Chickens and Snakes

[heatherndoug]

We had a 6 foot yellow rat in our coop....Sorry to say he lost his head. I felt bad because he was prolly just eating the eggs. My fear is with a snake that big he would have constricted a smaller chicken cause she got in the way. A few weeks after the incident we heard a thump come from the quail cage..I thought it was them just bumping their head or something. BUT NOOO I had another 5 foot yellow rat in cage with them and he had already killed 2 and was working on a third. He couldn't swallow the quail but he gave it a try. Sorry but he lost his head too...I am a huge animal lover and would normally never hurt anything but if you threaten my babies, well you gotta go! We have 7 acres and have had our share of Fox attacks, raccoons in the pen, armadillos, possums, but the snakes are the quietest attacks.

 

[VA Lady]

I don't think I've seen anyone else post this but small snakes are my chickens favorite find. If they happen to stumble on a tiny snake (around a foot long or less) then you are sure to hear some very happy, loud clucking - which turns out to be a bad idea because then the race is on! The chickens will start chasing the "lucky" one who found the snake all over the place trying to get it away from them! As for big snakes I've only had them go near the coop during a particularly dry period we had this past summer. At the time I had deer netting I was using as a run around their coop. Two snakes ended up getting caught in the net and that was it for them... One that showed up was particularly large, I think it was a rat snake, he took off into the woods which was fine by me:

Snake Video:

 

[WhySayWhat]

Not a chicken story...but a snake story.

I worked for years with my mother cleaning vacation homes in a golf community in OR. One day I was dusting a living room, when I moved the larged stuffed animal they had sitting by the fireplace, there was a gigantic Garder snake coiled up under the thing! I'm went into complete freak out mode, dropped the in-house vacuum, and RAN into thew other room screaming the whole time. My mother came rushing in (from cleaning another room) to find me still screaming on the kitchen counter. We called the maintain guy, an old friend of my mother's, to come get the snake. He laughed at us, because I was able to tell him on the phone that it was a Garder. Anyway, he shows up with his glove (in case it tries to bite) and a little bucket to put it in. The resort's policy was to move all snakes across the road to another piece of property. When he walked in to get the snake, he saw it, dropped his little bucket and went out to his vehicle to get a larger bucket and snake grabbing tools! He didn't laugh so much after seeing the darned thing! It was only about as big around as my little finger, but was well over 6 feet long! The owner's of thehome had left their back door open while they had been there and it had slithered in to the house without them even seeing it!

Anything with more than 4 legs or less than 2 usually doesn't make it in my house, I'm allergic to any and all spider bites and can't stand most bugs! Snakes though, are nearly as bad as spiders...

 

[the-bird-man]

i have a snake story. i was fishing at this lake that has a highway and resorts on one side and the other side was a steep mountain and trees. well the weather was bad but the fishing was great so we made the mistake of staying out, but then our rental boat broke down

so i started walking, i have a bad heart and get dizzy and pass out easy and will often go into daze mode. well i am walking around this lake and go into daze mode, i am barefoot because flip flops do not work well and i keep walking and soon hear a bunch of rattling and just thought oh i must be near a rattlesnake but because i was so out of it i just kept going on, then the rattling gets loud and i feel something under my feet moving, it was a bunch of baby rattlesnakes that i was on top of. i kept going and ended up walking 7 miles on this hard mountain all while barefoot, crossed rivers, walked on barbwire and was found by search and rescue. i was still dazed and told them what happened and then they started to check me out like crazy. when i felt better it then hit me how lucky i was to be alive, i mean how many people walk on top of rattlers and survive? they told me the area has tons of the snakes and i am very lucky to have not come across more of them. i was kinda happy i was out of it because i HATE snakes. i am lucky i do not see to many by my house or i think i would drop dead

 

[Candiss]

Not really on topic, but I have been bit by a large ball python and corn snake, it does not hurt and they are not deadly. I am not recommending it but it was not anything major, I have had shots that hurt worse. Now a snake that is poisonous - scares me....

 

[ralphwt]

Yeah, small snakes and chickens don't bode well for the snake at all. Chickens love their protein. Watched one of my rocks consume about a one foot snake lickety split after the fight where that snake was stretched from here to Sunday.

Same girls chased a 6 foot Coach Whip all around the yard pecking at it every time it slowed down to see if it was good to eat. Finally the snake hightailed it into the woods and avoided getting too near anything with blacked barred feathers. This was all in Florida.

Now with a new batch of girls and being in North Carolina, has a little over 5 foot black snake hanging around. Found him with his head looking out the pop door, bopped him a couple of times and he retreated to go find something he could eat. My layer girls are 8 week old rocks and much too big for him to eat.