Snake!!!

[Renegade Rescue]

soe to hear about the baby birds the moth balls work well for us.

 

[ForeverSunshine]

Oh my! That sounds so scary! I don't do snakes very well. My ducks eat them, so they're not a predator problem, but I still can't stand them! I know what you mean about the killing. I was so upset and guilty feeling both after my brother shot the raccoon and the opossum. I guess it all boils down to who you love most.

 

[pearl287]

I can live with foxes and racoons and diseases and all the other natural things that come with raising chickens, but these snakes have me completely unnerved. I'm too scared to even go in the chicken coop anymore. I've found them under a hen squeezing the life out of her babies. I have gotten hardly any eggs this summer and for the last two days it was down to none. Earlier in the summer there was a large rat snake (over 6 feet) my neighbor killed in her coop that had been going back and forth from our hen houses. I bought cats (5), guineas (6) and today to greet me was a rattlesnake. The largest I had ever seen (even compared to those at the zoo). I can't stop shaking and I don't think I will ever be able to step outside again. I hate to do the mothballs for I know it can hurt my other animals if ingested. I read about putting the moth balls in water bottles with holes in them so the smell gets out. My husband wants me to get rid of all my chickens but I love them. Help!!! What is the answer to get rid of snakes. I've had chickens for several years but the snake thing is just getting worse and worse.

 

[TERRY4]

Thank you for the suggestion for the snake hook. I really do not like to kill a critter that is helpful(hunts mice or rats), but my chickens' welfare comes first. Love my girls!!!

Me too, BUT yesterday afternoon I opened the main door, people door, to the coop and RIGHT there was a big snake. OMG I thought I'd have a spaz-attack! Lol.. The chickens were all outside wanting to come in, but were scared. I screamed for hubby, and was beating it's head with a board til he got there. I wasn't prepared or I would have had something better to get rid of it with. Hubby thought it was a garter snake but I don't. It had a larger jaw/mouth area and was colored funny. We're in Ohio, so I do wonder what it was. It was NOT going to get in where my girls live, if I had anything to say about it. I'll be putting hardware around with the chicken wire now. Can't have them in there at all! Hubby says now he can tell that all the chickens all girls, cause we were all scared. Lol.. Then why did he use 2 sticks to carry it away?!!

 

[Speckled01]

We had our first snake encounter with our guineas this morning. A big indigo had killed one and was digesting the second of a group of preteens. I had them in a dog crate getting introduced to a group of teens. Dear husband who would have loved to be a herpetologist snatched the bugger up and transported him 5 miles away. We live in a National forest so he can eat mice and rats until a hawk or owl comes to get him. Now, if DH had not been home, I could have benefitted from a snake hook. But if it was a rattler or copperhead, I would need to shoot it.
The incident had its upside. The guineas learned the enemy of my enemy is my friend and at last look were all laying down together without pecking or pestering anyone.

 

[TERRY4]

We had our first snake encounter with our guineas this morning. A big indigo had killed one and was digesting the second of a group of preteens. I had them in a dog crate getting introduced to a group of teens. Dear husband who would have loved to be a herpetologist snatched the bugger up and transported him 5 miles away. We live in a National forest so he can eat mice and rats until a hawk or owl comes to get him. Now, if DH had not been home, I could have benefitted from a snake hook. But if it was a rattler or copperhead, I would need to shoot it.
The incident had its upside. The guineas learned the enemy of my enemy is my friend and at last look were all laying down together without pecking or pestering anyone.

You would have to shoot it. Lol.. I don't waste ammo on snakes. A big stick or something. Maybe a hoe. I don't touch'em so they need to stay away from the chickens, me, and whatever. I couldn't haul one away if I had to. Pat on the back for your Hubby!

 

[Speckled01]

LOL he did the Snakes Alive show at Bush Gardens one summer. His first business was as Rattlesnake Mike- he would clear snakes out of houses in Florida and then use their skins as cowboy hat bands. That was back during the Urban Cowboy craze

 

[txnative]

I have to shoot (snake shot is great!) because my luck is such that if I got close enough to hit with a hoe or shovel I would totally miss and end up being bitten!

 

[TERRY4]

LOL he did the Snakes Alive show at Bush Gardens one summer. His first business was as Rattlesnake Mike- he would clear snakes out of houses in Florida and then use their skins as cowboy hat bands. That was back during the Urban Cowboy craze

Lol.. He's a snake guy then. Not me! I've seen more this year then normal. Not liking it.

 

[Tamie Meadows]

If I use my minnow net to catch snackes do I have to put my eggs in thier to catch the snakes.? Or what do you do?