Sad story of a broody hen and a snake

[bburn]

I have been laid up with foot surgery. Yesterday my doctor released me to heel walk with the boot she gave me. Could not wait this morning to go out and let the chickens out as it has been a month since I have been out there.

I have a broody hen who sat for 21 days on eggs that did not hatch. We threw them away and she went nuts trying to get back on the nest. So, we loaded her back up with eggs. It has been five days since we reset her eggs and she has been determined and laying low on the eggs.

This morning I let the littles out and then the mob and then the other coop. I decided to take the top off the broody pen to give her air as the temps were nice. When I took the top off the pen part, not the nest as it is a dog crate covered with a tarp, I could see something and kept trying to focus on it and figure it out as I was unlocking the top door. SNAKE!!!!! (and really, I am not a country girl as I never lived anywhere there was not a block until the last six years married to my DH!)

As I was rushing as fast as I could on my bum foot to get a weapon I was screaming GEORGE (my DH) as he was still in the bedroom. I just kept screaming it over and over! All the while I was smushing down on the snake with my weapon!!! I hear him yell WHAT but I keep yelling GEORGE. Finally he gets out there and I have this six foot snake penned to the bottom of the wire cage! He said it is just a black snake. I say it is full of eggs and it is gonna die!! (ok, I know it was a black snake and they are handy to have around so I don't need a lecture on that....but it was SIX feet long and I am sure there are more than just the one out there someplace....besides it had Pretty Baby's eggs in it) So I killed it. DH got it out and I had to kill it again because it's mouth moved.

NO snake is a good snake when it eats your eggs! Especially my broody's eggs. So today we start to break the broody. I am sad for her because she was so very determined to hatch eggs....

 

[roxyblue]

that pesky snake deserved to die!
poor mama working so hard to hatch those eggs...
it's sad to break up a broody but at least she will get a life... scrathing and pecking with the others

 

[Tiss]

Oh no. I am so sorry! The snake ate ALL your broody's eggs!?

I've found rat snakes in my coop twice but fortunately they've only gotten an egg or two before I could get them out. I have been a bit paranoid for my broody and my chick the last few weeks but fortunately have had no problem.

 

[ozark_chickies]

so sorry to hear that. Poor mama. Any snake I see around my chickens, is a dead snake, no such thing as a good snake if it is eating eggs...or chicks.

 

[Spitman]

I'm sorry to here about your eggs.

 

[FarmCoe]

Quote:
This is my favorite part of the story.

I am very sorry abut your eggs

 

[NoseyChickens]

So sorry! Snakes freak me out. Luckily I have never found one near my chickens.

 

[bburn]

Thanks all.

Everyone is getting up around here and has to hear the story. We are all sad for Pretty Baby but determined that we will intergrate her back into the coop. The entire broody pen will go back into the main coop tonight. She is safe from everything but snakes I guess and locked up in it. Everyone will be able to see her in it for a couple of days and then one night when we lock up everyone we will get her out and put her on the roost. Hopefully the transition will go well. Hopefully we will break the broodiness also.

I do not like a snake.
I will kill a snake.
Copperhead last year.
No snake will live that I see because it is my job to take care of my chickens and their eggs.

 

[ChickenCrazed]

OMG this would have given me a heart attack!...This is my biggest fear...finding a snake in the coop!...I know they can be good but I just don't handle them well....So happy you you ended it's ability to keep coming back but so sorry you lost all of the eggs

 

[ozark_chickies]

I keep a shovel in the hen house, and a old garden pitchfork in the coop, to use as weapons. If I see a snake(or anything else) then I have something handy to grab. When I had chickens 20 years ago, I found a 12 foot black snake in the hen house, and nothing to kill it with. I managed to catch it with a piece of 2x4 I found. Then I drug it to the house , holding it by the neck,and yelled for someone to come help. My mother-inlaw about died when she opened the door and saw that big snake, but she tossed me a hatchet, and I chopped it's head off! Don't want to be that close to a snake again, so I have weapons handy.