The same thing happened to my husband.He was sitting on the back steps,and heard the most awful noise.He looked and there was a snake wrapped all around our oldest Buff duck,it was squezzing her to death.He ran as fast as possible,and put his boot on its head and got its tail under the other foot,and slung it as far as he could and ran and got a ax.I can not believe he done that.He called me and said you will never believe what just happened....What can we do to keep them away from our ducks and chickens.I am scared that they will be around all the time now.
As always, I will insist that it's better to have snakes around to control the rodents. I haven't seen any definitive proof that anything can control snakes or keep them out completely. However, the thin gardening mesh to let vines grow up - its usually black and very fine - will entangle snake in it. I consider it cruel and torturous, but I've seen it work on snakes large enough to eat eggs.