Questions about snakes

[cruisnmoma]

Not sure if this is the right thread for this, but does anyone have issues with snakes getting to the chickens eggs?

I was telling my other message board about my girls, and one of them said she would love to have chickens, but her husband is afraid of snakes. I asked her what they have to do with each other, and she said everyone she knows that has chickens deals with this. I have never heard of this or had problems with it.

Does anyone have this problem? If so is it a regional thing? how do you keep the snakes away from the eggs?

 

[ChickenAndMore]

Yes, I find at least 15 snakes in the coop each year and everyone has eggs in their stomachs. They are always just regular non-venomous chickens snakes though. We also find a lot of copperheads around the coop but they never have any eggs in them. I live in the woods though so we have a lot of wildlife. I have heard that if you put sulfur around your coop, snakes will not cross it. I have never tried this though, so I don't know if it works.

 

[donrae]

It would be regional. At my place we have garter and bull snakes, but I've never had a problem with them in the coop or causing any issues with the birds. I encourage snakes cause I'd much rather have them than rats or mice.

 

[soydo]

I believe part of the problem could be the set up attracting rodents to the feed. Smell of multiple rodents- attractive to snakes. Some species hunt birds or bird nests regularly, just the smell of chickens and no rodents might be attractive to those.

 

[6of6chicks]

Well, my girls are 9 1/2 weeks old and I've already had one 2 1/2 foot snake in the run. I don't know it there is such a thing as a snake region, but if there is then I'm living in one. I frequently have copperheads and other snakes in my yard (rural area surrounded by fields). I don't know if the snake was after my chickens or hoping for eggs. I haven't seen any mice or other rodents (or evidence of them) around the coop and they can't get to the feed. But there are plenty of them in the yard and garden.

I was told once I should be happy - I have an organic garden & yard and all the snakes indicate I have a very "healthy" ecosystem. I guess that's a good thing, but it's a little "too" healthy for my comfort level. I asked, "Well just how much poison do I need to throw out there to get it sick enough to get rid of the snakes?" Got a very dirty look in response, lol!

 

[texaschickyall]

I've never once had a snake in my coop and we are in the woods. I've seen copperheads and rat snakes around the property but never even remotely near the chickens. We do keep our feed in sealed containers and I've never seen rodents on our property.

Maybe it's just luck of the draw or coop design.

 

[Wildivy2112]

We have hardware cloth around every inch of our coop and run and made sure there are no open cracks or holes for any snakes to crawl in, yuck. My neighbor has a problem with black snakes and leaves porcelein eggs in the nest boxes. Snakes eat fake eggs, can't digest them and die.

 

[cruisnmoma]

I am in Oregon, and do not have issues, but the friend is from Tx and said everyone deals with it. I am thinking it has to do were you are from

 

[texaschickyall]

Im in Texas and don't have issues.