Snakes

[Lazy Farmer]

OMG!! We dont have anything like that around me thank GOD! But we were just talking about moving to Florida

Those were just handy on my tablet. I've got some really jumbo ones on the pc. rat snakes stumble upon chicken coops that have a rodent population feeding. they smell the rodent and find your nesting boxes by coincidence. Ours were caught because they ate some many eggs that they can't fit back out the tiny holes they came in at because the got stuffed fat. the photos I featured was from one of my breeding houses. Those hens did not lay a single egg for 2+ weeks after the snake was removed. they refused to even go into the egg house. PTSD.

 

[Farmdreamin]

They looked jumbo to me!!! And I do t blame your hens! I wouldn’t go back in the coop either! Lol. I’m feeling pretty good about our 6 inch garters lol. If I show this to my husband he will NEVER move to Florida. He has already crossed Texas off the possibility because of snakes! I want to move somewhere warm!

 

[Lazy Farmer]

They looked jumbo to me!!! And I do t blame your hens! I wouldn’t go back in the coop either! Lol. I’m feeling pretty good about our 6 inch garters lol. If I show this to my husband he will NEVER move to Florida. He has already crossed Texas off the possibility because of snakes! I want to move somewhere warm!

without snakes, I would be complaining about rodents. They have a job to do.

 

[centrarchid]

Snakes do eat a lot of rodents, as do other critters. That said, keeping rodent numbers under control is the result of many factors and sometimes the rodents still get high and sometimes they drop even when the number of predators or other conditions do not seemed aligned to depress rodent abundance.

My preference is to keep a diverse assemblage of predators and approaches in place to help regulate rodent abundance.

 

[Zahreenuh]

I had some garder snakes that would creep around my chicken coop. My bantam chickens saw them, got very curious then tried to attack it and peck the heck out of the snake even when it was attacking back. Never have I seen snakes again, since then.
I have some brahmas that are pretty fearless, too. Whenever a bird gets caught in my run, I have to lock them in until I can get it out because they will peck and almost murder the poor thing... lol

 

[seminolewind]

I had a silkie that slept alone in a pen for one night. The next morning he was found with a terribly swollen face, facial/head feathers everywhere, and his head was wet and gooey. He was in the same spot I left him in. He died a few days later. Could a snake have tried to swallow him and found he was too big to swallow?

 

[MROO]

It may have been a raccoon. They will reach through and try to pull the whole chicken out between the openings in the wire. It sounds like one grabbed your Silkie's neck and tried to pull it through. Poor baby!

 

[seminolewind]

Thanks for your reply but it wasn't a raccoon. He was alive, just his whole head and part of his neck was wet and slimey or gooey.

 

[aart]

I had a silkie that slept alone in a pen for one night. The next morning he was found with a terribly swollen face, facial/head feathers everywhere, and his head was wet and gooey. He was in the same spot I left him in. He died a few days later. Could a snake have tried to swallow him and found he was too big to swallow?

Sure sounds like a snake encounter.

Thanks for your reply but it wasn't a raccoon. He was alive, just his whole head and part of his neck was wet and slimey or gooey.

Coon would have bit it's head right off.

 

[Phoebus]

OMG!! We dont have anything like that around me thank GOD! But we were just talking about moving to Florida

Don't do it! They have 12' boa constrictors running around down there! Just read they killed a 17', 132 pounder! That's enough to keep me away from Florida.