snakes in the hen house, will they hurt the chickens?

[djcap]

I actually shuddered. Yeah, that's probably not a great thing to have in there with the chickens! We only get spaghetti noodle snakes up here.

you shuddered, You would have lyao if you seen me when I found it!!! Down here in far south New Jersey they can be very large.

 

[Tookie]

black snakes of all sizes, 3' to 7' long

oh yes they are, I have had some over 6'! one was over 7' long and 2-1/2" wide

WOW! Definitely cause for concern then. That's big.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Snakes come for the rats and mice that come for the chicken feed. Both are capable of bringing in diseases and vermin of all times, as are the wild birds if they are getting to your feed or flock.

Snakes do kill chicks and eat eggs, so do squirrels and rats. Thus the saying that if you need a tool you are already paying for it. Control the feed, get a treadle feeder. Most predators have to hustle to survive and do not have time to hang around a chicken coop if there are no wild birds or rodents or snakes for that matter, hanging around the coop. Small predators attract larger predators like coyotes, eagles, hawks, owls and more.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

The year I moved here (SE MO) I helped my DH dispatch not one but two of those six-foot blacksnakes, big around as my leg! <shudder!> They'd been eating our eggs but not the hens at that point. I've killed smaller blacksnakes since then, and a copperhead. I don't have a problem with snakes, just not in my hen house.