snakes

[OKprairiegirll]

Someone told me sulphur would help. Does it really? And is it harmful to my chickens?

 

[Triple Willow]

Someone told me sulphur would help.  Does it really?  And is it harmful to my chickens?

I put down some sulfur and caustic lime a few years ago and saw a bird sitting not far from it that looked sick. I am not going to use it around my chickens.

 

[OKprairiegirll]

Thanks. I've not been troubled with snakes but had to help my daughter next door get rid of a black snake yesterday. I know they are out there but so far they have not found my chickens. I always look when entering the coop so, for now, guess I will just continue to cross my fingers.

 

[bdfive]

We live in the Hill Country of Texas where there are a lot of rocks. We've been moving them for years to the front of our 5 acres where they look nice up against the higher portion of land that drops off into a pasture. It's becoming a huge rockery. We don't do a lot of work placing them but some. They look great there. Yesterday we decided to clear a different path for the golfcart we drive around on. Filled the bucket of the tractor about 3 times with rocks. We unearthed a cluster that had a rat snake den. I like to died seeing 5 scurrying out trying to hide. We managed to catch 2 and 1 got squished when a rock fell over. I figure with all the rocks we have there are plenty of other rat snakes to kill rodents so took them near the creek and released them. At least they won't grow up to swallow my 9 White Bobwhite quail.

 

[ChicknCommander]

I got a sword from a friend that I keep by my coop and when I see a snake we sword fight!

 

[OKprairiegirll]

Love it.

 

[dstinett]

I fill hollow eggs with a mix of vinegar, salt, mustard, hot sauce and any other foul tasting liquid I can find. Then set eggs where I have snake problem. I always find the snake trying to spit egg back out, but its already broken. Its not pretty watching a snake puke, but they don't come back

 

[Jamie2439]

I am in Southern CA and soooo worried about the rattlesnakes! My husband always kills them... No way I would chance relocating them coming back home with our 4 year old running about or them becoming someone else's killer problem. We have king snakes too which we love and leave alone but I hope they leave our chickens alone! (Newbie here with 3 baby chicks still in our living room)

 

[lindabean]

I live South of Bandera, in the Texas Hill country. My parents bought it as a weekend/retirement place when I was in High School (I'll be 70 my next birthday). As a kid, I was all over this place on foot, and never saw a snake here till about 20 years ago. Now I live here full time with my husband, and we are trying our hand at raising chickens for our eggs. We've had our problems with predators, but never snakes till about a week ago. In the evening I looked in their roosting box and came face to face with a Texas Rat Snake! Knowing they are not poisonous, I banged on the bird house and he slithered away. Hubby found one tonight that seemed to have swallowed at least one egg. My little flock don't seem happy to share their little house with this guy, and I'm not either. Any suggestions on keeping this guy away? I'm guessing one thing to do would be to collect the eggs earlier in the day and not about sunset. The house is not very big, as we only have 4 chickens. We put a solar powered door on the house so they can get out to their pen at sun up, and the door shuts a little after sun set. The house is on stilts so we can access the nests easier and so it can have circulation in the hot summers we have almost 9 months a year down here. I'm wondering if we need to disassemble the house and build a different one as part of the floor is hardware cloth half inch squares. I guess the snake has just pushed a piece away from the frame in order to get in to the house. Appreciate any input as to how to get rid of or discourage the snake.

 

[bangarain]

Our entire coop/run is covered in 1/4 inch hardware cloth, which I'm hoping will be enough to stop snakes getting in...even the little ones. I am a snake person as well as a chicken person - don't want snakes getting my chickens, or chickens getting my snakes. Most people don't share my view though, and are absolutely horrible to them, and while I understand people being upset about snakes getting their chickens, they don't deserve horrible fates either. Any sort of regurgitation is very bad for snakes - can lead to death.
Most snakes are definitely good to keep around, and absolutely beautiful little guys and won't cause problems. Fingers crossed for here.

Hopefully we won't have a problem, otherwise we'll have to think of some sort of compromise where neither party is damaged. Love reptiles, and snakes, too much to do anything to hurt 'em, haha. With our situation, though, I feel like the snakes are really the ones who are in any danger.


To the above poster, I can't really think of anything other than getting smaller hardware cloth, which I know isn't a super realistic option. Plenty of snakes can get through half an inch hardware cloth, although generally ones that small can't handle too much - generally they can only eat around the size of the widest part of their body so I wouldn't worry about your chickens, depending on the size.
You could also try to call someone to relocate, although I'm not sure that's the best option either. Like I said above, snakes are great to have around for many reasons - pest control being a major part of it.