Snake

[BigBlueHen53]

They may "only" eat eggs, but by golly, those are MY eggs! A couple years ago I found a smaller black snake helping itself to my eggs. I had 8 BO and was only getting 0-3 eggs a day, I knew something was up. He ate his last egg that day.

 

[cherrynberry]

Good morning. So here is my snake tale. I hail from NM. Home of rattlesnakes and bull snakes. They get "big," four to six feet long was all I ever saw, and no bigger around than my wrist if that. No real biggie, and in 30 years of living there I saw perhaps two or three.

So I move to MO at age 58 and get chickens. One day my very calm, very quiet DH screams at me from the chicken coop to come help him. I run out there to see what's up and he is wrestling an enormous black reptile from an episode of Star Trek. He is 6'2" and this thing is nearly as big as he is. I look around for some kind of weapon and finally grab a rake and a shovel.

When I get out there, I see there is not one, but TWO of these monsters! I pin one with the rake and DH dispatches it with the shovel. Then we do battle with the other. When we are victorious, I grab both of them by their tails and hold them up. I have to lift them up above my head and they still don't clear the ground. They are nearly as big around as my thigh (I have gained a little weight since then, but they were still of considerable girth!).

That was the day I began referring to my new home as Planet MO. At that moment, I was not sure I would stay, but then I thought, I have battled these ginormous snakes; I feel like I can tackle anything else Missouri has to throw at me.

Disclaimer: I am NOT exaggerating in this story.

That sounds so creepy! Glad you didnt get hurt! I already got so scared by a small rat snake...cant imagine such large snakes!

 

[cherrynberry]

Some predator may have claimed the body.

Thats what I am thinking as well.

Good morning. So here is my snake tale. I hail from NM. Home of rattlesnakes and bull snakes. They get "big," four to six feet long was all I ever saw, and no bigger around than my wrist if that. No real biggie, and in 30 years of living there I saw perhaps two or three.

So I move to MO at age 58 and get chickens. One day my very calm, very quiet DH screams at me from the chicken coop to come help him. I run out there to see what's up and he is wrestling an enormous black reptile from an episode of Star Trek. He is 6'2" and this thing is nearly as big as he is. I look around for some kind of weapon and finally grab a rake and a shovel.

When I get out there, I see there is not one, but TWO of these monsters! I pin one with the rake and DH dispatches it with the shovel. Then we do battle with the other. When we are victorious, I grab both of them by their tails and hold them up. I have to lift them up above my head and they still don't clear the ground. They are nearly as big around as my thigh (I have gained a little weight since then, but they were still of considerable girth!).

That was the day I began referring to my new home as Planet MO. At that moment, I was not sure I would stay, but then I thought, I have battled these ginormous snakes; I feel like I can tackle anything else Missouri has to throw at me.

Disclaimer: I am NOT exaggerating in this story.

We also get rattlesnakes every once in awhile here. Most often we dont get very many. Maybe one sighting a year. As for snakes, maybe 3 a year. Our neighborhood tends to warn eachother when they start seeing things, including coyotes, mountain lions, and rattlesnakes. So thats pretty nice. The day one of the neighbors warned about a coyote sighting, I woke up to see that a coyote tried to dig to the chickens leaving a hole under the floor (we have a cement slab).

 

[BigBlueHen53]

That sounds so creepy! Glad you didnt get hurt! I already got so scared by a small rat snake...cant imagine such large snakes!

Nah, they would not have hurt us, not constrictors or venomous. Other than just about giving me a heart seizure, lol!

 

[Sally Winter-Swink]

I lost a few young hens to a snake and posted previously. After losing the hens I put an SD card in my Wyze cam. Today I noticed I was missing a lot of eggs, and the SD card paid off. See video. I have to come up with a snake defense plan.

Ignore the junk in the nest boxes. They aren't used and it keeps the young ones out at night.

Find someone with a shotgun! That's what we did when one killed three of our pullets.

 

[McChooky]

Some predator may have claimed the body.

Zombie snakes(hognose) play dead if scaring you doesn't work. They Look like cobras when threatened.Their head and neck swells and makes it look like a cobra and if that doesn't scare you off it'll hiss and spit .This was the first and only snake my kittens had ever seen and to this day they run in the house if they see a snake.They are terrified.

 

[AJRobles]

I have 3 ideas. Probably the electric fence. I have a spare, high powered fence charger. I don't think it would kill the snake, but it would deter it I am sure.

Electric fence circuit on the ramp far enough apart that only something as long as a snake could touch hot and ground.

live snake trap/cage

Feed it ceramic eggs. I assume that would kill it, but not very nicely.

We have a 4 wire electric fence with a hella strong charger on it and we have found fried snakes looped over the bottom wire. Our fence will cook anything if it lays on it too long (have found fried turtles too).

I’m not sure ceramic eggs would work. This summer I let some of my broody hens hatch 3 separate batches of eggs. For the last two batches (I spaced them out) some of the eggs went missing the day before they were set to hatch. We had a black snake in our barn (same as in the video) and we know that was the culprit. There were a few eggs that were left so we waited to see if they would hatch and they were duds (rotten). The snake knew not to take the rotten ones. So I’m guessing a ceramic egg may bit fool them either.

Besides letting my DH shoot them, we have yet to come up with a solution. Our barn sits right in the middle of 7 fenced acres with our two German Shepherds, 6 Nigerian Dwarf Goats, and a flock of chickens and rooster. We’ve considered guinea hens or donkeys to deter the snakes but adding any more animals to the farm always disrupts our eco-system for a bit. Our farm is mostly self-sustaining right now. Snakes and all.

 

[AJRobles]

Could the snake climb to the top row of nesting boxes?

Those black snakes can climb trees. We have found them in our barn attic and curled up right above doorways (sooo creepy!!).

 

[AJRobles]

This is what I am trying. Stuff I had laying around. Ground is insulated from actual ground, so a creature has to contact both bars. It should be a good jolt.

Genius!!!!!

 

[AJRobles]

Find someone with a shotgun! That's what we did when one killed three of our pullets.

If you’ve got a .22 rifle they make bullets called ‘rat shot’ specifically for killing snakes. They’re bullets with pellets/bbs inside of them so you can shoot them if you’re inside a barn and supposedly it won’t hurt the walls and won’t ricochet to hurt you. I still leave the building when my husband shoots them. I’ve reached into our nesting boxes to gather eggs and grabbed a black snake instead. They’re constrictors so usually they wrap around your arm but I was quick enough to jump back before that happened.