Huge Snake problems

[Cribbs74]

Absolutely agree. We relocate rat snakes found in the coop. We have killed 3 pygmy rattlesnakes though. I have kids and a 1 year old heeler puppy who loves pestering anything that moves. I do have new baby chicks and they will get a more secure enclosure than our old coop. And a better coop/run to grow into.

I understand, I haven’t encountered any venomous snakes where I live yet, although this year has been very active. I’ve caught three rat snakes, one big guy on the road at the front of my house. I relocated it before it was run over. That is a favorite pastime for folks around here. 2 Diamond back water snakes in my pool lol. Tons of tiny Dekays Brown and Ringnecks too.

With children and pups around those pygmy rattlers have to go. If you are brave enough to trap it there are a lot if amateur herpetologists around that will gladly come and remove it. Of course killing them is the most effective.

 

[Cribbs74]

This is so reassuring! I'm wrapping everything in 1/4" hardware cloth and hoping...

Just saw a black racer out the window brazenly slithery around the front gardens. He won't fit through the hardware cloth.

And I'm feeding my young chickens greens through a xylophone on the tractor door to enrich their lives but am also seeing their killer instinct activated as they go after the stems pulling the greens through quick as a flash.

They destroyed a moth that breached their boundary. Hopefully a small snake will be pecked into submission.

Small snakes don’t stand a chance with chickens. It’s the large ones they shy away from. Usually they will make such a racket that you will hear about it long before it becomes a problem and have time to take care of it. If you don’t like handling snakes you can make a handling device using PVC pipe and rope. Just slip the noose over their head and tighten it and carry it away.

 

[thepick4uchicks]

So, I am not against killing things whatsoever. Snakes though, get a free pass. They are more important than most realize and the vast majority are non-venomous. If you would prefer rats and mice then get rid of the snakes. If you prefer disease then also get rid of the snake. The best suggestion I have read in the past 7 pages is hardware cloth. My entire 10’x10’ enclosure is lined with 1/4” hardware cloth. Any snakes small enough to get through those tiny holes aren’t eating eggs or quail.

I agree with you that snakes are very essential to our environment and so very important to keeping the rodent population down. My husband usually doesn’t kill the rat snakes unless he is in a situation with them where he is unable to ascertain the fact as to whether it is a rat snake or a water moccasin. Sometimes where we live the moccasins are marked so funny or different that it can be difficult to tell the differences in their markings if they are in the water or coiled together. We have been luck in the past to find their skins so we sort of know what we are dealing with when we come upon them because they usually stay close to where they shed. However we have not found sheds this year. We have only found the snakes themselves. One was actively eating a tree frog and it was not big at all. My husband said he couldn’t understand how it was eating such a large frog because the snake’s mouth was small compared to the large sized frog.

It's seasonal. Peak mating season is late spring, hatching now. Most will naturally fall to predation.

i hate that so many good snakes do fall ill to predators that are the bad kind like people who with a little education and destigmatization they could be prevented and help keep population numbers up and the rodent numbers for example in check. I know that for our area for just a small example we live in a fairly rural area and I have seen the top three chicken predators in my yard personally. I have been on my front porch at two a. m. And a gray red fox - fluke- jogged up my front walk and never saw me because something was chasing him. A dog or two I’m assuming but never saw them. I have seen three coyotes on the large size trying to get into my back gate. Then the third is a family of raccoons with the boar and Mom both the size of three to four month old farm pig. The Mom causes three guys all with running chain saws to backup when they saw her come running out of the tree she was in that they were cutting down. I have serious furry predator problems to protect my hens from. I also have the typical skunks, possums, and we will see field mice and rats too. We also have armadillos now thanks to Texas and Louisiana migratory issues and hurricanes. I cannot even begin to list all the wild birds like hawks,’owls-big ones, small owls, and all the snakes.

 

[CreveChris]

Small snakes don’t stand a chance with chickens. It’s the large ones they shy away from. Usually they will make such a racket that you will hear about it long before it becomes a problem and have time to take care of it. If you don’t like handling snakes you can make a handling device using PVC pipe and rope. Just slip the noose over their head and tighten it and carry it away.

Definitely need to see a video on that! Water moccasins don't survive to be relocated, but a giant water snake ate a dozen of my watergarden fish before coming out to say hello. We thought the hawk or the owl was to blame. I'd catch a watersnake with a contraption and release him in the river.

Rat snakes devour songbirds around here. It's spooky to find feathers sticking out of a waterhose-sized hole in the garden. Eventually everyone gets comfortable with my constant presence and says hello. Nothing like finding juvenile water moccasins sunbathing on your fountain.

 

[thepick4uchicks]

Definitely need to see a video on that! Water moccasins don't survive to be relocated, but a giant water snake ate a dozen of my watergarden fish before coming out to say hello. We thought the hawk or the owl was to blame. I'd catch a watersnake with a contraption and release him in the river.

Rat snakes devour songbirds around here. It's spooky to find feathers sticking out of a waterhose-sized hole in the garden. Eventually everyone gets comfortable with my constant presence and says hello. Nothing like finding juvenile water moccasins sunbathing on your fountain.

I’m not looking forward to that. We are getting ready to set up a new fountain. We have already bought the pot and have the space constructed also. It is under the already constructed arbor also above our pool which so far we have not found any snakes inside-“considering ourselves very fortunate”-. An addition we have had a multitude of young rabbits this spring and were seeing them daily but I have not seen them at all in the last week. Wonder what is up.

