Well, For Goodness Snakes Alive
July 7th, 2009In my earlier post, I showed you the hidden nest that a couple of my hussy hens have taken to laying eggs in by the edge of the woods. I’ve found hidden nests in the past, and I’ve destroyed them, but ended up regretting it. Because then the little hussies just make another hidden nest that takes me forever to find.
So this time, I decided to play it smart. I removed all the eggs from the nest and laid a fake plastic egg in it, with the hopes that they would continue to lay eggs in that hidden nest and I wouldn’t have to find the “new and improved” hidden nest they were sure to construct.
Well, earlier today I went out to collect eggs and decided to check the hidden nest. As I bent over to look in it, I saw something in the nest. And it was most definitely NOT one of my hens. It was a snake! I am not kidding. And the snake had a huge lump about 1 inch down from it’s head that looked very suspiciously like the outline of an egg!
I ran back to the house as quickly as I could and grabbed my camera but, in the short time it took, the snake was gone. And so was the fake plastic egg. I bent down and looked under the brush that covered the hidden nest, and I saw the snake! Well, part of the snake. It was all wrapped up in the brush. But I did get a picture. It’s not a great picture, but you can see it really is a snake - and if you look closely, you may even be able to see one of his eyes:
After I took that picture I poked him gently with a stick in the hopes of getting him to move so I could get a better picture of him - but he zipped down a hole that was right under where he was laying. Smart little bugger to make his home a place where his meals were delivered right on his front door step.
Bernie was in town when all this happened, but when he returned I told him about it and showed him the picture. He said “That’s just a little rat snake.” OK, I’m no snake expert, but I can tell you it was not little. It was a pretty good sized snake. Big enough to eat the fake egg, which is larger than any of the real eggs my hens lay. Needless to say, I destroyed the hens’ hidden nest and will now have to search for their new hidden nest laying grounds.
I googled rat snake and I was not happy to learn that not only do they eat eggs, they will also eat baby chicks! I immediately went outside and told all my baby chicks to be on the look out for rat snakes. And I suggested they steer clear of the woods for a while.
They immediately ran into the woods.
Am I the only one whose chickens refuse to take them seriously?
Bee Free,
Penny
Tags: rat snake, snake eating egg
July 7th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Holy Moly…… I DONT DO snakes of any size shape or colour….. and there is no way I would of poked it with a stick……. I had a run in with a snake at our plant nursery one year and even though its the only poison snake in this country (mainly if your old or very young), I had nightmares for months about the dam thing…… I was glad I chopped its head off LOL
I will have to come over and be a ‘chick guard’ LOL
x
July 7th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Hi Marmy - I actually like snakes. I thought we only had 2 venomous snakes in Virginia - rattlers and copper heads. But as it turns out, we also have cotton mouths - but they are water snakes, so we don’t see much of those around here. At any rate, chances are if we see a snake around here it’s not venomous. And they eat mice, rats, and other annoying things. Although eggs and baby chicks are NOT, in my book, annoying, so that does trouble me a bit.
At any rate, we could use a good ‘chick guard’ around here. I’ll prepare the spare bedroom immediately
July 7th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
I have been fortunate enough so far not to have any run ins with snakes and hope that stays that way. However, I have a friend that we got our “Jake” from and he has quite a few hens. Anyways he was noticing that he was not gettting the normal amount of eggs each day and then they saw it. It was like an 8 or 9 foot black snake. It was in one of the nesting boxes underneath a hen as she was laying the eggs he was having a feast. Man kinda scares the crap out of me now. I started seeing things in the coop and was almost petrified to go in there or even to lift up the hatch on the nesting boxes, it was only hallucinations thank goodness. I am glad that they don’t eat full grown chickens cause then I would have to have them killed. But don’t want to hurt the black snakes because they are very beneficial around the farm, even though they will totally make me hurt myself trying to get the heke away from them.
