Snakes...

[getaclue]

Again, there's no reason for cruelty, even if it is a snake. Kill it swiftly, and go on about your business.

 

[Beniruka]

I know this is a pointless endeavor, but is there anyway I can encourage snakes to look for food somewhere other than my nest boxes? I have had six rat snakes in the last two month and three of them in the last three days. The grass has gotten tall around the pen but it's been too wet to mow for quite some time. Thankfully it's dried out enough and I have an appointment to get it done Wednesday. I seriously can't wait.

But is there anything else I can do to dissuade them from returning to the coop? The first three I released miles down the road. The fourth one I killed to get the ceramic eggs back it had eaten. The fifth I killed because frankly I was annoyed and upset that three days in a row I haven't gotten any eggs to put in the incubator. And I would have killed the one last night but it's a bit difficult to hold a light and kill something eight feet long in a house filled with chickens without causing mass chaos so it ended up escaping.

I've removed the nest boxes from the house until the grass is cut down on Wednesday. Also do they remember food sources and come back for repeat visits or is there just an army of snakes preying on the unborn children of my lovely ladies?

 

[Beniruka]

Sorry to hear about snakes in you chicken coop, you should try feed store or Home Depot, the are detergent the you can spray in the perimeter of of the yard and it chases away the pesky sneak way for your grounds I hope it’s works

 

[flyin-lowe]

How big is your coop and run? I have a purple martin colony and many people use 3/4 inch bird netting balled up around the poles and the snakes get caught in them trying to climb up the pole. Some people make a perimeter of bird netting on the ground like a trap. If you have a small coop and run that could be an option to catch them before they get into the coop. If it is a large area it probably wouldn't be practical.

 

[ColtHandorf]

It's about 600 square feet, so a bit impractical. Especially because of the location.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I have had it. I've gotten one egg in over a week and lost four birds all over three months old. The snake/s can't swallow them but they are strangling them and then trying before giving up. And it happens at all hours of the day and night. Every time I check on them I can't find anything. Just another dead bird. Or three as the case was when I got home from work yesterday. I'm seriously debating calling into work and just sitting in a lawn chair with a book and a hoe for a day...