Great find in my chicken coop tonight!!

[DinkyDau]

Put a golf ball in each nest

 

[timbgtm]

Put a golf ball in each nest

Granny clampette cooked up a mess of them golf eggs!

 

[DinkyDau]

Granny clampette cooked up a mess of them golf eggs!

Bet she had a ball.

 

[timbgtm]

Bet she had a ball.

Especially with the rheumatism meds!

 

[bensskateshop]

I don't raise animals, and I've never really worked on a farm (just visited a few.)

But I don't see how having a 6 foot long snake in the chicken coop is a good thing.

Aren't the adult birds, the chicks, and the unhatched eggs, all fair game for the snake to kill?

Generally snakes will only kill what they can physically swallow and intend to eat. A snake with a 1.5"wide head can't swallow a 8 lb hen. As long as they aren't being attacked, they pose no danger to the chickens. We don't hatch chicks so that isn't an issue and If they want the occasional egg, I'm ok with that.
They are there for the limitless supply of mice and rats that come from the pasture and a constant source of water.

In all seriousness OP, how do you tell the difference in male and female?
Also did you kill the snakes?

With most snake species all that is needed to determine sex is to look at the scale just before the vent. Females will have a split scale (to enable them to lay eggs) while the males will have a solid scale.
No they were not harmed, I released them under the feed shed and hope they reproduce prodigiously!

 

[TheGman]

I am in Toronto with a colleague from Australia whose buddy found this the other morning when he went to retrieve clothes from the line. I think that he had more underpants to wash afterward.

 

[Redneck1919]

Generally snakes will only kill what they can physically swallow and intend to eat. A snake with a 1.5"wide head can't swallow a 8 lb hen. As long as they aren't being attacked, they pose no danger to the chickens. We don't hatch chicks so that isn't an issue and If they want the occasional egg, I'm ok with that.
They are there for the limitless supply of mice and rats that come from the pasture and a constant source of water.



With most snake species all that is needed to determine sex is to look at the scale just before the vent. Females will have a split scale (to enable them to lay eggs) while the males will have a solid scale.
No they were not harmed, I released them under the feed shed and hope they reproduce prodigiously!

Thank You.

 

[GAGunguy]

I only kill the poisonous snakes.. But they must die.

no such thing as a "poisonous snake."

 

[jeep78]

Generally snakes will only kill what they can physically swallow and intend to eat. A snake with a 1.5"wide head can't swallow a 8 lb hen. As long as they aren't being attacked, they pose no danger to the chickens.

Uh, no.

I found a snake just like yours wrapped around my best laying hen. He killed her.

Found another dead hen one morning in the roosting box, but snake was gone. These were large hens, not banties.

There is no such thing as a chicken snake that will not attack a chicken.

 

[bensskateshop]

Uh, no.

I found a snake just like yours wrapped around my best laying hen. He killed her.

Found another dead hen one morning in the roosting box, but snake was gone. These were large hens, not banties.

There is no such thing as a chicken snake that will not attack a chicken.

I'm certainly no expert, I simply pass on my observations. I have been catching, studying, and breeding snakes for nearly 50 yrs and only had chickens for the last 19 yrs. Is it possible that your hens were trying to protect their coop and were pecking the snakes? If so, I would expect the snake to defend itself.