Snake proofing

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

You could....or go on the outside then, attach to door.
Won't work on hinge side as RR pointed out.

I had already attempted to add flanges? to the outside, which is where the hinge is (door opens outward). Those didn’t work so well so I think I’ll be trying to add to the inside frame, just not sure yet how to do it exactly. This will have to be a weekend project so I hope that security is good enough for a few days! Thanks!

 

[aart]

I had already attempted to add flanges? to the outside, which is where the hinge is (door opens outward).

Nope, that won't work.

 

[blackdog043]

Those didn’t work so well so I think I’ll be trying to add to the inside frame, just not sure yet how to do it exactly.

Look at any door frame in your house, in the middle is what your door closes against(door stop). Do the same thing on the inside of your run door. A piece of trim wood or 1 x 2 would work. Keep the door closed, put a piece of stop wood close to the door, leaving a small gap (1/4") and nail it to the door frame. You want a small gap to allow for the wood to swell and your door still closes.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

So I’ve now done some modification of doors, putting the “stops” on the inside portion of the one functional door with 1x2s. Looks like I will keep on working towards filling in every little gap, because the new Guinea coop is apparently a snake magnet!!! Came home at sunset tonight and the adult guineas were huddled on the ground outside of their coop instead of being inside - I’m guessing that they heard the keets’ alarm calls from the adjacent new Guinea coop and were too freaked out to go in to roost. I got those adults inside, then went to the new coop to check on the keets. They were fine, but another long black rat snake was climbing the coop! It was outside the wire of the coop, but under the tarp, so security had held so far. There are many more other birds, including teen aged chickens, 40 ft away in the main coop - I wonder why they like the juvenile keets so much? I think that I need to do a lot more snake proofing to all coops...

 

[blackdog043]

At least it didn't get in this time. You could get a couple minnow traps and put an egg inside, to make a snake trap. They can get in, but can't get out until you let them out.

 

[aart]

There are many more other birds, including teen aged chickens, 40 ft away in the main coop - I wonder why they like the juvenile keets so much?

Maybe because they've tried to enter the other coop and can't, this coop is new so they are checking it out...and the new keets are smaller than the other birds??

 

[Compost King]

If Snake proofing becomes too hard or too expensive to handle a good plan B (not Plan A) would be to set up snake traps using a Minnow Trap and an egg. I tried finding a good youtube video on it but it seems everyone wants to gab gab gab and none that I saw actually provided good visual instruction on how to do it. But basically you put an egg in a minnow trap. The snake comes in eats the egg and the can't get out until the egg is crushed inside of him. Check the trap a few times a day so he doesn't have time to crush the egg. Keep setting the trap until it stops catching snakes. When I set this type of trap I use failed hatching eggs and the largest one I have available so the snake has a harder time leaving with the egg in its belly.

 

[dpenning]

I want to putting bird netting like you would use on trees to keep birds away over my entire coop it was easy to maneuver and tiedown but the snakes got caught up in it and couldn’t get out. This was for a 10 x 10 grow out pen and a small gaps for too hard to find and close.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Thanks all for the input and suggestions!!! This whole thing has me worried because we apparently have a much higher bird-eating snake population than I had realized. We have three separate coop/run setups in the general area. For the main run where the chickens, ducks, and adult guineas are, the coop is snake proof, but the run has some gaps, mostly doors again. Our bachelor pad has Roos that decided that they prefer to roost in the run, instead of the snake proof coop that I worked so hard on... So I think I’ll work on door gaps for all runs today. I’ll see if I can find a minnow trap also. How do you get the snake out of the minnow trap? If I can get through for about a month, then our snakes should go into hibernation and we will get a temporary break. It’s also all ironic because one reason that I decided to expand the size of our guinea flock is so they would have a large enough flock to take on snakes! If nothing else, I guess the guineas now know that they need to be on the lookout for snakes...

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you get a minnow trap get one with small openings in the wire mesh. I've seen some with mesh so big a fairly large snake can crawl out.