July 7th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Lisa - I agree with you completely! I like snakes a lot and really appreciate and respect the good they do - but I do NOT want them on or near me. Especially if it’s a surprise! We took a lot of trouble to make sure our coop is predator proof - however, the coop is open during the day so the girls can come in and lay in the nest boxes - well, the girls that DECIDE to lay in the nest boxes and not outside in the woods
I work from home and have my office window, which faces the coop, open all day. You can bet I run out there anytime the girls carry on inside the coop, and I will be doubly sure to run out there now.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
basic living- you will never guess what I found tonite as I went into the shed to retrieve some food for my “momma” that is laying on eggs. yep you guessed it a snake skin. at first i thought it was a little one but it was in 2 different pieces and probably 5 foot. man that stinks. I know they have been here all along but i haven’t seen any type of evidence and it took me like 15 minutes to go into the shed man oh man. makes me a little leary now. geez but it is a black snack so i guess its not so bad. Yea Right…. I read somewhere that you live in Virginia, was that correct. I live on the Eastern Shore of Virginia (if you have even heard of that) lol
July 8th, 2009 at 5:21 am
Lisa - that is too weird! In all the years we’ve owned this property, I had only seen two snakes on it before last week - and both of those were well away from the house. Late last week CeeCee posted on her blog a picture of a snake she found in her garden, and the very next day my chickens killed an 8 inch long red bellied snake. Then a few days later I found that rat snake in the nest. Funny how that works. I hope you don’t have any problems with those black snakes around your shed and coop. We find snake skins here a lot too, and fortunately, they seem to be keeping the mouse population down and nothing more than that.
Yes! We’ve been over to the Jamestown, Portsmouth and Suffolk area many times! We live in the Shenandoah Valley area - close to the WVA border. And just yesterday I read that Virginia has had more snake bites so far this year than any other. I’m not sure if those were all from venomous snakes though. We’ve lived in this area for well over 20 years and have never seen a venomous snake. Geez, I hate to even put that in writing. Watch me find a rattler today!
July 8th, 2009 at 7:39 am
Hi Penny, Found you from Angie’s site at Home Grown.
I wonder if that snake will continue to live with that fake egg in him or if he’ll become the statistic of what I think good snakes are…(Dead)?
July 8th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Angie sent me. What a bad thing for the snake - I wonder if it will kill him - since it is sure to block his digestive tract. I’m no fan of snakes, though, especially if they eat eggs and baby chicks!!
July 8th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Hi Susan! Thanks for stopping by. My husband thinks that since snakes crush the shell, extract the yolk/white, and then regurgitate the shell itself, this snake should be able to simply regurgitate the plastic egg. But we have no way of really knowing if it works out that way. I know where the snake hole is, but it goes down and then turns to run parallel with the ground, so I can’t see him in there. If I ever figure out his fate, I will let y’all know! I wouldn’t mind having that plastic egg back - I only had 5 of those!
Oh - and hello Kenju. Your comment came in while I was typing a response to Susan. Thank you for visiting! We’re wondering what exactly is going to happen to that snake too! I do worry about my baby chicks - but there have been chicks in those woods for several months now and so far (knock on wood) we haven’t lost one. I really hope that continues to be the case. The youngest are 3 weeks old, so they are still rather small.
July 8th, 2009 at 8:30 am
OMGosh! I just fainted. Snakes in the hen house is my worst fear. We had a couple last year and I almost killed myself trying to get away from them.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Angie sent me over also, I can’t stand snakes either and the thought of having one in a nest would just freak me out.
July 8th, 2009 at 11:31 am
I think your snake will constipated for a very long time. Then again, maybe he’ll be eaten by a hawk or an owl… oh, the pain that one piece of plastic could cause!
July 8th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
When we had chickens the rooster did a great job of keeping snakes out of our fenced in backyard. The neighbor next to us would not mow the back lawn so all kinds of wild life called it home. We had regular visits from snakes until the rooster decided he did not like them coming around anymore.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Hey Angie - funny you’re sending everyone over here when my last post is about snakes - which doesn’t appear to be a very popular subject among your readers
I don’t mind snakes - but I will do some serious jitter bugging if I come up on one unexpectedly or in a place I totally don’t expect it - like my chicken coop!
Linda - I did kind of freak out. But only because I was actually reaching toward the nest when I realized it had a snake in it! I’m sure I startled him as badly as he startled me. He sure high tailed it pretty quickly.
