I killed it dead!

[Courts Clucks]

Walked out the back door to turn on the soaker hose and laying next to my car is our dog. Not 3 feet from her is a pretty big snake. She didn't pay it no mind. So I turn around to put on real shoes and grab the snake tools. Black snakes get relocated to a property, but any dangerous kinds become deceased. By the time I return, no snake. I look up at my fence row at a growling rooster. There he is! Out of nine roosters only one was standing in between the snake and the girls in the run. (Guess who got extra treats tonight) Momma mode kicks in and i book it to the snake and go Red Queen on it. The dog decides to wake up about this time and comes over to take the snake (like she killed it and it's her trophy, geesh). It was a dark snake but there was a very faint pattern and some red. I felt justified even if my husband is mad I killed a black snake...

 

[okallthis4eggs]

Black snakes main diet is mice. I welcome them

 

[Courts Clucks]

Yes. But. I had never seen a pattern like that or color on a black snake. So. I went for the better safe than sorry. Just like when I saw a bull snake for the first time. But my husband has since informed me that they can both go in the relocate bucket next time.

 

[okallthis4eggs]

I like your husbands thinking. I hope I never walk into your yard accidently and you think I look like a crook. lol

 

[Courts Clucks]

I give a warning shot...

 

[dainerra]

I never relocate the black snakes unless I have a problem with eggs disappearing (only happened once in the last 7 years). Black snakes will eat smaller poisonous snakes, keeping them out of the yard with zero effort on your part. Add in the fact that they keep down the population of mice and it's a win/win situation.
I look at it this way - 1 big black snake who counts my yard as part of his category or a constant cycle of unknown snakes some of whom may be poisonous. There had been a black snake in the barn behind my yard until a neighbor killed him. Within a couple weeks, we started finding copperheads in our mowed yard (it was just past hatching season so the babies were on the move). Finally after several months of dispatching baby copperheads, another black snake moved in. He's now almost 6 feet long and we haven't had a snake problem since he moved in.

 

[Roxannemc]

If i read correctly you said it had a Pattern even though it was light.So you might have been justified in killing it .
I would have to be safe if i saw any pattern
As far as I have ever seen, my black snakes here in Mo are pure black.No pattern what so ever.
I dont think i would relocate the black though unless i had an egg eatin problem .Didnt know they eat other snakes though but for tiny ones but knock on wood have never seen even a copperhead around here in 15 years and dogs in my woods have never been bitten. so could well be true

 

[okallthis4eggs]

Bats and black snakes are some of our best friends. I welcome both of them. In fact encourage both of them to hang around. If a black snake eats one of your eggs its because he has already ate all of your mice

 

[bwalden]

I agree that black snakes do some good around with mice, rats, etc. Have never heard about them eating other snakes. I know a king snake will do that, but if black snakes do also then great. Now I have seen black snakes kill and swallow young chickens, quail, & pigeons. When I was a kid we used to have all sorts of trouble out of black snakes eating our quail. I can remember once a kid running to the house and telling my mother there was a big black snake in our quail coop eating a quail and well my dad was at work. So my mother being scared of snakes grabbed a pistol from my dads gun safe and went after the snake. What she didnt realize that the gun she grabbed was a .357 magnum. Lol lets just say that snake didnt stand a chance.

 

[dainerra]

If i read correctly you said it had a Pattern even though  it was light.So you might have been justified in killing it .
I would have to be safe if i saw any pattern
As far as  I have ever seen, my black snakes  here in Mo are pure black.No pattern what so ever.
I dont think i would relocate  the black  though unless i had an egg  eatin problem .Didnt know they eat other snakes though  but for  tiny ones  but knock on wood have never seen even a copperhead around here in 15 years and dogs in my  woods have never been bitten. so could well  be true

http://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/resources/2010/05/5187_3026.pdf almost every non-poisonous snake in MO has some type of pattern on it

of all the snakes in MO, only 5 are poisonous
http://www.muherpsociety.com/id8.html