poisonous snakes

[nancyo]

Anyone know if poisonous snakes such as cottonmouth, rattlers, copperheads etc bite chickens or ducks? I just spotted a cottonmouth basking in the sun in my yard.

 

[gjensen]

Any of them, will bite anything that they feel is a threat and within range. They are not what you would typically consider a predator of chickens, but can be oppurtunistic like most predators. Within their size range of course.

 

[nancyo]

Hi gjenson and thanks for the reply. Do you think if a chicken sees the snake it will recognize the danger?

 

[rosewolf22002]

If you have a group of chickens they will sometimes try to kill it. We had a coachwhip in the coop a few weeks ago and my two month old polish went after it. we had to chase them off to shoot it. When I was young our chickens would kill and eat copperheads. One of the reasons we had them!

 

[nancyo]

hey rosewolf22002---Interesting---I only have 6 pullets---about 10 weeks old and 1 1yr old duck They are growing fast but I doubt they could handle anything like that. Aren't those polish wonderful---I had one (a roo) and he was my favorite ever! The ones I have now are red stars---Sweet girls! Thanks for the reply.

 

[rosewolf22002]

Yes I love the Polish! We got them so my kids could see what Polish football is. (a huge grasshopper and a group of chickens) My brother and I talked about it all the time. When all of my babies grow up I will have over 50 chickens and 12 guinea running my 6 acres. Snakes are bad this year so I am hoping to fix this. I am not sure if your 6 could handle a copperhead. If they killed it at least one might get bitten. Good luck with your babies! A 22 with rat shot does wonders on a snake BTW.