Dan - I do wonder what in the world is going to happen to that plastic egg and that snake. We may find out - Bernie said it’s time to clean up all that brush so we don’t provide a snake haven.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Hey Nicole - I’m not surprised your rooster kept the wildlife out of the yard! Duke is pretty fierce and although I’ve never seen him around a snake, based on his ability to tackle and pen down chicken hawks, I’m gonna say he’d probably be a pretty good opponent for most wildlife that ventured in the yard. And, other than this snake in the nest, I’ve never seen another in the yard. So maybe he is a snake attacking rooster!
July 8th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Hey Penny I like snakes too. we have a few around our place. I seen 3 or 4 black snakes when we first moved in, they high tailed it as soon as Bob O’ went out for his morning run. I had a little grader snake on the car port for 4 days until Tex messed with it.
And we had a nice long snake skin on the back patio until Tex weed wacked. Tex never payed any mind to it . I think he is a lot like me. Snakes is just something you learn to live with out in the country.
July 8th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Hey Charlotte - I know what you mean. We have a true collection of snake skins down at the cabin. Living with non-venomous snakes doesn’t alarm me at all - except that some eat baby chicks! But I haven’t lost any chicks yet (knock on wood) and heaven knows we need some help with the mouse population around here!
July 8th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Oh, that’s too bad that he got away. It’s likely he’ll regurgitate it.
I once had the very same thing happen, only with an old peacock egg that was as hard as rock (I used it in the same way you use the plastic egg).
I gathered up Mr. Rat Snake and proceeded to squeeze him gently from tail to head. He slowly gave up the peacock egg. He was none too happy, but I’m sure he was glad I didn’t just kill him.
I found out later that rat snakes eat the egg, crush it while it’s inside them, and then spit up the shell. Your boy will try and try to crush his plastic egg and probably barf it up for you to find later.
Unfortunately, they do like chicks as well. I didn’t have any at the time, and so simply relocated the snakes I found (4 in one summer). I do want my egg, afterall.
July 8th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Hi CeeCee - Bernie said the same thing - that the snake would probably regurgitate it. I really hope so. Poor fella. And I also want my plastic egg back! I only had five.
Even though I like snakes, I can’t believe you picked one up and squeezed your fake egg out of him! I’d like to think I could have done that, but I’m just not sure. You are my hero.
July 8th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Holy COW! How close was your face to that snake?!
July 8th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
It only occurred to me to do it because of a TV show. I watch Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel. Mike was doing a spot on a snake researcher in Lake Erie.
Here’s a recap from the Discovery channel:
Snake Researcher
Travel with Mike to the Lake Erie Water Snake Outreach Center and become a snake researcher for a day. After wrangling snakes from nearby lakes and shores, Mike returns to the lab to get a dirty lesson on how to make snakes regurgitate their lunch.
I guess I learn a lot of nifty stuff from crazy shows.
July 8th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Karey B - I wasn’t as close as it looks. I was probably a foot away. He was under a lot of brush - I’m really not THAT brave! But thanks for pointing that out
CeeCee - We LOVE Mike Rowe and Dirty Jobs. Watch it all the time. But we must have missed the making-snakes-puke episode. Dammit. Even if we had watched it, I’m not sure I could have been as brave as you. I might have tried it, but if I failed you would have never known. I damn sure wouldn’t have blogged about that
Well, maybe I would have…… Either way, you really are awesome.
July 9th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Hey Penny!
Boy the comments have grown since I looked last, anyway….it didn’t dawn on me until now, duh…the best and really effective way to keep snakes away is putting out mothballs! No kidding, I put them around my small fish pond and under the house. the thing is you can’t close the area in completely unless you know absolutely for sure there isn’t a snake inside of the perimeter. They have to have a way out. Some snakes lay under the soft sand or ground so make sure or leave them a way out. Once out they will not return. I put one or two mothballs into a piece of old pantyhose and tie it up that way nothing takes it off although the way they smell you really don’t have to worry about that anyway. And you don’t have to put them close, one every few feet or so. I found a rat snake in my chicken nest with an egg in it’s throat (pics on my nature post) so I out the mothballs went but I put them in small jars with holes in the top to let the smell out and placed them every few feet around my chicken pen and so far no more snakes:-) Also make sure you wear some type of disposable gloves, it’s not good to get this on your skin. Shew…did I leave anything out????
July 9th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Hey Julie - I haven’t found any in the coop, but that is my definitely my fear. I’m going to try the moth balls in the jar thing and place them around the coop….. just in case. Thanks for the tip!