I've had snakes eat golf balls before but that's pretty rare, Most of the time they ignore golf balls. They are certainly not consistent. I found an ax to be very helpful in recovering the fake eggs.
I've read that snakes can regurgitate stuff they can't digest, but I've also read that if a snake eats a ceramic egg or golf ball they cannot regurgitate it and will eventually starve to death. I don't know which is true. Snakes can go huge amounts of time without eating so it could take months for them to starve to death. If I find one that has swallowed something like that I'll make sure they don't suffer.
I like having the snakes around, they mostly eat mice and such. I don't bother them unless they are eating eggs or baby chicks. I have a friend that wants me to relocate any non-poisonous snakes I catch in my coop to her property, she'll even come pick them up once I catch them. We've relocated several rat snakes and black racers. I even gave her a garter snake that was living in the coop. It was so small I thought the chickens might eat it.
