Chicken snakes

Deterrents do not work and mothballs aren't legal in some states as they can leach into the ground, plus they also do not work. Hardware cloth, patching holes and reinforcing the perimeter are your best best. Make sure chicken feed is not inviting mice and rats into the area. Trap vermin rather than poisoning as they can track the poison into the coop.

Hawks, opossums, raccoons, dogs, cats--everybody likes chicken. But we're not willing to share.

It is impractical to cover every single inch of a large run with hardware cloth. We have covered every inch of our run with chicken wire. The attached coop has hardware cloth around the base. Snakes--as we all know--go right through chicken wire (as well as pretty much any small space they can find).

And since we keep about 2 dozen chickens, there is no doubt ample scent in the air for the snakes to zero in on. I too hate the idea of poison of any kind. Mice and rats are very common here where I live. The dogs like catching them. Oh--and bunnies, lots of wild bunnies. We're in the country, after all.

Bottom line for me anyway, is to keep seeking ways to safely trap without hurting my cats and dogs. I'm supposed to be smarter than the predators. So...game on!
 
I 2nd the bird netting option.. Youtube chicken snakes. Guy in texas had a dozen snakes in various stages of de-composition all stuck in bird netting like a fish in a gill net. They squeeze in and get stuck and choke.

Last thing I want to see back there is a snake. I bought bird netting for my run and bought extra instead of attaching it to the top of my fence for hawks im attching it to the bottom and that will block hawks and snakes
 
I 2nd the bird netting option.. Youtube chicken snakes. Guy in texas had a dozen snakes in various stages of de-composition all stuck in bird netting like a fish in a gill net. They squeeze in and get stuck and choke.

Last thing I want to see back there is a snake. I bought bird netting for my run and bought extra instead of attaching it to the top of my fence for hawks im attching it to the bottom and that will block hawks and snakes
Yeah I saw the video you're describing. I was so inspired I ran out and got a bunch of it from our local Walmart. I'm slowly encircling the run plus coop, using little bits of orange string so I can see where it is.
 
Yeah I saw the video you're describing. I was so inspired I ran out and got a bunch of it from our local Walmart. I'm slowly encircling the run plus coop, using little bits of orange string so I can see where it is.

2 weeks ago i covered my pen and put the netting all the way to the ground. No snakes yet but its in place. If one comes around i hope he gets himself caught before we find him in the coop.
 
I have electric wire around my coops and pens. The pens are all covered with heavy duty netting. I had a couple of Coachwhips that were electrocuted by the electric wire. They got caught in some of the netting that hung over the fence in a spot next to one of the coops and their tails were on the ground so since they were grounded and went across the electric wire it was bye bye snakes. I found a rat snake wrapped around the outside of a milk crate I was using as a nest box. I left to get something to get it out and when I went back it had gone. I looked around the coop and didn't find it. I do have golf balls in my nest boxes. I have had golf balls disappear. Maybe a snake got them.
 
I have electric wire around my coops and pens. The pens are all covered with heavy duty netting. I had a couple of Coachwhips that were electrocuted by the electric wire. They got caught in some of the netting that hung over the fence in a spot next to one of the coops and their tails were on the ground so since they were grounded and went across the electric wire it was bye bye snakes. I found a rat snake wrapped around the outside of a milk crate I was using as a nest box. I left to get something to get it out and when I went back it had gone. I looked around the coop and didn't find it. I do have golf balls in my nest boxes. I have had golf balls disappear. Maybe a snake got them.
Sounds like a good set-up you have there. I too have used golf balls in their nesting boxes, had at least one rat snake up there but never took the balls.
 
Hey, we're having the same problem down here in South Carolina. We too found out that the so-called Snake Rid does nothing to deter them. Neither does the 12-inch deep hardware cloth we buried around the entire 18x40 foot run and coop. It's really bugging me! I killed one 5 foot adult rat snake last week and thought that was it. Nope! Last night we found another adult right in our coop, "snuggled" up underneath a pile of very confused, slightly worried looking pullets. :mad:

Probably like you, I did some research on snake trapping and decided to go with the loop thing. I took 3/4 inch PVC pipe--about 3 feet long-- and threaded 7 feet of thin cable through it and back up to form a loop at one end. The idea is to loosely encircle the head area, then pull sharply, fold over the cable to hold tension and then sever the head. Haven't tried it yet but I'm pretty sure I will be soon. I killed the first one with a rake, husband killed the second one with a shovel (it's messy that way). So hopefully we'll get a system going here. It's so unnerving not knowing when or where the next one is gonna show up.

By the way I like what you said about the golf balls. We did that and so far none have been taken. Keep us posted on your progress!

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I don't know if you've already tried that method but I find it very interesting, I usually use the shovel and my wife the rake
 
Welcome to BYC!

My cats like to kill snakes, and I hear that guineas do as well. Hardware cloth all your cracks, store your feed well, trap/poison rodents.

I've heard that most snake repellents do nothing against snakes; they're supposed to not care about naphthalene or sulfur after a brief adjustment period.

I had a brief stint as a kid when I could not incubate eggs due to rats eating them. So I put the nesting hens in boxes made of hardware cloth and just turned them out once a day.
that reminds me of a time when my bro thought pope had brought a snake in the house. Turns out it was a large worm
 
(ETA: just saw it is an old post :rolleyes: but the information is still timely. Live and let live.)
I have a snake problem but it's my problem, not the snakes'. Since they live here and they lived here before I did, I see it as their home. I also have a controlled explosive rat and mouse population because of the way the property was abandoned before I purchased it. The snakes help out quite a lot to keep rodents down. (Owls, hawks and a cat also help). I can identify which snake is where. Two days ago, while sticking my hand into a dark nestbox, I felt a snake instead of feeling an egg. I don't mind them. I hope they don't mind me. I'm convinced we can live together in harmony.

In order for that to happen, I've had to snake-proof my brooding and grow out cages and I collect eggs several times a day but I leave eggs from some of my laying hens (my "charity" hens that aren't breeding quality but deserve a good life) outside for the snakes. In return, I don't have to use poison or traps anywhere. I don't have to kill the wildlife and I still raise chickens like the crazy eccentric farmer I am.
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