Chickens and Snakes

[allen wranch]

When you relocate a snake, take it FAR FAR away. A few hundred feet will bring it right back to where you found it.

If a snake is not going to harm me or my critters, it can stay around. If it is poisonous, it is dead. If it can eat a chick or chicken, it is dead or relocated FAR FAR away.

 

[CarriBrown]

Quote:
Amen. I'm all about live and let live, but I'd rather live than let a poisonous ANYTHING live in my yard!

 

[peckhamchick]

Does anyone know how sulphur will affect other animals, like cats?

 

[Wes in Tx]

Never had a problem with sulpher effecting any animals. We used it to treat the lawn for fleas and ticks every year.

 

[Colonel]

Here are some photos I took of snakes helping themselves to eggs. I didn't try to get rid of them since they keep the mice and rats down. Besides, I figure that's just part of the entertainment value of keeping chickens.

In the first photo, the snake is using his body to push the egg against to force it down his throat. It goes in completely whole, then shortly after it is completely swallowed, you can hear the egg break and see the size change. It's pretty cool to watch. Takes a while for the whole process. I shot some video of it once but never did anything with it. Once they start, nothing interrupts the snake. He just continued his work while I stood there taking pictures and video.

Colonel

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Wow, great pictures! I actually like snakes (use to have them as pets). I wouldn't be keen on them eating my eggs and my wife would have a heart attack if she saw that in our coop. Is that a garter snake?

I wonder if you had a golf ball in there with the eggs if a snake would swallow it? For people trying to get rid of snakes, what about an egg that is hollowed out and filled with something less friendly? BTW, if you want to send me the video I'd love to post it, and the pictures above on BYC.

 

[Colonel]

I've heard of folks taking a hollowed out egg and filling it with concrete or plaster. The snake smells it and swallows it, but well... you know the rest of the story. I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't fall for a golf ball though. The white "egg" in the photos is a fake egg. They never tried to eat one of those.

The snake is called rat snake or a chicken snake (imagine that!) - two names for the same breed of snake. I've seen two or three hanging around at one time. They would curl up in the rafters of the chicken coop or the adjoining wood shed. Some of them got pretty big. One of them is probably one that I carried over there after catching it in my brother's garden. I wanted something to help control the rats (I ended up using rat bait - nothing else really worked).

I'll have to look around and see if I can find that video and edit it down to a reasonable length for posting.

Colonel

 

[theOEGBman]

Snakes are Venomous, not Poisonous,lol.

And that snake looks huge, but that man is clearly holding it pretty close to the camera.

 

[cookinmom]

It might be close to the camera, but it's way bigger around than that grown man's arm. No matter how you look at it, it is a huge snake.

This talk of snakes in the rafters is freaking me out. Snakes on the ground are one thing, but over my head, with the possibility of dropping down on me, that is just too much. I would definitely drop dead of a heart attack! this would be me:

I saw a movie once when I was a kid and a snake dropped down in these guys' boat and killed them. I was always watching for snakes in trees after that!

 

[soonerdog]

Well, I can certainly say that I'm not sticking around long enough to ask one........is you a venomous snake, or is you a poisonous snake, or is you just A snake?

You looks like a poisonous snake to me......ooops, I mean you looks like a VENOMOUS snake to me, but if you is just A snake you is still a poisonous snake to me!