I’m a reptile enthusiastic and love snakes, only getting into chickens a few years ago. It’s kind of dogma in reptile circles that snakes are pretty good at gauging the size of their prey, and seldom kill prey that is too large to swallow. Unfortunately, I’ve found first hand that’s not truly the case with black rat snakes and poultry. We had guinea fowl laying free range nests last year, and the black rat snakes really honed in on those nests. It got so bad that I was literally fighting the snake for the eggs one evening! The worst though is that they got into our new coop and killed two guinea fowl that were nearly full grown. Too big for him to eat, but still killed them.
I think it’s likely that black rat snakes are just so attracted to birds as prey that they are instinctively drawn to them, and the species is evidently poor at gauging what size it can actually eat. These snakes are overall beneficial, eating rodents and maybe even copperheads, which we also have in abundance. I started capturing black rat snakes that showed a preference for poultry and eggs, placed in a pillow case, then drove to the property of farmers who we know who don’t keep chickens, as they are beneficial if you aren’t trying to keep chickens. Here’s a pic of a black rat snake trying really hard to find a way into the coop. I needed to put jambs on the doors so there was no gap bigger than the 1/2” hardware cloth itself. I’m very sorry about your hen. I was so angry with the snake that killed our guineas, though I still released him.
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