snake just ate my chicken

[Birde]

I have baby chicks abt. 9 weeks old. I have been letting them out to range with the older hen but last night found 2 dead. They weren't tore up just a few little feathers around one but they were dead. what could have done this?

I believe that is too young to be set out with older birds. I lost 1 once that way. Murder by chicken. Now I ease them in together in numbers. I put a cage in my hen house so they get used to them. It takes time.

 

[trailchick]

Welcome to BYC!!!

Sorry to hear about your snake problem. You dont say what state you are in,
so I would also attempt to relocate the problem snake just a short distance away.
Preferably in good snake habitat.... You might do a search
for your state's regs on predators/wildlife regarding livestock.
I did that with a bull snake that I found in the coop and he wouldnt stay out.

My sister took this pic of black snake climbing a tree....


in the Ozarks, NW Arkansas.
Gotta love it down there.

Good Luck....

 

[Nsampsel]

OMG...I don't do snakes!!!!

Haven't had any bother my coops yet, but I'm in town (with woods & an old unused train track behind my coops). I'm sure I'll see one eventually, but that's why the hammer & spade stay by the coops. If I can't kill it I'll go find one of the neighbor guys real quick.

 

[Nicophorus]

I have a lot of snakes around here, black racers and big yellow rat snakes. I leave them alone because as far as I know they have not messed with any of my animals. Maybe they've gotten eggs but not sure. My geese are running around with their babies at the moment, but I hope the geese keep the snakes at range.

 

[SnuggleBear]

OK, my question is, is there any way to run or scare them (the snakes) off or any thing I can put out. I lost one four week old bantam to a snake yesterday, and two more last night.

 

[WildWorks]

OK, my question is, is there any way to run or scare them (the snakes) off or any thing I can put out. I lost one four week old bantam to a snake yesterday, and two more last night.

A .22 rifle bullet to the head will scare them so bad they wont ever come back....lol

 

[okherp]

I've lost a duckling already from a large rat snake. It found a hole my ducklings created, and came right in. The duckling (at the time) was about 4 weeks old, far too large to eat, but not too large to overpower. The snakes will usually not bother the adults, but young birds can fall prey, and become dinner if they're small enough. In fact, in some cases, the adults will actually kill the snakes, especially the roosters. It's just the transitional period that they're bothersome.

We've since replace the duckling (with one that looks almost identical) and bought a couple of turkeys too, 30 birds in total! Hopefully we can avoid any further tragedies. I'm really getting into this thing about raising chickens and such.

 

[Back on the Farm]

I've got a copperhead issue here... last year a large one was in my yard, just outside my back door. Kids playing in the yard and no idea how close they were to this snake. Something scared it and it wrapped itself around a bush right next to the house. .22 took care of said copperhead. We measured him, over 4ft long - he was a grandaddy. I get tons of garden snakes and a few of the black rat snakes... don't mind those so much as they take care of my mice & rats and so far they've left my ducks & chickens alone. I think last summer my ducks ate a few of the garden snakes as I've seen a greatly reduced number of them hanging around my spring house.

 

[cmclean]

We have copperhead snakes here, too. They only grow to 1-2 feet in length and are really not that big around. If what you saw was 4 feet long, it may not have been a copperhead.

 

[zazouse]

Our souther copperheads get up to 3 feet but the offical record is 52 inches.

This guy got this one in the next town over, said to be 6 foot but did not keep the snake as proof, even at that it looks pretty big in the photo I would say mabe 4 foot.