Snake!!!

[walkswithdog]

I've been missing eggs. And I've known it, I thought they were being hidden... UMM NOOOOOO.

I was working in the hen house when a GREAT BIG Kingsnake just dropped itself out of the roofing and onto the nest ledge. The broody (recently robbed of eggs) SCREAMED and went after him. So did I (after checking for a rattle) I grabbed that sucker, pulled him back out of the roofing, flung him end over end over end out of the hen house and chicken yard and then ran in hot pursuit, grabbed the nearest tool and beat it's fool head in. All the while praying I had the whole breed identity thing down and wasn't trying to dance with a rattlesnake.

The woods rattlers and the kingsnakes are marked enough alike it's kinda scary. And no, it's not going to live where it can eat my eggs and chicks. And I don't do rehome-a-predator. Not when I have six thousand snakes as it is here.

A blacksnake might have gotten a reprieve but not a king. Now I have a five foot long carcass and can't decide what to do with it... Probably skin it for the dogs. Waste not.

I'd call me brave but it scared me silly. Now I can have my eggs again.

 

[Cetawin]

I know that is scarey. Find out how he got in and try to secure it against more later.

I have a beautiful HUGE kingsnake here and I allow him to stay because this summer he has already killed three rattlers. But, I do not have chicks or small critter, all mine are full grown heavy girls.

He has been in the coop once and stolen a couple of eggs but he is welcome to them here...I want the rattlers gone and he does that for me. hehehehehe

Plus I get 28 eggs per day and do not eat that many so it is fine with me. Just know that if you were able to grab it and not get bitten, you were not dealing with a rattler, that one would have tagged you trying to hold him/grab/sling him.

 

[gardenak]

I had chills running down my spine reading that! I HATE snakes! Thank heavens that is one creature AK doesn't have. Had I had a snake fall from the rafters, I don't know if I'd even have made it out of the coop before stomping his head.

 

[gypsy2621]

I am sorry I am laughing hysterically as I write this, not because of the predicament but the way it was written. I can almost picture the poor thing flipping its way out of the coop think WTH did I do?

If you cant identify and they look way similar then you did the right thing. I am not for killing snakes as they are our best rodent control. but like I said IF it cant be quickly identified it needs to be dispatched just in case.

sorry to laugh but written words sometimes crack me up.

 

[walkswithdog]

LOL go on and laugh I did, if a tad hysterically. And I love my blacksnakes of which there are many and larger here - since they're real killers of copperheads. I'll move a blacksnake from any predicament. But I get along with one species at a time. Kingsnakes in the hen house are right out.

Besides now I have an explanation for the dead 10 week chick that was apparently uninjured but dead and squished looking in the coop... GRRR. Too big to swallow but dead none the less.

Unfortunately my hen house is OPEN totally during the day, so any snake could get in. This one came and stayed. I only get six or seven eggs a day - one broody and several pullets at POL, so not sure. So a snake is NOT welcome to my eggs. Yesterday after the snake there was a new pullet egg, so some of the eggs the sucker could swallow and some not, or he'd get full. He ate all my precious serama eggs. One very upset broody, had to give her other eggs she wouldn't even leave the empty nest. Poor thing.

Some snakes is good, more is not better and never in my coop.

I've had a nasty predator season and not in the mood to tolerate more loss really.

 

[NGT ANGL]

I think you need to change your handle from walkswithdog to wrangelssnake!

 

[walkswithdog]

danceswithsnakeses? snakestomper? snakebane!

 

[Brindlebtch]

Snakeheaver? snakepitcher? snakecatapult!

 

[Sillystunt]

snakechucker

Snaketosser

 

[gypsy2621]

nah lets make it " Walkswith dogs while flinging snakes "