Snakes - Waaaaaay Too Many Snakes

[Jaiyun]

The only snakes I ever get rid of are poisonous and for my neck of the woods that is the rattler. The others I thank for hanging around my coop. Free feeding your flock means tons, TONS of mice. Now we don't have Hanta Virus in our area but others here might so mice are bad. Snakes - Garter/Bull and Racer come to my coop for the mice. Find them around all the time and never in the nesting boxes. An example before I started seeing snakes around my coop I used a live trap and caught on average 15 mice every night. That is a big battle and the daily slaughter, even of mice, wore me out so I threw in the towel. Put the live trap out again a couple of years later and only got 5 mice on average every night. When I put my head into the reason I realized I always have 2-3 snakes in my coop at any given time!!

Now sometimes my little hero snakes are found dead or I see them with broken spines. What I discovered is chickens think snake is just about as tasty as mice are. One day I was cleaning the coop and shoveled up a nest of mice just getting their fur. The hens were on them in a flash!! Fought harder over them than a half eaten corn cob or bunch of grapes!! Last summer I heard a ruckus in the coop only to find a bull snake with a mouse halv in it's mouth and the hens not only ripping the mouse apart but the snake as well!! Before I had a lot of structure in the coop and that spring I'd cleaned it all out to really sanitize. The structure helped the snakes protect themselves from the chickens. So structure went back in.

Realistically are your snakes big enough to swallow a chicken egg? I doubt it. Yes I know their mouths can open over twice their size but after close examination of the rattlers I've killed and actually attempting to shove an egg into the empty skin of the very biggest one (13 button rattle) I see no way that any snakes in my area could do it. My rattlers are about 3 times as large as my bulls.

Oh another point the bulls/garters are the best defense against rattlers which would harm your flock and you. They actually kill rattlers - natural enemy #1.

Anyway my ramblings come down to unless the snakes are poisonous thank them for being there to fight the mice and keep the rattlers away!!

 

[macchooks]

Move to the UK then snakes won't bother your chooks

 

[beauty2thebirds]

Guinea hens are the best snake repellent you can have. Only need a couple and it does take a while to get used to their call, but they work great, snakes will stay away and if they do get gutsy, old guinea will eat them.
I discovered this about 25 years ago. I lived in Igo Ca, hot as the blazes and rattlesnake happy. I had 5 small children who played outside. It was a disaster waiting to happen. So off to the feed store and found out about the wonderful world of guinea hens.
I have never had a snake on my property again.
Good luck!!

 

[greymane]

We have had a lot of snakes this year, too, but I have to admit that I haven't seen any mice out in the outbuildings.

 

[meburges]

 

[Jaiyun]

It is awesome to have chickens that do this!! I think it shows that no matter how much we have taken them from nature their natural instincts are still there. If someday this country has such a financial crash that things come to a standstill and commercial food is no longer available it is good to know our kids have a clue and can help us feed them!!

 

[lowry075]

Quote:

 

[Louieandthecrew]

Tarheelnm – Wow! Rattle snakes are dangerous! I’m glad you don’t have that problem often at all

Jaiyum – I luckily don’t have rattlers! Yes, the snakes that I’ve found in my coop are definitely big enough to swallow my Red Sex Link hen’s eggs. My Buff Orpingtons haven’t started laying yet, but I’m sure the snakes will be able to eat their eggs, too. The snakes have been found with eggs in their body and they were still digesting. I really don’t mind the snakes unless they’re eating my eggs.

Macchooks – Good idea

beauty2thebirds – I do have one guinea hen that is laying and she is really great to have, but she’s never bothered to go around the snakes, possibly because the snakes have never been smaller than 4ft. long. They are 4-6ft., so will she eat them at that large size? She’s our only Guinea because we found her on the side of the road and so we took her.

meburges – Wow, that’s strange! My hens are not free range so by the time the snakes come in they are usually full grown.

 

[mskittydjs]

This is my second summer having chickens and I have had only one experience (that I know of for sure) with a snake. I had bought 6 ceramic white eggs and placed them in the nesting boxes to encourage the girls to lay there. I am now down to only 4 ceramic eggs. Where did the others go???...I am not sure but my guess is a snake. I have not found any dead bodies around to verify this.

Last week, I decided to go out and check on Cinderella and her 7 eggs that she was sitting on. I went out at midnight and there she was, sitting on nothing!!! She was so calm and unconcerned! But in the broody cage with her was a 5'3" snake that had eaten 5 of the eggs and the other 2 were laying by the snake. My son shot the snake in the head with one round and I wouldn't change the way it ended. I was so angry that these eggs were less than a week from hatching and now they were gone! I brought the other 2 eggs inside to candle them and see if they were still viable. It took a long time to finally see movement but there it was and back under Cinderella they went. Both eggs hatched yesterday and they are cute little fuzzy butts!!! Still makes me sad/mad that their sisters and brothers are gone. We live in central Louisiana, in the middle of lots of woods with a large creek running through it. We have copperheads and water moccasins along with the non venomous kind and I have to admit that a dead snake is a good snake to me!! I know they have their purpose but I will not hesitate to shoot the next one that is eating my babies! I do not have a mice/rat problem so the snake was not coming after mice or rats...the broody coop is 4 ft off the ground and I know where it squeezed into (which has been rectified) and the only reason it was still there was because it was stuffed with eggs and couldn't squeeze back out.

 

[rillgal]

Thanks for all the great information. I am no longer worried about snakes in my coop, I agree that they are better (when they aren't poisonous) than mice and rats.