Black Snakes

[CrazyTalk]

Cavemanrich,

Now THAT is an enormous snake! Diamondback? Yikes! It will take a while to dig up the pic of myself and my blacksnake in Florida. It might even be in black and white. LOL Next time I'm at my Mom's I'll try to find it. I'm not sure I'll see the black snake from our coop again. They can be sneaky. If I do, I'll have to go get my camera, as I have one of those old stoneage phones with the slide out keyboard. Takes lousy pictures.

Thanks for the pictures!

It's not all that big - the picture is a forced persective trick - the snake is on the end of a stick held out in front of the man - so the snake looks muhc bigger than it actually is. It's a trick fisherman and hunters love to use.

 

[AgustinSr]

I have some black snakes around, not messing with my chickens so far. Now, I have my coops like 3 feet from ground, fenced and so far no problem. Like some of you I live close to the sticks far from city, many snakes but there are a few mice and by the way Black snake is the sworn enemy of copper head snakes witch are indeed poisoned and danger to humans. So blacksnake be in peace in my yard...

 

[sarahandjay]

I have some black snakes around, not messing with my chickens so far. Now, I have my coops like 3 feet from ground, fenced and so far no problem. Like some of you I live close to the sticks far from city, many snakes but there are a few mice and by the way Black snake is the sworn enemy of copper head snakes witch are indeed poisoned and danger to humans. So blacksnake be in peace in my yard...

really thats intresting. I knew the king snake can eat coopheads but was not aware of blacksnakes beimg enemys. I actaully was under the impression that copperheads and blacksnakes will occasionally share dens.

 

[cavemanrich]

It's not all that big - the picture is a forced persective trick - the snake is on the end of a stick held out in front of the man - so the snake looks muhc bigger than it actually is. It's a trick fisherman and hunters love to use.

You are taking away ALL MY FUN.

 

[cavemanrich]

HERE IS THE RUNDOWN.

NOW YOU SEE 2 SNAKES.

OH............ NOW THERE IS ONLY ONE....


HMMMMMM. ??????????

 

[sarahandjay]

I guess I never put much thought past the sharing part I learn something new everday so thank you.

 

[critterkeeper25]

An update to the black snake saga...Hubby and I were working all weekend, started work by 6:00 and didn't get home until about 9:00 in the evening so we didn't get to mess with the chickens much. Monday morning as I was heading out to run some errands, I decided to go check out the coop. (you know how you kind of just get this wierd feeling to do something) I went to the nest box lid and lifted it up..low and behold, there was the tail end of a black snake slowly disappearing up the inside corner of the coop. I ran around to the coop door and pulled it open. Up in the soffit area there is a small gap about an inch or two wide. I saw the side of the snake's body, and before I could get a grip on it, it popped into the soffit! So...I ran to the garage, grabbed some screwdrivers, a black heavy trash bag and a container to catch the snake as it would drop out of the soffit. Proceeded to remove screws in wood sealing up soffit outside. As I prised the wood down to have the snake slide out, it would craw back toward the inside of the coop. Anyway, after much running back and forth, chasing the snake from one side of the soffit to the other, I managed to get a loop of the snake out of the outside of the soffit and I grabbed it and pulled it out! I stuffed it in a bag and drove it about 20 miles away and let it go into the county woods. But wait... it gets even better! I got back home and went to check to see if there were any eggs left in the next boxes. As I neared the coop, down on the ground, parallel to the next boxes was ANOTHER black snake. This one was even bigger

than the first, but not as girthy. By that time I was so MAD, I just ran over, bent down and grabbed that sucker by the tail, marched it over to the truck where the trash bag was, grabbed the bag, and stuffed the snake inside. This time I didn't drive as far, but I did let it out in an uninhabited wooded area about 2 miles away. Hopefully, THAT snake won't come back.

So...I believe that the snake(s) had been living in the soffit of our coop for some time. Only coming down to eat and returning to the soffit to digest. We are now going to cover the interior gap in the soffit area with some carpenters cloth wire. That way at least any future snakes can't hide in there. The only way that I can see that a snake could get into the coop is through the small hen door that automatically opens at dawn and closes at night. There are no holes or gaps anywhere else. I don't think that the snake could lift the heavy lid to the nest box area, I, myself, can barely lift it, and I'm no weakling as I often carry 50lb bags of horse feed, 75lb bales of hay and 45lb containers of cat litter.

I hope this isn't an indicator as to how the summer is going to go! Is this the Chinese year of the snake?

 

[critterkeeper25]

I'm going to try to stop by my Mom's house today to look for the picture of myself and the snake when we were in Florida. I can tell you that there is no trick photography involved in that one. LOL

OH, and by the way, tricks aside...that was a big snake, and pretty fat! Must have been eating well!

Was walking at our local park last week and saw a dead eastern worm snake on the asphalt walking path. Looked just like an enormous earthworm. Had to take a close look and roll it over to tell the difference. I'm hoping that some mean kids didn't dig it up and stomp on it to kill it. I looked like that is how it died. They are rare to see because they live in the soil and under rotted wood and rocks just like earthworms. So COOL! Wish it was alive!

Gotta go...more snake hunting in the coop to do! No wonder we don't have any eggs!

 

[critterkeeper25]

I can't find the picture of me as a 4yr old (so my mother has insisted) holding a huge black snake down at an aligator farm in Florida. Must have been around 1968, I think it's in black and white. I'm sad, I loved that picture! I looked and looked, tore apart her entertainment center and looked in all of the old photo albums..Nada!

 

[can you hear me now?]

This was my last run in with a black snake. Silkie in its belly was not small, it was our biggest chick.