Snake In The Coop!!!!

[cat1994]

I haven't been getting any eggs for about a week. I knew something must be eatting them so I begain cleaning the coop out so I could find the place where the pest was getting in. What did i find? A big Rat snake in the corner of my coop under some bedding!!! It was huge!!A foot taller then me!!!So there I am in this lil coop with a rat snake over 6ft long. I was not scared just surprised, but then I got mad!!! He should not be in here I need to get him out NOW!!! My dad is a big nature guy,so Iv known how to handel snakes since I was a lil kid. So I cought him and then I relized how big he was, and how old he was!! I couldn't kill him!! So I released him in my 60 acer woods 10 miles away from my coop so he can live out the rest of his days in peace!!

 

[Bat Cave Silkies]

You're much nicer & braver than I am....when I caught two black snakes in my barn this year, I blew their heads off and retreived the chicks they had swallowed....of course, the chicks were dead, but those snakes were NOT going to snake heaven with MY babies in them

 

[EMAW]

Nicely done. Anything that is not venimous deserves a chance, they really help keep the rodent population in check.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
X2. I don't really like killing the venomous ones, either. Rat snakes definitely get relocated, and I'm no proponent of relocation, generally speaking.

They can sure make you jump out of your shoes, though. When I lived in town with chickens we'd get them all the time, often huge.

My dogs probably do a better job on rodents here than snakes do.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Quote:
Mostly agree....we move the venomous ones too. Just doesn't seem right to kill something that is only trying to survive the only way they know how. Good job!

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

If we could only teach them to eat only rodents,..... they could live in my barn!

 

[abercrombie575]

Here is the picture of the rat snake that got into my coop this summer. He was caught red handed eating my eggs!!

 

[mikeksfarmer]

I live in Kansas on a small farm and when I moved in we had some 5 footers and maybe more. Over time the short-timer neighbors who moved in for a year or two killed them all. I really enjoyed them as they did eat mice but also ate the sparrrows who plucked out the insulation in my barn and the black birds that nested in my cedar wind block to the north. They dropped their fecal sacks on my deck daily. I am so glad you saved that snake. You are a good person.
I was wondering as I now have a 3.5 footer this year and he/she has been in the chicken house. If I made a point of collecting eggs any time I was in there whould this snake eat mostly mice. I am willing to pay him/her a egg here and there for the mice eating they do. I live in the country to enjoy the natural haritage and snakes are a part of that. I am hopeing to live with my snakes as they get bigger and not loose eggs by regular collecting.
Any way I ramble here.

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
X2. I don't really like killing the venomous ones, either. Rat snakes definitely get relocated, and I'm no proponent of relocation, generally speaking.

They can sure make you jump out of your shoes, though. When I lived in town with chickens we'd get them all the time, often huge.

My dogs probably do a better job on rodents here than snakes do.

That's a fact!

I agree with the policy. We have relocated 10+ this year to a nature preserve. It's so bad here that we keep 2 homemade snake sticks by the front door, with a 5 gallon, lidded and ventilated bucket. We have killed 2 copperheads and a rattler so far this year. I've only had to shoot one possum this year *knocks wood*

My avatar? Here's what it was before I cropped it! As you can see, Goldie was not concerned at all.

 

[cat1994]

Quote:
Thats they way I look at it! If it is not venimous and it helps keep other pests down i don't kill it. Why kill it if I can easily move it to a new, safe home? Plus he was so BIG and so OLD I just couldn't bring myself to kill such a thing, even if he eat some of my eggs!