Snake!

A little too much excitement for me occurred the other day in the chicken coop.  This summer we have had a few run-ins with snakes in my main coop.  My husband has had to dispose of a couple snakes due to them being inside my chicken coop.  He doesn't like snakes.  At all!!  I like them, as long as they mind their own business and do not eat my chickens or their eggs.  I was collecting eggs a few days ago and met up almost face to face with another snake!

My immediate reaction was to grab it and try to yank it out of the coop to protect my chickens and the baby that was just a few feet away.  I have my Marans mama with her baby chick in the nursery that is just a few feet away from some nesting boxes where the snake had taken up residence.  It didn't appear to have eaten anything yet.  I failed.  It had its tail end firmly secured.  I only managed to tick it off.  I had to close up the egg door to the nesting boxes and go get reinforcement, my son.

On our second try to get the snake out we failed again, it just wasn't coming out!  It crawled up deeper into the coop and in the process ate a mouse!!  Yes, when I went inside to try to get a better look and try to dislodge it I caught it with a mouse in its mouth.  It ate it very quickly!  Then it holed itself up in the crevice you see above.  I told my son we would just have to come back later after it had calmed down and maybe come out of the hole.  I was hoping the chickens would be fine since it had just eaten the mouse.

On my way back to the house I heard the hens making a big commotion.  It occurred to me when I got to the back door that perhaps the snake was on the move.  I hollered at my son to come back out and help.  By the time I got back to the coop, my son had already ushered the snake outside and had lost it.  I can't believe how fast that snake was!  We were pretty confident the chickens were in the clear.  I just really do not know how it is getting into my run and coop.  Or how it got out so fast!

I generally collect eggs anywhere from 2 to 3 times per day so that generally hasn't been a problem with any snakes.  I also wonder how these snakes keep getting past my roosters!  We're pretty confident it was just a rat snake.  We do have copperheads and even saw a water moccasin a few weeks ago!!  So far I'm pretty sure all the snakes we have seen around the garden and coop have either been garter snakes or rat snakes.  I like the rat snakes so they keep the mouse population down. I just wish they would stay out of the coop and keep to the area around it and the garden (of course I don't like coming across them in the garden either!).

What excitement is going on at your homestead?