# Iiiicccckkk



## Pinkter (Aug 19, 2012)

Anyone ever encounter this while getting eggs?


----------



## kaufranc (Oct 3, 2012)

Where do you live? That would freak me out!


----------



## 7chicks (Jun 29, 2012)

That's hideous!!! Thank god I do NOT have anything like that here!!! I hope it wasn't in there the same time as your chickens. I'd never want to go in there again afterwards or let my girls back in. Nasty. Nasty. Someone help you get it out of there I hope? And plug up where ever it found its way in at?


----------



## Pinkter (Aug 19, 2012)

I live in Northeast Texas, Leonard. Lots of chicken snakes. They don't seem to be interested in the chickens, just the eggs. I always LOOK before reaching in for the eggs!


----------



## Pinkter (Aug 19, 2012)

My husband has become the snake whisperer. He gets them out for me, drives them to a creek, and lets them go.


----------



## Sundancers (Jun 20, 2012)

Yes ... twice. 

Golf balls are my friends, place them in the nest box. The snake will eat the golf ball and any eggs but will not be back.


----------



## robopetz (Oct 16, 2012)

SCARY!!!! I don't have to worry. No snakes in Hawaii.


----------



## kahiltna_flock (Sep 20, 2012)

No snakes in Alaska either, thank god. I would totally freak. I can't even look at the photo..


----------



## ThreeJ (Jun 28, 2012)

I know my chicken days would be over if I found one in my coop.


----------



## toybarons (Nov 14, 2012)

Wow! Is it a rat snake? I have read that the rat snake is usually the one that is found raiding nests for eggs. Thankfully they are non-posionous. Would really unnerve me if I walked into my coop and found that.


----------



## Trixy (Oct 23, 2012)

*Shudder!*

I grew up on an Iowa farm, but I've never been able to get over the Snakey Heebie-Jeebies. You win. Ew...ew...ew...ew!


----------



## papabooo (Dec 17, 2012)

Haven't found one in my chicken coop yet. But quite regularily I find a snake down eatting my Ducks eggs in their nest. Since we have Rat Snakes,Black snakes,rattlesnakes,and watermoccasins and cotton mouth. I don't wait to find out if they are harmless. I don't know if it is true ,but I was told the chicken or rat snakes will eat baby chicks.Any one have any inside in that area?


----------



## ChickensSayMoo (Sep 5, 2012)

Yuck Yuck AND Double Yuck! 
I wouldnt like to see that!
Never had a snake in a nest box before (and hopefully never will!) but have had a big carpet snake in the coop!
Luckierly it hasnt been back....and the chook house is snake & rat proof at night.

Definitely look Before you collect any eggs!


----------



## wilyum (Oct 16, 2012)

Yea I would never be the same! Yea I also think my chicken day would be over.


----------



## dcfrenkel (Nov 1, 2012)

Thanks for sharing. Though it is a bit frightening, it is also a great photo.


----------



## Stusquatch (Aug 2, 2012)

If that is a Great Basin Gopher Snake, I would be interested in taking it off your hands. Our indiginous population is almost gone, so I have been looking for a breeding pair.


----------



## JustJane44 (Nov 1, 2012)

Yes! Three days in a row. I bagged them in a feed sack and took them for a ride 10 miles up into the forest and turned them loose. I havent seen any for a year. They were black snakes, harmless but still un-nerving.


----------



## Pinkter (Aug 19, 2012)

Yes I think they are your common chicken snake, rat, or black snake. I think they have all three names.


----------



## Nanyer (Dec 22, 2012)

Sundancers said:


> Yes ... twice.
> 
> Golf balls are my friends, place them in the nest box. The snake will eat the golf ball and any eggs but will not be back.


that is mean !! just a harmless chicken snake


----------



## Tony-O (Jul 19, 2012)

It ain't so harmless when it's eating/killing your baby chicks and ducklings, or stealing your eggs.  
I like using the golf balls too.  If they were eating the mice, etc, they wouldn't be getting the golf balls.


----------



## Sundancers (Jun 20, 2012)

Nanyer said:


> that is mean !! just a harmless chicken snake


So be it ... My critters come first.

I saw it as mean that it cleaned out a nest of eggs with less than 7 days till hatch.

But that is just me.


----------



## TheLazyL (Jun 20, 2012)

Pinkter said:


> Anyone ever encounter this while getting eggs?


Nope. My ladies have a tight coop and a secured run plus Lucky the Rooster to watch over all.


----------



## Catherine (Dec 21, 2012)

Looks like a black snake to me and something I have had to get use to where I live. They say black snakes are good as they eat the copperheads and rattlers. We have way to many where I live and I have found em in my home over 6' and bigger outside and in trees and on walls ,jumping out of trees and off roofs ... They fling themselves and it is creepy. The birds scream like crazy when one is in the move in the trees. My female Airedale terrior whip snaps the smaller ones and breaks there necks , she has not had a chance to do it to bigger ones yet as I was able to kill it first and that snake was pissed and big , may have hurt her if it bit.

My hubby tries to catch them when they come out of our house or try to go back in and takes them for a ride , I swear when I sees dead snake in road it's one of them hitch hiking home..... I don't do snakes ESP. Ones that want to live in my house walls or attic . Or eat my chicken eggs. I have lived with these things since 1990 and was once so afraid I thought I would die of heart attack. They still creep me out big time but I fight back now as I have no choice . I'm usually home alone or the hubby would be dealing with the ssssssssnakes... Didn't see to many this past summer ,but I also don't work from home any longer ..I know they are still out there breeding out of control as we have too much food for them to eat...... Mice,moles,rabbits,birds,frogs now chicken eggs ! Any ideas on snake proofing? We have been putting moth balls in our attic in hopes of keeping them out , would that be safe for chickens? The smell might keep chicks out of coop too hmmmm. Something to ponder.


----------



## Energyvet (Jul 25, 2012)

It was very interesting reading. You seem to have a handle on this now. You've adapted well.


----------



## 7chicks (Jun 29, 2012)

Yep. Post creeped me out as much as the first time I read through it. I don't do snakes. Thankfully none have ever been in my coop or run. I keep the lawn super short all the way around too though so they can't hide during the day.  Night time they could never get into the coop. The run though, yes. Haven't been able to get all the cracks 100% sealed where run butts up to coop. We get pine snakes that can be disgustingly huge. If I see one, I "will" shoot. They will reach well over 8 feet + and that's 8 feet + too long for me!!!


----------



## Jenmonroy (Oct 21, 2015)

Snakes get a bad rap but they actually help a lot with rodents. If it weren't so for snakes the rats would eat your chickens. Probably.


----------



## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

Jenmonroy said:


> Snakes get a bad rap but they actually help a lot with rodents. If it weren't so for snakes the rats would eat your chickens. Probably.


You're right. Snakes will eat eggs/chicks, also kill pullets/cockerals. I've lost enough birds to snakes than any other predator and I'll do what it takes to protect my property.


----------



## sswanee17 (May 17, 2015)

I'm in Nebraska, I have lots of snakes around my yard, most of them have been small. I did go in my chicken coop one night and there was a snake in there.I usually don't even bother the snakes because like I say most of them have been small. I figure they're good for my garden and that they will keep insects down. I'm not afraid of snakes but I don't like it when I'm out at night doing something and get startled by one. I've been out at night looking for nightcrawlers and one would surprise me. I haven't had any problems with them going after eggs at least that I know of.


----------



## sswanee17 (May 17, 2015)

I don't care if they want to stay out in my yard or garden but if they go in the chicken coop than they will be eliminated.


----------

