Can this snake hurt chickens

[Rockergirl]

I have 3 adults and 3 eight week old chicks (don't belong to the hens). I just found this snake....will it hurt my ladies? The tail is hanging through the window. They are protected with hard wire but I let the big girls out during the day that is not predator proof (except for from overhead flying creatures). If the snake got in there, could it hurt my big girls?

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Your eight-week-old chicks are plenty small enough for the snake in your photo to eat, so great that you have them protected. Since the snake can't get to your chicks, it will focus on eating your hens' eggs, including eating from right underneath them while they are in a nest box. It is unlikely that snake will harm your adult hens unless they peck or try to drive it away. But I would never say never. There are instances where a snake strangled a broody hen so it could get to the eggs she was protecting. Personally, I permanently remove rat snakes if they discover the nest boxes, either by relocating them if i can catch them without being bitten, or killing them if they are too aggressive to catch. Six-plus feet long rat snakes will eat 4 eggs every single day. Snakes that live in my sheds and the woods are welcome to stay and provide rodent control.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

She would not have given up easily since she discovered possible food in the way of your eggs and chicks. If you have seen baby snakes nearby, they will come around as soon as they are large enough to eat your potential food sources. Idk if you have seen evidence of rodent activity. Some people say if a person sees a rat snake around their coop, it means they have a rodent problem. (A black snake is considered to be a rat snake variety.) That may or may not be true. Only twice have I ever seen a rat inside my coops, and it was during winter when snakes were dormant. And it was only one rat both times. I live in a rural wooded area, and snakes are abundant. If you live in a similiar area, you will always see snakes around your coop. If not, it may be that rodents are coming to your compost pile, and snakes are tracking them by smell. But an egg or confined chick is much easier to catch than a rodent, and neither will bite a snake. Meaning a rat snake will almost always choose to eat an egg or bird over a rodent. They eat adult wild birds, chicks and eggs too. Here is info about black snakes that will help answer your question(s).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantherophis_obsoletus

 

[Rockergirl]

I'm very curious about this. It seems to me that if a chicken can get to the nest box, a snake probably could too. I've had to ... er ... deal with a snake in one of my nest boxes, and he was full of eggs at the time. I would love it if you would tell me how to make my nest boxes secure from snakes, esp as I have a snake at this very moment living under my house, and it's only a matter of time before it goes after my eggs if it isn't already!

Our nest box is inside the coop and then the coop is attached to the "indoor/covered" run which is protected by hardwire (deep underground too). Attached is a pic. But it may look like a crack between the coop (blue shed on left) and the indoor run (in middle) but we have it sealed off totally except for a small pop door that connects the two. There are no cracks at all (very predator safe). However now I worry about the "outside" run, which is connected to the right...it is not protected (except for overhead) - I leave the pop door to that open during the day so they have more space.....so I guess, technically a snake could get in that way if they were crawling around during the day time.....I actually closed that door the other day when I saw that snake. So - if I keep the outdoor run closed while the ladies play around, there is no way for a snake to get to the nest box but if I keep it open like I have during day....that is a different story).

Note if you look to the far left side of the cop (blue shed on left) - you will see where we attached the nest box...we cut out an opening and put it there so it didn't take up too much coop space, if that makes sense...

Ignore the red house thing on the far right, that is their old coop when they were babies, it's just there to play on. this is basically our starter design...we just started raising chickens last summer. We are getting ready to enlarge everything and build a new bigger coop (instead of using a shed) and make the outdoor run on the right more secure (you can't see it, but there is overhead netting to protect from overhead attacks). I have 3 hens and 3 8 week old chicks. I don't plan on getting more than that. I do let the older ladies free range in the afternoon when I'm outside with them.

The snake you see in my original picture was sitting on top of that nest box with tip of it's tail through the window above it (hardwire). It later moved on top of a piece of lumber trim we had up top to seal things off, between the left coop and the middle indoor run....it was watching the baby chicks in the middle indoor run.

 

[SmiYa0126]

Thats a black snake, it will go after eggs, not sure if it will go after the hens themselves.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

It's probably not big enough to eat a grown hen, but your chicks may be at risk. Can you capture and relocate it?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

We have a smallish one living under our house where we can't get to it, sigh.

 

[Red Mangrove]

Beautiful snake, I wouldn't kill it personally. The snakes here have yet to harm my chickens but they do eat rats

 

[Rockergirl]

Beautiful snake, I wouldn't kill it personally. The snakes here have yet to harm my chickens but they do eat rats

Okay - it worries me because that is their coop window that it's hanging from....so it's slithering near by. and nothing to worry about if I let them free range?

Your eight-week-old chicks are plenty small enough for the snake in your photo to eat, so great that you have them protected. Since the snake can't get to your chicks, it will focus on eating your hens' eggs, including eating from right underneath them while they are in a nest box. It is unlikely that snake will harm your adult hens unless they peck or try to drive it away. But I would never say never. There are instances where a snake strangled a broody hen so it could get to the eggs she was protecting. Personally, I permanently remove rat snakes if they discover the nest boxes, either by relocating them if i can catch them without being bitten, or killing them if they are too aggressive to catch. Six-plus feet long rat snakes will eat 4 eggs every single day. Snakes that live in my sheds and the woods are welcome to stay and provide rodent control.
View attachment 3633451

Thank you. The picture that I posted, don't know if you can tell, but that is the nest box she is laying on top of.....I scared her off (I thought) to only find her later wedged in a small crack closer to my babies (she would not have been able to get them if they were locked up, but she was obviously plotting and I had actually just opened the pop door to the outside run which meant if she was smart enough, she would have been able to get them, given time and had I not found her this 2nd time, it could have been bad). My husband was home that time around so he came outside and took care of business....she is no longer a problem for the girls.....hopefully the dad isn't around....I do know my big girls have caught a few baby snakes over the past 6 weeks (didn't know hens ate snakes), nearby (in the compost) so hopefully that doesn't mean more are going to come around. I have no idea how many babies they make or how fast they grow....

 

[Rockergirl]

She would not have given up easily since she discovered possible food in the way of your eggs and chicks. If you have seen baby snakes nearby, they will come around as soon as they are large enough to eat your potential food sources. Idk if you have seen evidence of rodent activity. Some people say if a person sees a rat snake around their coop, it means they have a rodent problem. (A black snake is considered to be a rat snake variety.) That may or may not be true. Only twice have I ever seen a rat inside my coops, and it was during winter when snakes were dormant. And it was only one rat both times. I live in a rural wooded area, and snakes are abundant. If you live in a similiar area, you will always see snakes around your coop. If not, it may be that rodents are coming to your compost pile, and snakes are tracking them by smell. But an egg or confined chick is much easier to catch than a rodent, and neither will bite a snake. Meaning a rat snake will almost always choose to eat an egg or bird over a rodent. They eat adult wild birds, chicks and eggs too. Here is info about black snakes that will help answer your question(s).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantherophis_obsoletus

I've never seen rats or mice around the coop or anywhere around our house. We have squirrels everywhere and foxes and supposedly copperheads are big in our area (but I haven't seen one, nor have I seen a fox in our yard)....we live in the outskirts of town but it's still pretty populated. We have woods that back up to our house (about 1.5 acres...) I think the chickens found the baby snakes in the compost box because that is the area they run from in their mouth. We have closed it off recently - it's full - so maybe that will help? Is there anything we can put around the coop to deter snakes from coming around? After reading the article it says they can have about 12-20 eggs and I've only seen my chickens catch about 3 babies......so I know more are out there....I'm sure they may have caught some I didn't see, but not that many