Can we talk about snakes!

[A1momof3]

Ok I have found and killed 2 very large snakes in my coop already. My egg
Count had been going down then I saw that 2 of my ceramic eggs were gone.
So twice now we have found these snakes. So HOW in the world do I deal
with snakes? How do I keep them from getting my eggs? What do you do about
chicken snakes?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

There will be lots of opinions on this but there's only one entrance into my elevated egg layer coops and though snakes could probably get in there, I haven't had any. I imagine the chickens would kill and eat a lot of smaller snakes.
Did the snakes have the ceramic eggs and other eggs in them?
I have a lot of snakes around and appreciate them. They eat a lot more rodents than eggs.

 

[SunkenRoadFarms]

Did they eat the ceramic eggs? If so that will take care if those two. But once they know there's food, they will keep coming back. Are they venomous? I hate to kill the corn and rat snakes, but a copperhead I will not hesitate. They can fit through almost any 1/2 in opening. Doubled up 1/2 hardware cloth has worked pretty well for me. But mostly I've just come to accept them, and have a spade handy.

 

[A1momof3]

Yes they ate the ceramic eggs AND a lot of my regular eggs. I have 20 laying chickens and I get 12 or 14 eggs a day and I know they were all laying at one point. I think they were rat snakes and if they would just stick to that I would be ok but they got one of my babies and lots of my eggs. So I want to keep them away from my chickens and eggs! Plus I have to order more ceramic eggs! Lol

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Sometimes clearing the area around the coop of anything the snakes can hide in can help. They don't like to hang out in the open.

 

[nab58]

We had rat snakes that were living in the barn and another outbuilding in a house we once moved into (before we had chickens). They were everywhere and very large. The house had been unoccupied for some time before we moved in. Once we started mowing the lawn and occupying the spaces the snakes had been hanging out in they decided to move on. Of course we didn't have delicious eggs for them!

 

[Samalander]

I have heard of people having success with moving them 5-10 miles away and if possible Remington any nearby hiding places. The case I heard if was rat snakes.