Rat snake killed a hen

[herman 48]

About a week ago my wife, the cats and I were spending some boring time in our tornado shelter. My wife had closed the chickens in their three houses just before the storm struck, but one of the hens in one of the three pens refused to go in. Wisely my wife quit trying and went to the shelter. The storm came, very strong wind, torrential rain, lightning, thunder. About two hours later, taking advantage of a temporary lull in the storm that altogether lasted 6 or seven hours, fortunately without tornadoes, at least not where we live in southeast Alabama, I went out to try to get that hen into her house. She looked miserable, soaking wet, but ready to go in. Upon going with her into the house to check things out, I saw a grey rat snake at least 5 feet long that was descending into one of the laying boxes. Its tail was close to the ceiling of the house, and the head and a few inches of the body were in the box. I grabbed it by the tail and threw it out. It slowly slithered under the feed shed adjacent to the pen.
I was not getting too many eggs out of that one chicken house, but I didn't have time to kill the snake (how? I had no gun, no knife, and short of biting its head off I couldn't think of any other way of doing it) because I wanted to get back to the shelter before the next wave of lightning and rain and possible strong wind and tornadoes hit us again.

Now, I don't like killing snakes. Not even rattlers, unless they are close to the house. But a snake that big, that I know has been stealing eggs and could possibly kill my hens, needed to go. But how? The next day I came up with a weird idea: I took a fresh egg, I washed it, poked two little holes at its ends, sucked the contents (I love raw eggs!), hot glued one of the holes, enlarged the other, and slowly and carefully filled up the eggshell with baking soda. Then I took an eggshell (I keep them to pulverize them and feed them to my chickens together with other food--why waste that calcium?), broke a fragment off it big enough to cover the hole, and hot glued that, too. Snakes will not eat an egg that does not smell right, though. So I washed well the baking soda-filled eggshell to wash off it the residue of spilled soda, broke another egg, beat it, and rolled the fake egg in it. Then I took it to the chicken house where I'd seen the snake and left it in a laying box after rolling it in the chicken-scented hay that lines the box. Two days later the egg was gone. Now, the theory (mine) is that if the snake swallows an eggshell filled with sodium bicarbonate, when the shell ruptures in its stomach and releases such a massive dose of the chemical, this, in contact with the acid gastric juices of the snake--acid strong enough to digest egg shells and the bones of mice and birds--will produce a tremendous amount of gas. I don't think snakes can burp or fart, and that gas should inflate its guts so much something would rupture inside and kill it. Or at the very least that massive amount of sodium could raise its blood pressure to the point of giving it a stroke or a heart attack... Yes, I know, snakes are not like human beings (although many human beings are like unto snakes) but... it would work and kill only the "bad" snakes--those that instead of doing their assigned job of eating mice and rats have chosen to steal eggs and endanger chickens.

By the way, I have ordered a minnow trap that I will bait with a fresh egg and leave in the chicken house. If that snake survived the ordeal and comes back again (assuming it has not sworn off stealing eggs) I am sure that sooner or later it's going to end up in the trap. So I'll be able to relocate it (and possibly its siblings and buddies) elsewhere without resorting to cruel and unusual punishments.

 

[neo71665]

My great granny used to grab rat snakes out of her chicken house by the tail and pop them like a whip. If their head didn't come off it broke their back and killed them instantly.
Granny kept a garden hoe by both the doors of her house. If she walked outside she used one of them as a walking stick. She seen a snake she looked like a ninja with the thing.

Yeah another reason why everybody should carry a pocket knife on them. They are not weapons but tools for daily use.

 

[herman 48]

My great granny used to grab rat snakes out of her chicken house by the tail and pop them like a whip. If their head didn't come off it broke their back and killed them instantly.
Granny kept a garden hoe by both the doors of her house. If she walked outside she used one of them as a walking stick. She seen a snake she looked like a ninja with the thing.

Yeah another reason why everybody should carry a pocket knife on them. They are not weapons but tools for daily use.

As a matter of fact, I usually carry a gun on me (I have a Concealed Carry Permit). And when I have to go into the tornado shelter I always have with me a couple of guns, a 1911 in .45 ACP, a semiautomatic rifle and plenty of ammo for both. I figured that since my house, a mobile home, is close to a state highway and far from other houses, if it were hit by a tornado and destroyed there would soon be looters trying to steal whatever they can find of any value. Anyhow, when I went to rescue that hen (by the way, she was fine the next day) I took the pistol out of the holster and left in the shelter with my wife because I did not want it to get wet. But then I doubt I'd have touched off that big pistol inside the chicken house if I'd had it with me, or some chickens would have died of fright... But a knife... Yes, I should have had one on me.

