Warning graphic photo - RIP 2 keets

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

You might have a nest?
*disclaimer-you may have read everything I'm reading& sharing, just know I'm trying to help find a solution,not be a smartypants. Only you know if your set up relates to what I read.
Seems like everything I read says, "remember snakes can get up in trees and drop from limbs-", & that they're going to show up where ever food is out bc food attracts rodents attracts snakes-but they're "other name" is "chicken snake" bc - insert your situation.
10-14 eggs laid beneath rocks or in manure piles,rotting vegetation,stumps,logs, compost piles.
Most snakes can fit through a 1/2-inch-wide crack.
Feel free to picture me now running to hardware store for roll of 1/4" hard cloth.- I'm not the one with the snake, & my coop is on a sleigh 10" off the ground that's completely closed in so nothing can climb under it, but,like talking abt headlice, I suddenly have an itch to prevent...

We have lots of wildlife, rotting stumps, etc so I’m quite sure we do have snakes breeding here. We also have a variety of snake species. I really enjoy reptiles and have a ball python and lavender corn snake, so I’m mostly thrilled with all of our wildlife and snakes, like our plentiful water snakes. I could do without the copperheads though...

Snakes can fit through some surprisingly small spaces, but I think that it’s only the larger snakes that are a threat to birds. I once saw a small ribbon snake in our chicken run that was trying to leave before it became a meal, and it slipped right through that 1/2” hardware cloth. It was far too small to be a threat to chickens though, and isn’t really a bird or egg eating species. Our black rat snakes of course must start out as small hatchlings, but I don’t see those and they are again too small to be a poultry threat. I think it’s just the adults that are big enough to raid nests and eat eggs, and those won’t fit through 1/2” hardware cloth. I think if you look at this pic and compare the size of this snake’s head to the 1/2” hardware cloth, you’ll see that he won’t fit. That’s why he was crawling all around the coop looking for a bigger gap...

As for bird netting that entangles snakes: our area has a ton of copperheads. My friend kept having her prized show dogs bit in her backyard so placed “snake netting”, much like bird netting, in rolls along the border of her fence. It does indeed catch snakes. It catches all kinds of snakes, from copperheads to racers, and she mostly has to kill them to untangle them. I did think about putting that just beneath my coop auto door, but if you look at that netting, it also looks like a perfect way to entangle a bird. Since my guineas already get tangled in my hawk netting over their run, I’m hesitant to try anything else that might catch them up... I am thinking about adding a second coop door that would be about 4 feet up, so would be a fly in door. Maybe if I only left that one open during the day? A snake could still get to it, but it would be less likely than the ground door, and I could better see a way to put rolled wire around it...

 

[BennieAnTheJets]

I wouldn't indiscriminately kill snakes (with netting or anything else) - it is against the law in VA, anyway, and rightly so, I think - most snakes are not a threat and just trying to eat and live on the planet with a lot less destructive impact than our species, by the way

netting also kills other species and you may be sorry when you find that you did that inadvertently

I think our dog got bitten by a copper head once - she is super-careful now watching for things moving on the ground - I think she will be ok

I just killed the one snake because I found it inside the coop with keets eaten already and I was pretty sure it would come back and get more now that it had learned that there is a meal and I could not re-locate the snake - beats me how it got in, I got cemented in hardwire cloth even to cover the floors - probably the roof line, which I am working to seal even if that hinders air flow that was intended to go through there - I got a fan instead and cut a hole in the side of the coop to vent instead - that hole is covered with hardwire cloth secured with wood all around - I'll post pictures later if I can

About the little ones: I have seen a baby rat snake kill a keet that was much too big for it to eat - it wrapped around it's neck and strangled it, so I would be alarmed by smaller snakes as well, especially juvenile rat snakes and copper heads - also, if you find them in the coop, they may grow up and return since they already know the way and have smelled "the goodies"

 

[R2elk]

About the little ones: I have seen a baby rat snake kill a keet that was much too big for it to eat - it wrapped around it's neck and strangled it, so I would be alarmed by smaller snakes as well, especially juvenile rat snakes and copper heads - also, if you find them in the coop, they may grow up and return since they already know the way and have smelled "the goodies"

You would probably be surprised just how big an animal a snake can ingest. Their jaws unhinge and their skin expands to accommodate animals that are much larger than their heads.