Snake ? Dead Snake Long rant

[sundance]

went out his morning to check to be sure my chickens had plenty of water for all day since we were going into the boro and that takes all day one of my baby chicks was out so I had to run him up and down the outside fence of the run to catch him, or her still don't know which,when I put it back in the run I noticed eggs all over the coop, looked in and there was a HUGE SNAKE coiled up under the nest boxes,I go running back to the house and DH got his trusty 9mi and shot the thing. was a copperhead over 6 ft long. since i don't usually check the hay in the coop for anything, from now on I will take a stick in to poke the hay, since its hot the chickens stay in there and scratch the hay until I turn them out. I hate snakes.

marrie

 

[arlee453]

Glad you didn't get bitten!

I'm not a snake hater, per se, but I'd probably dispatch one that I found near my chickens too!

 

[alyssa558]

Snakes are just trying to make a living, too, and chickens happen to be an easy meal from their perspective! It's way better to trap the snake and take it somewhere else and make sure your coop is snake-proof. They provide a valuable service by eating other critters, like rodents, that also cause trouble. Snakes have a bad rap-give them a break!

 

[cjeanean]

I would kill any snake I find, no matter what. Especially if it's venomous!!!!

 

[meissel]

I'm just thinking about raising chickens. I didn't think snakes would bother the chickens in any serious way. But then I didn't think about snakes chowing down on the eggs. Dah! How in the world do you snake proof something that is open to the outside? We have black snakes around here and they have turned up in every out building I have at one time or another. They can easily climb up a wire fence and fit through very small openings. What a dilemma!

 

[sundance]

I agree with Alyssa558 on giving snakes a break, If they can out crawl a 9 mill and a shotgun then they can go live on someone else's property and eat their chickens.But man they better be fast.

marrie

 

[Chicken_Lover4567]

I agree on giving snakes a break, but if you found a venomous (SP?) snake in your nesting box, and you really didn't feel like getting bitten, I would shoot the thing before I even thought "oh well, let's some how trap it and take it to the neighbors"

 

[Ellie_NY_chick]

A Copperhead? Sorry, no way. It's head would be chopped off by a shovel.

We do have a garter snake that we named Stanley that we gave up trying to catch and move into the woods. He slithers into a tiny hole in the stone foundation and into the basement. This old farmhouse we're in seems to get a few mice in the winter that my cat and my dogs have a "live and let live" attitude about, so I'm hoping Stanley will take care of them for me.

 

[bluey]

I would give that snake a big hug

...and then we could talk about its' problems. I'm sure we could come to some kind of understanding.

Maybe we could give him a room and three eggs a week for keeping the rat population down.

 

[WillsMama93]

Quote:
Hey, rodents are just trying to make a living.. they provide a valuable service like spreading plague and wiping out entire populations of peoples! You should trap your rodents, and take them someplace else, like your local chinese resturant.. at least, that's where a lot of the rodents here in Louisiana go.. so says the health department