 

[neo71665]

The price of ammo here lately I think I'd rather hold the snakes tail and stomp on it's head. I also would hate to shoot a 45 in my coop. Could care less about the chickens but I've loss enough of my hearing.
I have a cheap heritage rough rider loaded with 22 mag rat shot when I go out to the coop.

My g/f and I both tote 357s. I have my ccl but have just about quit carrying concealed. I spend 99% of my time on the farm so I could care less if you see my pea shooter plus I live in an open carry state. She has one of those holster purses so she has it everywhere she goes.

Everything said I live in tornado alley and understand you can't grab everything at a drop of a hat. I do lay out my pants at night and load up my pockets but thats due to being on the fire dept and I have to get up running often at night.

 

[herman 48]

The price of ammo here lately I think I'd rather hold the snakes tail and stomp on it's head. I also would hate to shoot a 45 in my coop. Could care less about the chickens but I've loss enough of my hearing.
I have a cheap heritage rough rider loaded with 22 mag rat shot when I go out to the coop.

My g/f and I both tote 357s. I have my ccl but have just about quit carrying concealed. I spend 99% of my time on the farm so I could care less if you see my pea shooter plus I live in an open carry state. She has one of those holster purses so she has it everywhere she goes.

Everything said I live in tornado alley and understand you can't grab everything at a drop of a hat. I do lay out my pants at night and load up my pockets but thats due to being on the fire dept and I have to get up running often at night.

Alabama is an open carry state, too, but when I go to town I just can't force myself to open carry, for two reasons: 1. I feel conspicuous, almost like I am showing off in some macho way; 2. The best aspect of concealed carry is the element of surprise. The wolf does not expect sheep to be armed. Besides, if an armed wolf walks into a public place with bad intentions and sees someone carrying openly, he would immediately attempt to neutralize that potential threat by shooting him/her first, when he/she is not yet aware of the threat. On the farm it's different, you are right. No need to conceal the gun. By the way, my wife just got a new gun on Mother's Day, a S&W Shield Plus in 9mm. She carries that in a special bra holster or in a pocket holster of the kind that does not slide out of the pocket when you draw the gun. When I worked as a Rent-a-Cop after retiring from teaching I did carry openly my Kimber 1911 Royal II .45 ACP.

 

[herman 48]

The minnow trap arrived yesterday. I Put a just laid egg in it and placed it in one of the laying boxes. I will replace the egg every morning with a fresh one--no need to let the "bait" go bad in the trap from lying there for a long time and go to waste. Besides, I think that a just-laid egg retains more of the "chickeny" smell, and snakes' sense of smell is very keen. It's been very cool at night, lately. This is the coldest spring I have experienced in the eight years I have spent in Alabama. I guess the weather here hasn't been listening to what Al, Greta, and CNN are saying all the time and has not been informed that global warming is now the law of the land, strictly enforced against doubters with ostracism and even cessation of employment. Anyhow, snakes have not been very active lately. When I found one in a chicken house it was during a wave of storms that had temporarily brought heat and humidity from the Gulf of Mexico, and the temperature had been in the 80's for a couple of days, warm enough to get the snakes out of their dens for food shopping. Now we are back to the 60's during the night. It gets warmer only when the sun is shining, and it hasn't shone for a few days, now. Not warm long enough during the day to make them active. I haven't seen any road-killed snakes on the highway yet.
Well, I am sure that when (if) it gets warmer I'll probably find an egg thief in the trap. Then I'll have to figure out what to do with it. I would like to get a terrarium, one of those tall ones in which you can place a plant that the snake can climb, or hide in when it doesn't feel like socializing, but my wife has nixed that idea. To her the only good snake is a dead snake. I had to work hard last year to convince her not kill the beautiful and very long black racer that lived in our garage and helped me get rid of the mice in it.

 

[cmom]

I have seen rat snakes around my coops but luckily only once did I have one that was wrapped around the outside of a milk carrier I was using as a temporary nest box. I squirted it with some ammonia. I left and went back a little bit later and it was gone. I haven't seen one in the coop since. I had a rat issue. One of the coops was infested. I put poison out in rat bait stations and put the bait stations in cages on some shelves in our barn which is behind the coops. I did not find any dead rats laying around but did notice tunnels around the coops so I assumed they went into their tunnels and died so they buried themselves. The baits haven't been touched it quite a long time. I check them regularly.