Collecting eggs late in the afternoon I saw one on the second floor of my coop beside the nesting box. Went to get my pellet gun and it was gone in just those few minutes. I tipped the nesting box over and there it was, coiled up and digesting the 4 eggs it had snatched this afternoon. This explains the low production. When the hen would lay, it would slither around, eat, and slither back. I still see NO OPENING for him to have gotten under the nesting box, very befuddling. The snakes now avoid the traps because they have found the hiding place.
This is the 4th rat/chicken snake I have killed IN MY COOP. 3, 4 footers and one 6 footer (I read that the largest on record in Texas ((Central Texas)) was 7 feet 4 inches, so these are large.
At least I have found the spot where they have been laying in wait, maybe even raising their offspring.
I read a good rule of thumb on killing predators, especially snakes (which some people frown on killing chicken snakes), which is if they are IN your coop, even in the vicinity of your coop, threatening eating your eggs, chicks, maybe chickens, they need to be killed. I don't want to relocate these guys and make my snakes someone else's problem, this is just not right. And once they know where dinner is, I guess they are not going to move on.
This is the 4th rat/chicken snake I have killed IN MY COOP. 3, 4 footers and one 6 footer (I read that the largest on record in Texas ((Central Texas)) was 7 feet 4 inches, so these are large.
At least I have found the spot where they have been laying in wait, maybe even raising their offspring.
I read a good rule of thumb on killing predators, especially snakes (which some people frown on killing chicken snakes), which is if they are IN your coop, even in the vicinity of your coop, threatening eating your eggs, chicks, maybe chickens, they need to be killed. I don't want to relocate these guys and make my snakes someone else's problem, this is just not right. And once they know where dinner is, I guess they are not going to move on.
