Black snake!!

[dawg53]

vscampbell. I somewhat agree with that "no North American snake can eat an adult chicken,or even one that is a few weeks old...newly hatched chicks,yes." However, I have personally seen snakes (specifically yellow rat snakes, known as chicken snakes around here) kill 3-4 month old pullets in an attempt to eat them after constriction. They cant swallow them past the chickens' shoulders so they are regurgitated, they leave the carcass then off to the next one. Not only that, a 5 footer drug one of my full grown Buff Orpingtons hens off her perch in her house, out onto the ground into the pen and was attemping to constrict her in the middle of the night. Luckily I heard her screaming and went out with my flashlight and saw what was happening and quickly killed the snake. We have some pretty good sized snakes here; especially canebrake rattlers,eastern diamondback rattlers and cottonmouths that I know "could eat" an adult chicken. Again though, they prefer rodents/ fish or frogs in the cottonmouth's case rather than chickens and most likely would never happen. I would like to add I killed a corn snake several years ago after eating 4 of 6 chicks in their brooder in my garage. Since it's hot and humid here mostly from April thru towards the middle of October....snakes rule, rodents are hard to come by and chicks/chickens are next in line if the opportunity exists.

 

[Kramspott]

I am with vcscampbell. I'd gladly allow black snakes [especially King Snakes] around my chicken run and coop. The King Snake eats poisonous snakes like rattle snakes and copperheads. Which if one of those snakes, spooked by a chicken, actually bit one it would be a bad thing. Nope, do your homework on snakes and try an let the non-venomous snakes have a place around your coop to ward off mice, rats and poisonous snakes. It's a better trade off.

 

[dawg53]

I agree with you kramspot to a degree. We dont have many Kingsnakes here, plenty of Black snakes though (I know my homework on local snakes, thank you) and I dont mess with the Black snakes and fortunately had only one Pygmy rattlesnake in my yard many years ago before I had chickens. One of my hogs gobbled him up. Any predator/ vermin or whatever that goes after my chickens will be dealt with quickly.

 

[babyblue]

I really need a few big black rat snakes for in the horse barn. my barn cat is all of 7 pounds when wet and theres not a thing she could do to a rat.

 

[Kramspott]

Dawg - sorry to hear there are no King Snakes in your area. [Should I box some up?] LOL. Didn't mean to say in any way you were not doing your homework if that's the way it came across. I was hoping people would use the internet to do homework on snakes in their area. Yeah for us, it's gonna be Raccoon, Opossum, Fox, Coyote - maybe skunks that go after our critters. We live 35 minutes west of St. Louis, MO back deep in the woods.

 

[ducks4you]

Quote:
THANK you for posting this!!! OP, Consider getting one or two cats (get kittens and raise them up). If you are zoned for chickens, you are certainly zoned for cats, and the cats will mouse for you. Then your snakes will find someplace else to hunt.

If a snake is venomous, certainly kill it... but I would encourage everyone to avoid killing non venemous snakes because they help far far more than they harm... One dead snake will mean an increase in mice and rats by around 100,000 plus in a year.... when you figure that mice and rats breed every month, and so do the babies after they are about 4 months old, and so on and so on..... you figure out the math on the number of mice and rats a snake will eat.... being 2 or 3 a week.... or 2 or 3 litters of mice a week at 8 in a litter...

WE had a garter snake living under our front (cement) step when we moved out to the country ten years ago. Surprisingly, there were NO cats living in my barn, not even feral ones. We Immediately got a cat and the snake left. I am not fond of snakes by my house, but I appreciate their part of the food chain, and would rather have a snake than a rat, ANY DAY!!!
We are actually low on cats right now--down to two, who are eight years old, a brother and sister, NEUTERED AND SPAYED, OF COURSE!!!!
We're going to get two more kittens this summer. DH is a big cat lover, so it will be a treat for him.​

 

[dawg53]

All is well Kramspott. We have all the critters you mentioned too, even black bears and gators because we are close to the Okefenokee Swamp, no skunks though lol! Snakes are the main predator and occasional hawks. Did I mention mosquitos, yellow flies and sand gnats as bad predators also? My chicken houses are snake proof but not the pens, too cost prohibitive because they are big pens.$$$ lol. If we could handle the cold winters, we'd move north...but our blood is thin and when the temp dips to 65 degrees, we wear our jackets lol.

 

[bluegoose]

This Is Just My Two Cents, I Have Lived On A Self Supporting Farm For About Forty Years Now. My Farm Joins Daniel Boon National Forest Which Has A Huge Game Preserve Not 1/2 Mile From My House. So No Hunting Of Any Thing, So There Are Plenty Of Black Bear And Elk That Live On My Farm Year Round.Most Of The Bear And Elk Never Bother Anything Or Anyone But There Will Always Be At Least One That Will Act Out Of The Norm. Instead Of Eating Grass And Berrys And What Ever Bears Eat One Will Go After My Livestock. So The Forestry Dept Gives Me The OK To Shoot Any Bear That Attacks My Livestock.Same With The Elk That Tears Up My Corn Fields But I Have Never Killed Any. The Same Thing Holds True With Any Animal. I Have Quail And Pheasant That I Have In Pens That Are Pretty Well Predator Proof But Something Was Killing My Red Golden Pheasant Which Are Not Easy To Come By So I Put A Spy Cam In The Pen And It Was A Black Snake.The Camera Showed Mice Running All Over The Snake The Snake Never Moved But When One Of My Birds Got To Close The Snake Would Kill It So Again Out Of The Norm. These Are The Ones That Have To Be Dealt With. Its Kinda Like If I'm Hungary I Will Take Hamburgers Over Hot Dogs. I Didn't Mean To Ramble On But Just My Thoughts.

 

[ducks4you]

bluegoose, I'm sure it's that snake's food preference. So many people here will tell you that their chickens will strip all of the vegetation if allowed. Well, MY 7 RIR hens refuse to eat certain weeds, certain parts of fruit--like the outside skin of the watermelon I gave them yesterday, and certain (vegetable) table scraps. I have one cat that loves birds and baby rabbits much more than mice.
Maybe THIS snake grew up killing birds in the woods?

 

[SkyWarrior]

Quote:

I found some terrestrial garders and blue and black racers near my house. I was so thrilled to have them here because they eat bugs and vermin.

If people are really concerned about snakes, they can get hardware cloth that is "snake fencing." I did that for the brooder and never lost a chick. Non-venomous snakes are cool!