake in the duck nest, I said well, if it (rat snake) keeps mice and copperheads away, I'm cool if it gets an egg or so (I was a newby and only had ducks and chickens for a couple months at the time). Fast forward to 3 weeks later, and a full grown muscovy hen was found dead on her nest. Her head and neck was wet, so it was obvious that a snake had tried to swallow her and couldn't . Since that day, 2 years ago, I've come to the shocking reality that 1) a snake will not keep other snakes away. They may not be friends and hang out on the daily, but they are not exactly enemies either. They may kill and eat a smaller snake, but that's not exactly keeping others away. 2) snakes are not happy just eating mice and eggs. We lost our hen to a snake 2 years ago, and have since lost a baby duck to a snake just a couple weeks ago (also lost a 7 ft black snake that day as well). 3) We have bunches of mice, that we are currently trying to find a solution for, and it seems to me that the snakes are not interested in them. 4) Snakes are apparently not bothered by killing something that's way to big to swallow, as I never wouldve thought one would try to swallow a full grown duck.
While my husband was unfortunately out of town, I found a 4 foot long black snake in the coop, sleeping under a wooden pallet(which has been removed). I begged the snake to leave fast. Told it that I had to go find something to get rid of him with, and to please just hurry up and slither off so I didn't have to hurt it because i dont like doing that, but when it comes down it, it's us or them (and yes, us, meaning im a flock member too) and ill do what i have to do to protect the flock. When I got back with the shotgun and did what I had to do, I realized after much confusion that there was not one, not 2, but THREE freaking snakes in the coop that day.. I knew the first one was no longer with us, but there it was on the outside of the back wall....slithering in between the boards and the fence...
. Had to check on the first snake, inside the coop, to make sure I wasn't tripping, and there it was...still in the same spot it was in a few minutes before with its muscles still contracting....
So, I'm crying like crazy, walking from the inside of the coop to the outside of the coop, back to the inside to triple check and back to the outside, confused because they all look the same
, trying to come to terms with the triple homicide im in the middle of, instead of the single murder that i had come to terms with already(sort of), and I don't wanna hurt 1 soul, let alone 3, but feel forced to do so because the snake didn't leave when I told it to.
We ended up taking care of at least 9 rat snakes. Found several black racers as well. Smallest was probably 3 ft long. We have so many mice, I wouldve thought any snake would be happy and full, but nope. Not at all. They run around like 13 year old boys dumping the refrigerator in their mouth, swallowing anything that gets too close, except mice of course.
I firmly believe we were all put here to live together, but if it comes down to my flock or the predator, regardless of species, I'll choose the flock. Every. Single. Time. With no regrets. I feel it's my responsibility to keep them from harm.
Moral of this long drawn out story, snakes cannot be trusted around the flock, and that it doesn't matter how much I love nature or how beautiful it can be, it's still nature and it's brutal. For the hunter and the hunted.
My husband caught one, with his bare hands
, and we were gonna relocate it . He put it in a 55 gallon plastic drum . With a lid. With a couple concrete blocks on top. Went to get it to relocate it, and it was gone. Vanished. Disappeared. We were flabbergasted. Still am. Have no idea how that thing managed to escape that drum. 
I share in your guilt! I lost two of my four chicks. They're 6 weeks old. My chicken 'cool' is an old barn and I couldn't possibly cover all the ways a snake could get in. Two nights ago it took my beautiful little gray one after Killin my black one last week. I grabbed that snakes tail, pulled it out of where it was going and chopped it's head off! I'm sorry to those of you who hate to see this happen, but my chicks were loving and sweet and died a horrible, agonizing death! It won't happen again if I can help it!!!Heartbroken to say the least. I had an alert at around 11pm yesterday of motion in my coop. I run over and 3 of my chicks are dead! A black snake killed them. I am feeling very guilty, as I just moved them out of their smaller brooder wrapped in hardware cloth into a dog cage. My coop is over 50 years old, many gaps for a snake or mouse to get in. I've wrapped what I can in bird netting to prevent another entry, and also will be keeping the remaining birds in a safe place. If I had the money the entire coop would be covered in hardware cloth, but that is not an option at the moment.
Has this happened to anyone else? I feel sick to my stomach all day now. I felt like I failed them. Losing 3 at a time just hurts my heart. My coop is safe from any predators except snakes and weasels.
