snakes in the coop

[chatterbox]

Every year i get some chicks and after a month I put them in the coop. They do fine except for the snakes. The snakes must be to small to swallow them because I always find the chicks dead, wet from head to about half way and in a elongated position. I know snakes get in the coop because I have killed a few and find shed skins. I've never lost a chick older then 2 months but I do wonder about the eggs. I've never seen a poisness snake just what I call a common rat snake. Kids area afraid to go into the coop. I can try and snake proof it better but is there such a thing as a snake trap? What's the best thing to do? I have put the chicks in a dog kennel at night in the coop before and i guess the wiring is to small for snakes but that still doesn't solve the problem of eggs and kids.

 

[dreamcatcherarabians]

I went around the bottom of my coop with hardware cloth and then checked everywhere I could see light from inside the coop and covered that with hardware cloth. Hopefully I've got the snake proofing thing done now. It's the only way I know to keep them out.

 

[cmclean]

Here's my story about rat/chicken snakes and my broody chicken.......
Dolly went broody 2 weeks ago. Sitting on imaginary eggs, sleeping on the nest, not wanting to eat or drink. She was making me crazy because I was worried she would starve. This week our first rat/chicken snake made an appearance. It was at least 5 feet long, all coiled up around an egg in one of the nests. Dolly was sitting right beside that box on her imaginary eggs. She was screaming bloody murder!!! That alerted me and I went to the coop to see what was going on. When I saw that huge snake it really scared me! My son got it out and we tossed it over a creek about 50 feet behind our house. Needless to say, Dolly has NOT been back in the coop!!!!!! She is no longer broody! Praise the Lord! Now my sons think we should plant a fake snake on the nest if any other hen goes broody. It was a sure fire fix for her!
On the down side of all of this, my hens will not go into the coop except to sleep. This is Friday and the "day of the snake" was Wednesday.!!!!!!! I am also very hesitant about going in....