How dangerous are snakes?

[Amore Galline]

The weather was beautiful over the weekend, (not now!) so we took the chicks (week and a half old) out for field trips to their coop. The temp was fine, they actually seemed to want to be in the shade most of the time.

Of course pics should be included:

coop

chicks enjoying their field trip:

They actually seem to really like jumping in our laps!

I hung out enjoying them quite a while, then I had a few things to do in the backyard. As I was walking past their coop area one time, I saw a rather large (about 3 1/2 ft) gopher snake along the garden fencing (the white fence surrounding the coop - the side closer to the camera in the first pic. You can just barely see the top of the posts in that picture). This made me immediate worried! He could easily go through chicken wire. And I'm sure a little chicken snack would suit him! Yikes, we were thinking they were safe in their enclosed run, but now I don't want to leave them unattended in their run. If we had come back and one was missing, we never would have thought of a snake, we would have just assumed it somehow got out.

How old do they have to be before they're no longer vulnerable to things like snakes?

Has anyone lost chicks to snakes?

 

[faykokoWV]

Snakes like chicks and they are easy prey for them. You could put some bird netting around it while they are little to prevent the snakes from getting in. Its fairly cheap

 

[Amore Galline]

Thanks. Bird netting - where would I get that?

Will they need to be adults before they're safe from a snake like that?

Has anyone else had issues with snakes?
That's a predator I hadn't even considered when we were building our coop. Everyone talks of coyotes, raccoons, we of course are worried about our own dogs. But we never saw anyone mention snakes, and I'm sure glad I saw the one there (potentially on his way to gobble up our chicks!).

 

[HeyItsDebV]

I used Chick or bird netting that I bought at LOWES... it was a plastic rolled netting, that I covered our old dog run with for a temporary play pen for the chicks...now I am going to use it on our outer chick play yard PVC fencing...I used cable ties as fasteners on the netting

 

[Amore Galline]

How high up did you make it go? Snakes can climb quite high.

 

[HeyItsDebV]

Nice coop AMORE and great photos...
Now the snake thing scares me too!

 

[Matt A NC]

I use the cheap wildlife netting from lowes, well it was cheap. Now it is almost $23 for a roll, but the roll is 100'x7'. Fix it to the outside loosely with zip ties. Snakes get tangled in it. I have it up to 24" high around the fence. Check a few times a day since the snake will slowly die in the sun. I hate snakes, but I don't like to see any animal suffer. Your choice as to whether to cut it free and relocate or dispose of it quickly.

Matt

 

[SIMPleChick]

BTW! Nice coop!!!

 

[Amore Galline]

Thanks for the coop compliments! That was supposed to be the ''inexpensive'' coop - ha ha, yeah, right. I think we all know how that goes. I can't even think about what that first egg is going to cost us. We certainly didn't take on chickens for the money saved in buying eggs! They are a pet in every sense.

Thanks for the info, Matt. I actually like snakes (I used to have a pet boa), but NOT in with our chicks! We appreciate the service they do for us in regards to the rodents in our yard - but I want them to be sure to stick to a gopher and rat diet and leave chicks off the menu! I would definitely relocate them. This guy lives in a hole near our garage. The kids actually watched him disappear into it.

He's probably about as big as I've seen them get, so I'm still hoping someone might know how old the chicks have to be before they're safe from a snake like him - or are they never safe? I know a snake his size couldn't eat an adult chicken, and usually snakes don't waste energy on things they can't eat.

 

[chickensinwasillaAK]

Oh I'm so glad to live here and not have to deal with snakes....