trouble with snakes eating eggs

[augiedranch]

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lol i live in the middle of nowhere! so its completely legal! thanks for your advice

 

[nutz4critters]

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Someone after my own heart!

I don't know about your area, but here in Alabama and Mississippi, you can usually find ratshot for a .22 also. I've gotten it for my dad at Wally World, so it shouldn't be that hard to find, although I admit that I haven't bought any in a while.

I used a normal .22 on the snakes in my biddies. I was perfectly happy with possibly air conditioning my waterer if it would quickly send the snake to snake heaven (or wherever it is that snakes go). For a snake in a nest, the ratshot/snakeshot would be a better bet, I'd think.

Totally OT, but if you've never been to a gun show, you'd be surprised at the stuff they have for sale. And at the number of ladies that attend.

Happy Hatching!

 

[Parson's Wife]

I am not a snake lover, of any sort. I become ill, sweaty, and rapid heart beats are the main symptons I suffer once I've 'encountered' a snake, of any sort. I do understand some are better to have around...but my nerves get the best of me when I see a snake.

I can tell you a coupla things that improved the quality of life for us on the farm where I lived as a girl.
My mom put "brown tick" powder (It had to say brown tick) down heavy about 4 times a year in the yard, & perimeters. We also had guineas. Plus numerous hounddogs, children roaming, and general mayhem most of the time.

When we first moved there, there were snakes EVERYWHERE!

We had lived there for several years when mom & dad decided to tear down an old shed connected to an old well house. It was filled with snakes, of different types...if I told you what kind & how many..I really don't think anyone would believe it. I can tell you we killed snakes that day...All day long! The house where we lived used to be a stage coach stop. Had a lovely history, and we made many lovely memories.

Those are the three things I know really did help. Or seemed to, to us.

#3- mothballs. Yes, this does work. My mom reminded me that she always put this under and around the house. My brother informed me a few years back that they have mothball crystals which dissolve quicker, (I was worried about my little children coming across them)...I used them at the last parsonage...am going to buy some for here...we saw a snake by the door last summer, I never could catch it to kill it!

 

[kyfarmer]

to keep them away i use moth balls

 

[ruth]

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That is a kingsnake. Pros and cons...

Cons - they will eat eggs...and every now and again a small chick

Pros: they eat other snakes including venomous ones. they are immune to rattlesnake, copperhead and cottonmouth venom. They also eat frogs, toads, bugs and small birds.

I have a nearly 6' Kingsnake that suns himself in my yard....all my neighbors had diamonbacks in their yards and pastures and I never had a single one. Kingsnake stays!

No this was not a king snake - rat snake also called chicken snake.

Here's a link to a page with pics and info on rat/chicken snakes.

(Sorry the website that had link seems to be down).

You're right though king snakes are a good snake to have around, rat snakes are too because they cut down on mice/rats but they will eat eggs. We have a speckled king snake that lives in front yard (black with yellow dots). Like I said we went out there with every intention of lifting it off the nest and carrying it out of barn - things just went badly. We don't like killing other animals - they are all vital to the well balance of the system as a whole.

*****

Edited to delete the link which is no longer viewing properly.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I've not yet had this kind of "trouble" with snakes around my chicken coops so please excuse me for not understanding the need for killing so many of them.

Are they coming during the day to eat eggs? Don't the chickens fuss & chase it off? Does it help to just collect the eggs more often during the day?

I've only lost a few chicks to snakes, the only one I caught in the act was a red rat snake. It was still wrapped around the chick when I scooped them both up in a bucket. I was really bothered when the snake spit the chick out after swallowing it up to its shoulders, it couldn't fit the rest in. I released that snake far away in a nature preserve. Since then I've found a few chicks dead & appearing to have been spit out by snakes. I've resolved that problem by keeping my chicks inside or on the patio at night until they've grown too large to tempt snakes.

As I said, I recently caught a 3-foot red rat snake near the coops and we're keeping it now as a pet. I didn't want to leave her in the yard near the chicks and my son had been asking for a pet snake.

So for my son's and for Snakey's sakes I must ask, why do some folks find it necessary to kill so many snakes?

 

[Oreo]

Well, for one thing, they are a pest that is attacking the eggs. Any farmer has a right to protect his livestock or crops from animals. Secondly, it is far too much trouble to capture them alive and take them far away. You don't have to do so. If you can identify quickly and easily which snakes are taking your eggs and which aren't, which are poisonous and which aren't, etc. more power to you. I plan to make my henhouse very difficult for snakes to get into at night. We all have to make these decisions on our own property. You have the right and privilege to make the decisions on your property, and I'll make the decisions on mine. There's nothing wrong with killing animals if you have a good reason to do so. If you're concerned about them, let them be.

 

[nutz4critters]

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I can't speak for others, but....

I live on a farm that has been in my mom's family since white men took it from the Indians way back when. It now consists of about 260 acres split between four sisters, only two of whom live here. The other two live several hours' drive away. My mom is the eldest sister and has been living here the longest. We have a lot of wildlife. Beavers, snakes, coyotes, golden eagles, hawks, occasional red wolves, panthers, bobcats, coons, possums, venomous snakes, rats, turtles, brown bear, deer, rabbits, etc.

