Snake in the feed barn.... and I'm glad

[andrea98]

Quote:

its is just supporting your efforts lol
but seriously i hope you get what ever its taking your chickens!!!

 

[Iowa Roo Mom]

Yay!

Snakes are sooo important for pest control, I'm so glad there are people that know that!

I am def. pro snake, I have a PET snake!

 

[cackle]

We had a black rat snake that kept getting into the hen house. My DH would take it out and relocate it on the property. I told him it would eat eggs and he said no it is just looking for mice coming to eat the feed. Right! 2 days later he found the snake with an egg half down it's mouth. He took the egg and put the snake in a cage to take it off the property to re-home it. The snake got out of the cage and yesterday I found the snake stuck in the chicken wire with a bulge in it middle. DH grabbed the snake and had finally decide he had to take back the egg. I walked into the hen house to gather eggs and the golf ball was missing from the first nest. I yelled to him the snake had eaten the golf ball about the same time he popped the golf ball out of the snake. In the next nest there was an egg that had been opened and half of it sucked out.

We got our chickens a year ago last week. We did not have any predators other than our own dogs killing a silkie until last week. Seems nature has discovered our chicken buffet. Possum last week, snake this week.

 

[Punk-Rock_Chicken]

Thank you for posting a pro snake thread...I recently had part in having a thread locked for getting into an argument with a pro-kill, that moved to FL without the apparent knowledge that this state is mostly swamp and advocated the practice of moving here with the mentality of "A good snake is a dead snake" and "just kill them all to make sure". At least on this thread I can make my "point" without an argument and getting the thread locked again.

I'll be good, honestly!

... I love my chickens as much as anyone else on this forum, I raised them from chicks and they are PETS. I would hate for any of them to get hurt or killed by any animal not just snakes. I just think that a snakes BENEFIT out ways the fact that they will act like a snake and take an egg or two. I totally dislike mice,rats and squirrels(tree rats), snakes keep teir populations under control. I practice prevention. Moth-balls or grainuals(sp?) are in my experience are the best repellant. I put them in any hole or crack I find around my coop and house. The rest of the yard is theirs too roam and eat away! "I" realize that I live in a state that is (or was!) mostly swamp, and that snakes were here MILLIONS of years before us! Who are we to decide what animals deserve to live here and which ones need to be destoyed, because they are "scary"! If you move here or out to the "country life"...EXPECT SNAKES! I remove and relocate any venomous snake I find...but I am an experienced snake handler, have handled them since I was nine. I do understand not everybody is and that a venomous snake may need to be killed every now and then... but to go out of your way to kill one that is nott posing a threat, Come On! any way I am preaching again...

Again thank you!!!

And BTW, I did post an apology to the person that got their thread locked for my part in it.

Sorry rizq, I hope you get your snake identified.

Mark

 

[Lorettawyandotte]

I have a young snake of unknown type, other than non poisonous, who has moved into my coop...he is too small to get the chickens but mice are about right and I have many of those...he has a job and a home so long as eggs and birds do not start disappearing...

 

[theOEGBman]

Im glad to see a positive snake post! Good job. I wish I could find some snakes around my place!

 

[jjdward]

as long as a snake is about 5 or 6 feet away, im ok as long its not poisionious(sp). But if I happen to walk up on one and it startles

me, i can't help it, its dead. i had rather rely on my cats to get my rats, although snakes are better at it.

 

[Punk-Rock_Chicken]

I just watched a 4 or 5 ft. BEAUTIFUL Red Rat snake catch and eat a squirrel!! It was GREAT!! I was sitting out back letting my chickens free range for a bit while I sat in the shade and had my iced tea and a cigarette,(life's good!) and noticed a snake coiled up about 15-20 feet up my oak tree. When a squirrel happened to come by and, WHAP!!! He grabbed it and coiled around it in 2 seconds flat!! Man! SO COOL!! Just wanted to share, this just happened like an hour ago...I just went back out and checked and tha snake was in a crook in the tree coiled back up with a big lump in it's gut!

 

[lilshadow]

snakes especially in the south, those are poisionous kinds down there. Ran across a couple of copper mouths in my grannies yard a few times. Not fun. I run like a little girl even when there is a garter snake around. Hope you get more if that is what ya want.

 

[Punk-Rock_Chicken]

LOL... I think you meant Cotton mouth or Copper head.

But yeah there are quite a few here(not as many as we used to when I was younger though) but only 4 poisonous kinds. And yeah I do like em around, but not the poisonous ones. Those get relocated real quick!