Will rattlesnakes eat eggs?

[dawg53]

Rattlesnakes can climb trees and it's not an extreme rarity. Go to youtube and check out some of the videos, there's some decent sized rattlers climbing trees in those videos. I agree that they prefer to be on the ground most of the time.

 

[Surehatch]

I hate snakes

 

[Thamnophis]

Snake Away does not work - at all. You may have no more rattlesnakes but if so, it is just a coincidence.

Please read:

http://www.justbelowthesurface.com/...ellents-work&catid=43:farm-wildlife&Itemid=61

or if that link doesn't work, use this shortened one:

http://tiny.cc/vj90o

Also, pygmy rattlesnake are 1-2 foot long as adults, not 6-8 inches.


Joe

Quote:

 

[dawg53]

Thamnophis. You're right, I stand corrected. There's no doubt there's some that are that length around here, but they are rarely seen. There's quite a few large canebrake rattlers around and are often pictured in the local paper.

 

[Hummer]

Sorry to hear you have a snake issue.. I hope by now it is resolved. Seems that I do, too. All summer long I have had 2 bantam hens trying to sit. Something keeps getting the eggs and I will replace them, it may take a few days to a week, but sure enough eventually the eggs will be gone. One time, I put plastic eggs in a nearby nest and two of the plastic eggs were gone. Well, I thought this solved the problem.

It allowed a window of time for another large hen, that stole the nest,

to hatch 3 baby chicks

which I have safely placed in a brooder with mother hen. One of the first two hens, finally gave up, but I still have a little blue Cochin, bound and determined to become a Mother!

Well, days before her eggs were suppose to hatch - something got them

- I had been checking on her every evening.. We started over again.. I put her in a pet carrier and set it on top of one of the nesting boxes.. Wasn't sure if she would like that - but she seems bound and determined to sit in that one box, so I hoped she would like the carrier - that way I could shut it up at night and move it to a safer location. Anyway, this past Sunday, I lucked up and found the culprit, (I thought)

a 5 foot long chicken snake. We killed the snake

and the next day I found that the plastic egg that I had placed in the other nesting box had been crushed. It still looked in tact until you turned it over. I figured the snake had gotten smart and regurgitated it (if that is possible),

but was satisfied that the snake was now dead - no more worries..

Everything was going good for about 5 days, until one of the big hens, obviously trying to get into the small carrier tipped it over into the other nesting box and dumped hen out and eggs.

When I found the sitting hen, she was on a plastic egg and only had two real eggs out of the 5 that I had set her on and they were cold.

HMmmmm, no evidence of the other 3 eggs breaking... I fixed her back up in the carrier - secured it better to keep the big hens out (why they all think they should lay in the same nest,

beats me!), and wondered if I still had a snake problem..

Well, this morning, I found another plastic egg, crushed in the spare nesting box...

I had placed two hard-boiled eggs in the box, but only the plastic egg was bothered.. I have read somewhere that a snake cannot crush a hard-boiled egg. Not sure if he would be able to chuck it back up, though?? Was wondering if you or anyone else has any ideas on other things I can try. I have not tried the snake away.. I want something safe around the chickens.. We, sometimes, let the chickens out when we are in the garden area and I don't want anything that will harm them if they decide to eat it.

Any ideas??

 

[Thamnophis]

Hummer,

I think i"ll start a new business. For $186.95 I'll look at ariel photos, your own photos of your property, a survey of 20 questions you'll need to answer, topographic maps and other data in order to devise a snake management plan for people with snake problems.

What do you think?

Oh, and by the way, Snake Away doesn't work - at all.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Hi Ariel301, You noted in the original post that you had lots of pack rats, which is often typical for AZ. I'm afraid that you will have rattlesnakes on your property as long as you have pack rats; they primarily eat rodents. I know it's hard to do, but try to rid your property of the rats and your snake problems will diminish. Look for the middens near your coop and focus there on rat extermination. If the rats are gone there will be much less for the snakes to eat and they will move elsewhere or at least have fewer resources with which to reproduce. BTW, look at the middens carefully and see if there is any evidence of your eggs. Good luck.

 

[txchickie]

Yes, rattlesnakes will eat eggs, absolutley. We've killed 2 rattlesnakes this summer in our yard---both with no less than 3 banty eggs in them each

 

[love22step]

I know this an old thread, but I was looking for information on rattlesnakes eating eggs. I just checked my egg box and found a young snake with its mouth open around one of my eggs. I clapped my hands and yelled at the snake, which backed off. After getting a pair of tongs and a bag, my plan was to catch the snake. The snake was still in the egg box, tucked under a piece of metal I use to keep the chickens from roosting on the edge of the box. As I tried to grab the body, it started rattling, and I promptly backed off. The neighbor across the road warned us yesterday that he had killed 2 young rattlers within 30 minutes. I have snake shot loaded in my revolver, but I can't get a clean shot. I've tried to block his exit. Guess I'll wait for my husband to come home and help me out.

 

[Thamnophis]

The snake was most likely a rat snake of some sort - they climb and eat eggs. They also vibrate their tail in a manner that produces a sound very much like a rattlesnake, depending on what it's vibrating against. As you know, they are harmless. We are always happy to see a few around as they eat the mice and rats. Rattlesnakes don't climb (although people sometimes put them in trees and take video of them for YouTube) and they don't eat eggs.