snakes-- how do you deal with them, and how do you kill them?

[kfacres]

like it says, got a black snake problem.. and they're a little too quick for me to get with the flat bottomed shovel, not to mention, i think there might be several of them.

 

[Aschenfire]

Are they eating eggs or chicks? If not, leave them be!!!! They will keep the rats and mice out of your chickens areas. Why worry about killing them?

 

[ivan3]

If, indeed, they are relatively small, don't bother with them.

Racers/Ratters can be relocated if large and annoying (eating eggs).

Or, get some turkeys: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/671185/turkey-hens-and-snakes-pic-heavy#post_9064610

 

[JimyCrakKorn]

It is very important you protect the pen/run completely. Do not trust chicken wire. Even the 1 inch opening can leave openings for snakes. I found a great way to stop them. Deer netting. It's black plastic that disapears when more than 5 ft away from it and if you place it like a fence, a foot or two high with maybe 6 inches laying flat on the ground the snakes will either be blocked from coming in or more than likely will try to go through it. Here's the part that catches them. They start through and when they find out they can't get through, they try to back out. They can't. Their scales stop them from backing up. The more they try to get out the more tangled they become. They will die or if they are the kind you want (just not around the coop), you can cut them out and relocate them. However, you must know what you are handling if you plan on cutting them loose as you will need a steady hand, a good set of eyes and a sharp pair of sissors. You might want a second pair of hands due to the fact that as you clip the netting, you want to start from the tail end of the snake. The other pair of hands can steady the snake and take up any slack. If it sounds like I've done this myself, it's because I have; many times. We have 6 to 8 deer that seem to enjoy my wife's hostas and if the netting gets to close to the ground we catch snakes, instead. I've only had to kill one and some have died before I found them, but it's amazing how tangled they get.

Good luck.

 

[zazouse]

I have brooder pens on the ground and have never lost a baby to anything in them.

 

[JimyCrakKorn]

It looks good that you have hardware cloth on the outside of the brooder area. That will work for sure. However, depending on how big of an area you have, it can get a bit expensive. I prefer the 1/2 inch cloth myself. The deer netting is a cheap and effective barrier I would try first.

 

[zazouse]

I would not trust bird netting to keep out anything but mabe a hawk if it is good netting and secured real good on the edges.

Yeas hard ware cloth cost me 20 dollars for 20 foot but i never have to redue it cause something tore it up trying to get my birds.

 

[Sirenic]

I have snakes living inside the walls of my coop. Ugh.

D:

BUTT.. They kill the mice there, not any of my girls

I remember I was doing repairs to my coop one day a month ago, and I took apart a wall, and there was insulation in that part, and I noticed a mouse nest with tons of holes all around through the insulation. Then I found a snake in their nest :x. He got scared and ran away but I ran like a little school girl and wouldn't go back in till later, haha.

 

[JimyCrakKorn]

I would not trust bird netting to keep out anything but mabe a hawk if it is good netting and secured real good on the edges.

Yeas hard ware cloth cost me 20 dollars for 20 foot but i never have to redue it cause something tore it up trying to get my birds.

I too would never use just netting. I was suggesting they use deer netting as a way to stop snakes. If you streach the netting all around the bottom of the fence, it will stop snakes. Not much else, though. But for 20 dollars you can get a couple of 50 ft rolls of netting. I have 1/2 in hardware cloth covering my entire pen so I don't need the netting. I just know what it does to snakes.

 

[kmsek]

3 weeks ago I lost one of my 11-12 in tall pea fowl to a 5 1/2 ft oak snake killed but did not swallow i was up set caught snake w/ bare hands needless to say it rests with its ancestors!!!!!!!