Snakes in hen house

[dfalco]

I am snake skiddish, and my first response was typical of my knee jerk response whenever I see a snake. But I do tend to agree with @centrarchid . I don't typically kill any snake that is not venomous AND making my yard it's territory. I wouldn't be able to abide a resident snake in my house or my chicken's house, though, because I couldn't take the strain of always getting a fright from it, so I would want to relocate it. Many of these non-venomous snakes also prey upon the less desirable snakes, such as copperheads. They truly are beneficial.

 

[Melodychick]

I am creeped out by snakes too, and although I have come to appreciate them, I don't like being surprised finding them in my coop! I came upon one in the nest box eating an egg. I called my neighbor and she sent her son to catch and relocate it. I guess it came in through the pop door while the girls were out. I had noticed fewer eggs in the days before and the eggs that were there were in a different box than usual, so I guess he'd been visiting for awhile. I'm expecting some chicks soon and I'm a bit worried in case another one finds his way in.

 

[Howard E]

I am not all that confident the snake is interested in eggs or chickens. I have a good amount of snake activity in my barn. Based on their behavior and where I have been finding them, the snakes are after mice. The mice are after my chick feed and damage the building and its foundation for their use as nest sites. The snakes are catching some of the mice for sure.

Consider looking at snake as a beneficial animal that can help by consuming some of your rodents.

I agree with this 100%. To Martih........do you have mice in your barn? Where do you keep the chicken feed and where is your feeder?

Feed spilt by the birds is an easy meal for vermin, so attracts both rats and mice and large concentrations of those attract predators that dine on rats and mice, and that includes snakes. They may later transition to eating eggs or harming chicks, but it is the vermin they are primarily after. No comfort to those who don't like snakes, but they are the good guys.
But best way to rid your barn of snakes is to rid it of rats and mice and to do that you need to starve them out by removing access to the feed they are eating. You can poison the rodents, trap them, shoot em, etc. but as long as there is feed available, they will be easily replaced and will be there attracting predators like snakes and weasels.

 

[andreanar]

My biggest fear is coming upon a snake in the coop! Worse yet if I found one while reaching in a nest box! I would prob have a heart attack. I'm so creeped out by them. I get their purpose, but it doesn't help my fear.

 

[FLChickens]

I definitely agree with finding out what kind of snake you have and making a decision based on that. Snakes can be beneficial.

But with that said, I did have a lot of problems with snakes on my Texas farm and had to kill them all. A sharpened hoe was my preferred tool. I have had a couple try to attack me so I wanted a few feet to stand back.

I did come in once to find a snake working its way through my young flock - not yet laying - and it had killed several pullets already, tried to eat them but got no further than the head down its mouth, then went on the kill another. It was actively killing one when I found it - because of movement I thought the pullet was still alive and fighting but it was already dead.

My chickens hated snakes too. If they saw me carrying a dead one they all screamed alarm and watched it. Snakes killed ducklings (even large, older Muscovies) there too. Often they were after eggs but with my types of snakes young birds were not safe either.

I raised a flock of guineas, among other reasons hearing they were good for snakes. Well, one day I was going into their coop to get stale eggs and found the biggest, fattest copperhead just hanging out in there, and the guineas would just step around him.

My coop now has no nooks or boards for them to hide behind. I got tired of having to examine every corner in my old coop every night. And my run now is almost perfectly secure except for a few places that need patching in the (reused) overhead netting.

 

[Melodychick]

I think the snake in my pic was living in my barn, at least one that was marked like it and the same size, and I haven't seen that one since the relocation. There are lots of mice in my barn and I was glad he was there, as long as he stayed out of my way. I don't have any signs of mice in my coop and my cats hang out with the chickens so that helps.

 

[Martih]

I am not all that confident the snake is interested in eggs or chickens. I have a good amount of snake activity in my barn. Based on their behavior and where I have been finding them, the snakes are after mice. The mice are after my chick feed and damage the building and its foundation for their use as nest sites. The snakes are catching some of the mice for sure.

The snake activity is a lot more than I have directly witnessed. The smaller snakes seem to be more in the mouse burrow system. I am not seeing much evidence for the snakes eating eggs, even in nests where a hens preparing to go broody. I check the nests daily.

Consider looking at snake as a beneficial animal that can help by consuming some of your rodents.

The snake was on the roost and wrapped around the 1X that they roost on. Both times I saw him he was on the roost all wrapped around it and the chickens flew down and were very anxious. I kept going out and watching for him and left the lights on in the barn all night hoping that would deter him. I hate snakes because I don't know what kind I am dealing with. I am alone with no one to help me so I have no backup. After I smacked him, I didn't see him come bAck and my chickens were all ok this morning.

 

[Martih]

As far as scaring the snake away, I don't think that is likely. Anything that would scare the snake is sure to cause your hens to lay scrambled eggs. You need to relocate that snake, or get rid of it all together. Also, for your own peace of mind, consider securing the coop in such a way that snakes cant enter.

How do you catch a snake? Do Geese keep snakes away?

 

[centrarchid]

My snakes also hunt up, at least the black rat snakes do. They do not appear to be targeting chickens, rather their hunting strategy is to explore up. The blue racers seems to spend more time hunting at ground level and in open where they pursue targets at considerable speed. The speckled king snakes seem to work the burrows more under things and are slow. The by far largest bulls snakes do not come into barn and a slow but hunt above ground. They are the ones that give me concern for chick safety but those snakes can be stopped by chicken wire or rabbit cages for chicks at night.

Effort needs to be invested in familiarizing with snakes to help take the fear out of them.
Approach I am using below with 4 year old daughter.

Kids and wife help me save a snake seeing the value I put in their lives.

Snake entangled by deer netting above pen. It has damage on posterior third that looks like what chicken would do. First image as snake was found. Second image after rough cut of deer netting making so I could take it back to house for completion of disentanglement. Snake did not cooperate but I got her out. Tools used.

Cool observation kids get into as they see how snakes operate making them less unknown.

Black King Snake just under 6' caused a disturbance with hen and chicks. Hen was interacting with snake for some time before I figure out what was really going on. Immediately prior, hen was dust bathing with brood where snake would emerge from ground. Hen got back and gave an odd alarm call while rooster above went nuts trying to get down through hardware cloth of pen above. Kids where very much interested in what was going on. Dog was totally dead head since on drugs. Normally he would have been all over the snake.

Video below.

 

[dfalco]

How do you catch a snake? Do Geese keep snakes away?

I've seen chickens run a snake off. I don't know, but I bet geese would, too. The more animals like that around, I would think the fewer snakes you might see. Not sure. I do know I've seen plenty of egg-eating snakes. So would snakes be attracted to the birds? I dont know. So as far as scaring them...I guess having animals around that run the snakes off would work. But as for catching them, I use a simple snare made of a stick and cord. My husband taught me that trick. But I do admit its not something i've had to do more than a couple times. So now I'm risking acting like I know all about something that I don't know all about, at all.