Urgent! How do I keep my 4 chooks in suburbia safe from a nearby snake?

[queenie_29]

Earlier today a dog got bitten by a snake 2 doors down from us. My girls free range in the the afternoons and our coop is fairly secure, however a snake could easily get into the run. I am currently sitting outside keeping an eye on them, but does anyone have any tips as to how I can keep my girls safe? Thanks so much for your help

 

[DobieLover]

Earlier today a dog got bitten by a snake 2 doors down from us. My girls free range in the the afternoons and our coop is fairly secure, however a snake could easily get into the run. I am currently sitting outside keeping an eye on them, but does anyone have any tips as to how I can keep my girls safe? Thanks so much for your help

Please post picture of your run.
If I was concerned about snakes getting in, I'd use 1/4" hardware cloth over the 1/2" hardware I currently have on the run to keep small venomous snakes out.

 

[LaFleche]

Please post picture of your run.
If I was concerned about snakes getting in, I'd use 1/4" hardware cloth over the 1/2" hardware I currently have on the run to keep small venomous snakes out.

This, and I would add some hot wire to prevent the snakes from climbing up the hardware cloth.

 

[queenie_29]

I have attached photos of our run. Thanks for the advice, I will try that out tomorrow!

The gaps in the wire of the run are pretty small - a snake would have a hard time getting through there, however there are two gates on either side that have large gaps between the bars, and a large gap underneath.

 

[cmom]

I do have electric wires around my coops and pens and have electrocuted a couple of snakes. I have my fence grounded so if anything tries to climb it and touches the hot wires, they will know it. Good luck...

 

[SB16]

This, and I would add some hot wire to prevent the snakes from climbing up the hardware cloth.

Absolutely. Snakes are great climbers. They'll go right over the top of your fencing.

I found the one below under a riser outside of coop a few weeks ago. Banded water snake. Non-venomous, but I don't want them around. They can kill chicks and will obviously steal eggs. We relocated it. Last week I saw it again. Disappeared before I could get the shovel.

 

[dshaw42]

Please post picture of your run.
If I was concerned about snakes getting in, I'd use 1/4" hardware cloth over the 1/2" hardware I currently have on the run to keep small venomous snakes out.

I did some research and found several people talking about using deer fencing over the 1/4 hardware cloth.
Apparently snakes can’t climb it and if they try they get tangled up in it.
So now I’ve begun to do the same thing around both my coops and runs. I also have 1/4 hardware on the floors.

 

[SB16]

We're having a tropical storm coming in shortly, so I ran out in the rain this morning to secure the door on the pullet's coop to run, was coming back around the outside of their little coop and almost stepped on that same kind of snake. He'd obviously been trying to get in to my little 6 week old leghorn, black star and 3 guineas...

He got away from me into the neighbor's woods.

Two hours later I went back out to let the hens out of their run for the day, was walking up to my back door (100' away from the coop) and caught a pattern under an elevated planter against our back wall.

No idea if I have a population of them or not, but my husband killed this one. It was 5' from my back door and I have dogs. I truly hate killing things, but I don't need a vet bill. Even a nonvenomous bite can lead to infection.

 

[queenie_29]

Great, thanks for all your help. We will look into it!

 

[jt1950]

Please post picture of your run.
If I was concerned about snakes getting in, I'd use 1/4" hardware cloth over the 1/2" hardware I currently have on the run to keep small venomous snakes out.

very good idea thanks for sharing