Snakes - Waaaaaay Too Many Snakes

[Louieandthecrew]

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[mulewagon]

Well, I've never found a mouse or rat basking, full up with my chicks! Spreadin' adders under the house are fine, black racers in the garden are fine (if startling!), but chicken snakes in the chicken pen are headed for snake heaven.

21 chicks gone down a snake's gullet so far this year. And one great big snake gone

 

[Outhouser]

My week old turkeys are mysteriously disappearing during the day and the only thing I can figure is that a snake is getting them.

 

[Louieandthecrew]

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Hah! You're my hero

I like the way you think!

 

[chickon baby]

Not sure if it helps or not but we have had more than our fair share of snakes,I cant stand them.We have both copperheads,black snakes as well as garden and other posenious snakes,either way..."they are outta here."Im so thankful they were not in the coop at the same time I was,OM~GG I would have made a mes of myself..lol Sorry to the snake lovers but if they were w/in range and I was uncertain of the kind of snake,they were gone.If we knew it was a garden,my son relocated it. Our girls have a attached run n are locked in at night.I keep the feed in coop n never outside.I do put cold watermelon n treats in play yard in early am n clean up any mess to not attract critters.For the snakes I have used......
Coffee cans with holes..put lid on after dumping box of moth balls in them,refresh them every few weeks. I sit numerous cans ard outside of coop/playyard.(wash cans well w/soap 1st..
***Dont sit moth balls or anything w/strong oder too close to girls,theyre little lungs dont like strong odors!
** Snakes love coffee n coffee grounds~if u r a big coffee drinker or compost your grounds..."STOP" if you have a snake issue..Dont dump your coffee in the yard or use grounds in outside plants or compost..
** ALSO, cinnamon n cloves are a deterrant..I bought several big bottles of cinnamon n ground cloves n sprinkled it ard the play yard/coop..Its recommended to use clove oil n cinnamon oil,but I couldnt find it..Yhis has help us,hope it has been helpful advice..

 

[GatorChickenRanch]

I've never had a snake in my coop. One of the perks of converting an old shed into a new coop

 

[Louieandthecrew]

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[9Catsz]

I know that a hognose snake is commonly referred to as a "spread adder", but I've never heard of a "chicken snake"? Exactly what kind of snake is a "chicken snake"?

D'Angelo N Va. :

Correction, Snakes WILL eat golf balls....I have seen on more than one occassion myself....

I'd love to see photo proof of a snake that ate a golf ball 'cuz I'm having a hard time believing that tale.

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I agree w/you 100%.

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This 'advice' is absolutely hilarious. Obviously an old wives' tale.

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Copperheads don't lay eggs, they have live young.

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Copperheads don't eat eggs period. They're there because there are mice.

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Vehicles, man's best friend ..the dog, horses, and even lightening kill more people each year than snakes ever have or ever will. I simply don't understand why people are so afraid of them, yet they climb into a potential death trap called a vehicle nearly every day.

I ask ya'll this: How many of you know PERSONALLY a person who has been killed by a snake? I and all my friends own snakes/huge snakes, and even I don't know anyone personally who has been killed by a snake. Cars....I can name 2 people in my own family and several friends who have been killed by cars.
It's very rare for someone in the USA to be killed by a snake....even in the pet trade only 13 people in the last 20 years have been killed by snakes while 32 people were killed by dogs in 2010 alone. There are 7 million people bitten by dogs every year in the USA. I'm talking USA statistics here. I'm sure Australia has many more snake/people related deaths because they have so many deadly snakes.

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Venomous snakes don't eat eggs. To understand this you need to know how a venomous snakes eats. It bites and injects its prey with venom and sits back and waits until the prey dies (10-30 seconds for a mouse bitten by either a timber rattler or a copper head) and then it approaches its meal. If the rodent so much as makes a twitch, the snake will jerk back away from the rodent. Then it waits to make sure the rodent is dead before it approaches it again. After the snake is sure the prey item is dead, only then will it hunt for the head and begin to eat it.
There is no way they can inject an egg, therefore they're not going to eat an egg.

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I don't know why, but when it comes to snakes people's irrational fear makes them forget that they're living, breathing creatures that aren't out to kill them.....as if the snake actually could in 99% of the cases.

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Do you raise gray-banded kingsnakes? Those little buggers are really hard to get to feeding and I use lizard scented mice and/or just do a bit of bait and switch with a fence lizard.​

 

[mrpekinduck]

I know for a fact that snakes will eat golf balls or wooden eggs and have seen them choke to death on a golf ball. Sorry if I offended anyone who says snakes wont eat golf balls. Hope this helps.

 

[9Catsz]

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Choke to death? Are you serious? Do you even know anything about snakes? They don't choke to death. If a prey item is too big to swallow, they simply upchuck it and move on.
If you've seen these things, then surely you took a picture(s).