Video of Black King Snake Hunting Chicks and Mice

[centrarchid]

Smell is in the nose of the beholder.

 

[Alabama Fly]

Whew!!! It can't smell worse than the 5 foot long rat snake hanging from the deer netting in one of my coops. Didn't find him until it was stinking because it blends in with a tree.Alabama heat and putrid reptile got my flock wishing for a few Christmas tree deodorizers.

 

[centrarchid]

Just captured same snake in same manner in exact same location. This after snake moved about 330 feet from point of capture. Released at same location moments ago with help of family restraining her as deer netting cut off. Then I went back to cut down and remove all the deer netting. A modest change to nesting area will also keep snake from eating eggs which it or another snake is doing at night.

 

[centrarchid]

Daughter getting into her second snake of day. Speckled King Snake almost 2'.

 

[centrarchid]

Snake back and humting now. Two hens not happy. Snake appears to be tracking upwind to hen in rabbit pen. She had twelve chicks less than day old. Another game hen flew pn me to sound alarm.

 

[centrarchid]

Lots of cool stuff to post on this later. Snake crawled between my legs as I typed post above. That is when game hen flew up on me to sound snake alarm. I was so focused I did not see what going on. Snake is moving around in series of large circles inside the barn. I moved hen and freshly hatched brood to house just in case snake tries to make climb. The hen is the same one in video of first post. She attacks snake fairly well. Conssiderable variation in how chickens respond to the snake. I will never forget the vocalization the hens with chicks make. Other birds produce a different yet distinctive sound as well. Sound produced by broody hens also directed at their broods. The sound is similar to that when hen ID's something she thinks is nasty tasting.

 

[centrarchid]

First two images of Stanley, a game rooster being used for a broody rooster experiment. Three chicks pushing 5 weeks post-hatch now retreat to him. One cockerel and two pullets.

Just before I touch.

Notice kink in its back. Same snake caught and relocated 330 yards twice before.

Head moving so close to camera I had to pull back to maintain focus.

Juveniles mobbing.

Cimba, the hen that flew up on me while typing is mobbing with her chicks.

 

[centrarchid]

Cimba and one of her chicks directing ire at snake as it explores the bundle of poultry netting.

 

[centrarchid]

Snake out and about again today. It would not eat an egg placed in its path. I am guessing it has a search image. Another hen coming in off nest with chicks today. That brood will also be placed in a more protected location. Looks like two broods, each with a dozen or more chicks within a 24 hour interval. Snake would be rewarded big time if it can figure out how to get up where broods are housed. Kids will be enlisted to help.

 

[FrankHomestead]

Just curious but why don't you kill the snake?