rat snake

[ericmcginn5]

Do you think a rat snake can get thro a half inch wire.

 

[6of6chicks]

A couple of days ago I found this 2 1/2 foot snake in my run:



It squeezed in through an opening 3/4 inch wide. It couldn't get back out through the 1/2 inch hardware cloth. So to answer your question: Maybe. Depends on the snake.

 

[Stiggy]

Wow I hope it didn't get your chickens!. Boy am I glad that we don't have snakes here. I've heard that some people put hardwire cloth on with small chicken wire on over the top so that the gaps are smaller. however chicken wire on its own wont keep anything out

 

[Bethel3330]

We were using 1 inch welded wire, rethought it and put 1/4" hardware cloth over top of that all around the bottom.

 

[Stiggy]

@Bethel3330 that sounds like a very good idea

 

[6of6chicks]

Wow I hope it didn't get your chickens!. Boy am I glad that we don't have snakes here. I've heard that some people put hardwire cloth on with small chicken wire on over the top so that the gaps are smaller. however chicken wire on its own wont keep anything out

No - my girls were too big for it. They didn't seem to care about the snake (ran right over it), and when I noticed it the chickens AND the snake were all sprawled out together in a patch of sun. Freaked ME out pretty good, though!

There was one tricky spot where the base frame of my run meets the concrete slab that the coop sits on. It was tough to wrap the hardware cloth securely. Thought I did okay, but the snake found that tiny gap. I've since filled in EVERY crack and crevice with concrete, so snake highway is now closed, lol!

I didn't use chicken wire. I used it years ago to fence the garden to keep the dogs out, so I already knew how fragile that stuff was. Useless is probably a better word than fragile. I used hardware cloth everywhere on my coop & run.

 

[Bethel3330]

@Bethel3330
 that sounds like a very good idea

Thanks! I'm the paranoid type, and we live in the country where mice abound so we didn't want to invite them in...along with the giant rat snake from my nearby garden shed :-/ lol

 

[ericmcginn5]

Well I am worried about the rat snake becouse my chi cken is sitting on eggs and some were alreaddy eatten becouse I left the coop open.