Snakes: I personally do not like them. Some have beautiful colors and I appreciate the Master's handiwork on creating them. They do have their place. I do not go out of my way to find snakes to kill. I don't even try to run over ones in the roadway or on the highway, unless I can tell absolutely sure that it is a venomous one. I try hard to avoid all snakes.

On the other hand, if I see a cottonmouth around, it will be shot. No exceptions. If they stay in the woods away from the house and my critters, they are safe. In my yard is unacceptable. I personally have had one in my front yard with feet of the front door and that snake's head was larger than my hand. Easily the largest cottonmouth I have ever seen.

Anyway. Snakes are not stupid. Once a snake finds easy prey and lives to hunt again, it will return to easy prey. It is virtually impossible to snake proof any chicken habitat. IF the snake kept to a diet of mice and rats, I'd be okay with that. Even if it was around the chickens. But once it is in my brooder, pen, coop or chicken nest, it will have to go. My brooders, btw, are commercial outfits. The snake knocked one of the panels off the side to get into the chicks. All panels are now firmly wired in place and do not move.

My chickens and pets are more important to me than a wild snake. Period. If you want to catch wild indigenous snakes and make pets out of them, knock yourself out. Not making fun of you or trying to pi** you off.

IF, and that's a very big if, I caught a snake full of my chicks and/or eggs, how and where the heck would I take it for safe release around here? Put it in a doggy carrier and take it for a ride? YOU take for a ride.

Side note: you might want to check your local ordinances and state laws. In a lot of places it is highly illegal to have snakes that are wild caught. Don't know how the idiots in charge figure out it's a wild, now tamed, snake, but there you go.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

We all have our flocks & herds & families to tend, their welfare & safety to consider. For many situations there is no one correct answer, and you have to follow your own head & heart on the matter. For example, some folks are quicker to cull a sick or injured chicken, others will spend lots of time and money in hopes of a cure.

There are a variety of responses to predators and pests as well. Beyond any actual laws against animal cruelty and wildlife protection, each of us must also follow our own conscience. For example, some folks catch mice in live traps and will release them unharmed, others see no problem with dispatching them humanely.

But I think it's both practical & responsible to take the time to learn about the snakes that are native to our areas. Shooting every snake on sight or veering to run them over on the road seems as ignorant as western settlers shooting herds of bison from train windows.

I live in South Florida where snakes are active year 'round. There are venomous snakes we've learned to identify, many others we've learned to appreciate. Recently we found a coral snake that I was sad to have to dispatch. It was found below a huge pile of scrap lumber, and probably would have posed no threat, but with as many barefoot boys as I have running around here, we had to make that decision as a precaution. But I made sure it was the venomous coral snake and not the look-alike milk snake before killing it.

Again, I ask about the egg-eating snakes. What kinds of snakes are eating your chicken eggs? Do they really eat so very many? I'd like to learn more. What I've read is that only certain species can eat eggs, most of them native to Africa, which have specialized anatomies to accomodate egg consumption. They swallow one egg at a time, use their throats to crack it, ingest the contents, and spit out the shell. Are there snakes in this continent that do that, or eat several at once? We're interested in snakes & would like to know.

I know the night-hunting snakes will eat small baby chicks, I don't think there are any that would bother them by day, or bother bigger birds at any time. I know the red rat snakes eat chicks, and they annoy me by sometimes killing chicks that turn out to be too big for them to swallow. That adds waste to our loss.

In 4 years I've only lost 3 chicks to snakes. Two I just found dead & spit out. One I found already in the nest bucket with the snake still wrapped around it. That's how I was able to catch it alive, and contain it on the drive to release it. If circumstances had been different I might have killed it instead, I don't know. I now keep the little chicks indoors at night or in a securely contained until they're a good size.

When I found Snakey crawling across the yard that night I knew I had to do something to so she wouldn't get to the chicks I had under a broody hen. My son had been asking for a pet snake so I figured I'd solve both problems at once by catching her alive. Now we feed her nasty white mice, and some folks would have issues with that.

Just like some folks get upset when they hear of unwanted stray dogs & feral cats getting euthanized, it bothers me to hear of things like snakes & spiders being routinely killed just because of unfounded suspicion or because they just give you the creeps.

 

[ruth]

Hi All - though I'm not a moderator I would like to remind everyone to keep this friendly and agree to disagree on how to handle snakes found in your yard or coops. While some would raise them as pets and feed them mice - others raise mice as pets. I personally find it hard to kill anything but respect others opinions.

SunnySideUp - you've asked about rat/chicken snakes. Take a look at the link to the site I posted. That is the type of rat/chicken snake that most farmers hate because it will eat the eggs, as many as it can, and will return time after time. It will also eat/kill baby chicks. The link says it rarely eats eggs and is in the nest eating mice - so very not true. Many farmers, including my mother, will tell you how they've cut the snake open to get whole eggs out. The article did say how aggressive the snake can be and that it will coil, rattle it's tail, and strike at you if you try to get it - that's exactly what happend in our case. When it did that and wrapped itself around the pitch fork it got itself stabbed. We felt we had no choice then but to kill it by cutting it's head off - yolk oozed out of the neck area for a long time so it was in fact eating the eggs which were missing. All in all we thought if we kind of prodded it it would slither away but it didn't it turned and struck and attacked. So I'm not sure about the red rat snake you've made a pet of for your son but I do know it will someday be very very big and what will you do with it then?