Please share your best snake catching techniques.

MommaB

In the Brooder
8 Years
Jul 16, 2011
59
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My girls are setting for the first time this spring. In the last two weeks I have lost atleast a dozen eggs (most in one night). I just went to find that one of the two chicks that were just hatched was taken last night along with 2 eggs. I am disgusted. It can't be a very large snake because the cage that holds the hen with chicks is covered with very small wire. I want it DEAD!

Any advise is very much appreciated!
 
:pop I'll be subscribing to this thread.

Only way I know is bunch up deer netting and they get caught in it. It does work.
 
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It could be many predators taking eggs and chicks, but for snakes...

Get one of those $10 wire minnow traps from a fishing or department store. Put a couple eggs in it. Set it in the coop and wait to see what it catches the next morning.

It may be helpful to encase a golf ball with an old eggshell. This will prevent escapes from those pesky snakes that are smart and leave the trap.
 
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The time honored tradition that works seems to be to put golf balls around the area. The snake thinks its an egg, eats it and chokes to death. I haven't needed to do it yet but have been told by 3 different people that it works.
 
The time honored tradition that works seems to be to put golf balls around the area. The snake thinks its an egg, eats it and chokes to death. I haven't needed to do it yet but have been told by 3 different people that it works.

I have tried the "plain old golf ball" before. Not one snake ate one, but ate the eggs around it. I then came up with the idea of encasing the ball with an eggshell and that worked only once that i can recall.
 
It could be many predators taking eggs and chicks, but for snakes...

Get one of those $10 wire minnow traps from a fishing or department store. Put a couple eggs in it. Set it in the coop and wait to see what it catches the next morning.

It may be helpful to encase a golf ball with an old eggshell. This will prevent escapes from those pesky snakes that are smart and leave the trap.
groundpecker, what other predators could I be dealing with?
 
Skunks, raccoons, and opossums will eat eggs and chicks....as will rats. I lost several chicks one year to stinkin rats. They used to be awful about busting eggs in my nest boxes and leaving egg trails through the barn. Little devils.

Good luck
 
I put 3 ceramic eggs in the nest a week ago today I found a 5' snake with 2 eggs in it's belly both ceramic. I killed it but believe it would have died soon on it's own with 2 undigestable eggs inside. It was still in the nest box as it couldn't fit through the opening that it entered. Quite a shock when i went to gather the eggs.
 
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