 

[Sooner Magnolia]

I understand, I haven’t encountered any venomous snakes where I live yet, although this year has been very active. I’ve caught three rat snakes, one big guy on the road at the front of my house. I relocated it before it was run over. That is a favorite pastime for folks around here. 2 Diamond back water snakes in my pool lol. Tons of tiny Dekays Brown and Ringnecks too.

With children and pups around those pygmy rattlers have to go. If you are brave enough to trap it there are a lot if amateur herpetologists around that will gladly come and remove it. Of course killing them is the most effective.

3 rattlers close to the house in 2 years with the summer barely started tells me their population is healthy enough. They are welcome in the pasture; but not by the house or deck. Just removed 2 big rat snakes from the coop. They were relocated and marked to see if they are repeat offenders.

 

[Flockincrazy]

Get a kitten and let it grow up outside with your flock it will protect them get a female they are more protective our kitten loves our chicks

 

[HeatherN]

Snake biologist here. Snake repellants are not effective, nor are various other oils/materials/foods spread around the area you want protected. Rat snakes, in particular, specialize in eggs/small birds during this time of year. If you would like to keep snakes out of your pens, hardware cloth is hands-down the best bet, I find. Adding various birds/other animals to your yard might help reduce activity, but is incredibly unreliable. Plastic/other netting not rated to be bird-safe can result in entanglement of your personal critters. If hardware cloth is too expensive, perhaps consider stapling window screen to your pen, although large/determined enough snakes might be able to push open old screens.

Honestly, if your coop cannot keep out medium-sized rat snakes, you're not going to be able to keep out rodents either, which can cause more problems. Rats love bird food, eggs, and warm/dry homes to nest in. It's my view that you should be rat/snake-proofing any coop you build.

Now to my personal view on managing snakes: I would ask you consider not killing them. The presence of snakes is natural and means you live in a healthy ecosystem. Thoughtful coop construction should prevent significant snake activity and is definitely one of my top priorities for the safety/security of my birds against all predators. I would never shoot a robin for pulling worms out of my compost, a sparrow for eating my tomatoes from my garden, or a deer for grazing on my lawn. Venomous snakes can be removed by local snake removal services, who will oftentimes help you prevent snakes from returning. Generally, their advice is to remove sources of food or areas where the snakes like to snuggle up in. We can't really achieve those things easily, so our best bet is to be conscious of our coop design.

Ok, time to step off the soap box. Anyone can feel free to message me with questions about snakes or reptiles! I study them for a living and love helping people out.

 

[CreveChris]

I’m not looking forward to that. We are getting ready to set up a new fountain. We have already bought the pot and have the space constructed also. It is under the already constructed arbor also above our pool which so far we have not found any snakes inside-“considering ourselves very fortunate”-. An addition we have had a multitude of young rabbits this spring and were seeing them daily but I have not seen them at all in the last week. Wonder what is up.

Yep, no big snakes since early spring and big bunnies everywhere! Your foundation sounds lovely--share photos when it's done?

 

[CreveChris]

Snake biologist here. Snake repellants are not effective, nor are various other oils/materials/foods spread around the area you want protected. Rat snakes, in particular, specialize in eggs/small birds during this time of year. If you would like to keep snakes out of your pens, hardware cloth is hands-down the best bet, I find. Adding various birds/other animals to your yard might help reduce activity, but is incredibly unreliable. Plastic/other netting not rated to be bird-safe can result in entanglement of your personal critters. If hardware cloth is too expensive, perhaps consider stapling window screen to your pen, although large/determined enough snakes might be able to push open old screens.

Honestly, if your coop cannot keep out medium-sized rat snakes, you're not going to be able to keep out rodents either, which can cause more problems. Rats love bird food, eggs, and warm/dry homes to nest in. It's my view that you should be rat/snake-proofing any coop you build.

Now to my personal view on managing snakes: I would ask you consider not killing them. The presence of snakes is natural and means you live in a healthy ecosystem. Thoughtful coop construction should prevent significant snake activity and is definitely one of my top priorities for the safety/security of my birds against all predators. I would never shoot a robin for pulling worms out of my compost, a sparrow for eating my tomatoes from my garden, or a deer for grazing on my lawn. Venomous snakes can be removed by local snake removal services, who will oftentimes help you prevent snakes from returning. Generally, their advice is to remove sources of food or areas where the snakes like to snuggle up in. We can't really achieve those things easily, so our best bet is to be conscious of our coop design.

Ok, time to step off the soap box. Anyone can feel free to message me with questions about snakes or reptiles! I study them for a living and love helping people out.

We don't relocate water mocassins, which our pest manager said were washed into everyone's waterfront properties during the hurricanes (happened to us twice in the past 4 years).

We paid $400 to trap the moccasins and raccoons but caught zero. They literally won't take the bait. I bought a trap for $120 and never caught a raccoon even while they were nesting in a tree in my backyard.

So pros around here won't help, but I'm learning which snakes are which by observation. They get very comfortable with me and love the habitat we preserve and build for them. So yeah, hardware cloth is the only material I use, plus fancy screw-fastened D-ring locks on all doors.

We have two Huskies and the wildlife learn quickly when they are in the yard, and rabbits and squirrels apparently know they can't get through the fence. Squirrels will go up next to the chicken tractor to eat any black sunflower seeds the chickens left behind from the day before (the tractor is a slow lawnmower moved daily).