Snake pix

What is itI know this is a little bit dark but it was just about dark it had some dark red markings and a light almost white belly

It is a dead snake, the very best kind..

It looks like a rat snake. Sometimes they are red depending on when they have shed their skin. I don't kill any non venomous snake unless they are in my chicken coop. There isn't enough to feed all of them so I'd rather feed the non venomous. Helps keep the rodent population down too.

Looks like a rat snake to me. Copperheads have much more distinct marking, and it is no rattler, not a cottonmouth.

I kill them if they are in my pond (usually diamond backed watersnake) or in the chicken coop (usually rat snake). Other than that I let the non venomous live, I just try to know where they are. Not a big fan of rats.

Had a small hawk hassling my chickens today, but he or she was so small the chickens chased her up to the fence top before I got outside...

This message was edited Jun 8, 2013 9:31 AM

It was getting pretty dark when I saw it so I did it in, guess maybe I should have left it be but the last time I let the snakes go they cleaned out all of my toads,then when the toads rebounded the drought just about wiped them out again ..Am seeing quiet a few again this year so the snakes need to find another place to call home ..

Grits, can't say I blame you for killing it. I don't like to be surprised by any snake! And I'm a short person, so I don't need any more height scared off me ☺

Sometimes that just happens but I've found that if there is a food source the snakes will come so I try to make sure the snakes that stick around aren't venomous. I'm happier with rat snakes then rattlers.

Gypsi- I had some of that black bird netting stored near my chicken coop and found a rat snake stuck in it one day. Since then, I wrap a layer around the base of my coop and it has caught 3 more snakes. They start through it but get stuck.
Fortunately, I have a next door neighbor who likes snakes so he comes over and relocates them for me.

So sad to see that snake dead.

I put sulphur along my fencelines to keep snakes out of my yard, and we can all live happily and separately. But the one that got in the chicken coop was coming in airborne via a tree and going through the 1 inch chickenwire roof. I wondered where my eggs were going. He or she had been visiting for a couple of weeks, and that one needed either relocated or to die. Wish I had relocated now and just cut that tree down.

Airborne ....... Shudder......

I, personally, feel that snakes should be issued the elevated signal flags such as the ones used on bicycles. That way I would know right where they are and I would be fine. It always seems as if one finds a snake right when one least expects it. And then one just reacts blindly. Bicycle flags would be good for both me and the snakes ☺.

This message was edited Jun 18, 2013 10:34 AM

wr that was a big snake if it was on my back porch it could have the porch and house This from an old boy that grew up in the swamplands of Tensas Parish of Louisiana where my sister once killed 18 rattlers in her garden in one summer..

Rattlers must be killed or transported by a qualified handler. Rat snakes, well they are pretty beneficial

I've never seen a poisonous snake on my property. I really believe it's because I let the nonvenomous live, but not in my chicken coop. They can live in the barn and do rodent control. I can't even imagine how bad the rats and mice would be without snakes.

Gypsi-with 1 in chicken wire they can get in but they can't usually get out, after they feed. Im trying to get the eggs 2 to 3 times a day so they look elsewhere to feed.

You all are curing my zone 8 envy real fast!

Lisa, you are right, the rat snake tried to leave with an egg in its middle which is how I managed to catch and kill it. About 4 ft long, fit right through the 1 inch chicken wire til it had the egg. I had small pullets in the greenhouse that needed to move to that pen, or I probably would have relocated and cut the tree back. Pullets aren't cheap.

And to think I let a 5 or so foot diamondback rattler get away from me on Saturday when I was puttering around the back acreage. It only got away because the grass was too tall and it moved faster than
I could reach over for the pistol!

I usually let snakes be as we have numerous non-venomous species at the ranch. We have a beautiful indigo that is surely 7 feet or longer that frequents the pond. It sets the game cameras off!!! LOL!

But rattlers...uh no way! Those gotta go! I do a lot of butterflying at the ranch so I hop down off the golfcart to look around, check plants or take photos...and do lots of walking throughout the acreage...big no no when it comes to the venomous species!

Texas-yuck I may never be the same. Lol

Gypsi- You were lucky it only had an egg and not a pullet, Im not getting enough eggs so I know the snakes are still in there.

Years ago I got so tired of loosing my eggs and chicks that I killed a snake and cut the hen eggs out of it. Yes, we ate them. The kids were young they didn't know.

wrapping looped or twisted bird netting and stapling it where a snake is sliding in the door of the coop (which my tree entering snake was doing) traps the snake and the chickens will often peck it to death.

I hadn't put the pullets in when I caught the snake. They were still in my greenhouse. Last year wasn't my best year for predators, a weasel found the greenhouse. newly adult one, the dogs and one big cat and I chased him or her off, but not before it got 14 birds, 11 pullets, 3 hens..

2012 was also my only year for a blue heron, cleaned out one of my ponds. Avoided the one with dogs around it.

Chickens were made for eatin...by everyone. Usually have to fight the coons and possums over chickens too. Sad that rats snakes also eat chickens... copperheads, cottonmouths and moccasins, timber rattlers, and a coral recently...plus hog nose rattlers which can still spook you if you dont pay attention- cuz they puff that neck up like a cobra...fall out of trees, climb thru holes left behind by small animals, climb wiring on chicken coops as well and are established escape artists until they eat. Hearing baby rabbits squeal? grab a hoe and head after the snake...see a new belt hanging on the doorknob? look more carefully... open the bottom cupboard and get squalled at? grab the baseball bat for that coon... AH! Nothing like country living.

I did note in my first year that chicken was a "universal food". So far there are no raccoons in my area, or at least in my yard, I'm in a hot sunny prairie environment, but there is a creek half a mile away.
Things can change...

The more houses being built or business' and we will be seeing alot more than we ever have as their cover is going away. 99 is going within 2 miles of my house so I guess not only city living here I come :( :( :( but also gonna see alot more critters here and dead on the road. Country living one day will be a thing of the past. *Sigh*

Gosh, a weasel! Wow!

Yeah, we're having an explosion of bunnies this year. We had a Barred Owl hanging out and I had hopes he would get many bunnies (and snakes, too) but I found him dead on the road the other day =(. Predators come on wheels, too. I haven't heard the Great Horned Owls calling lately, so the bunnies will just keep going until some other raptor moves in. I hate to see the bunnies multiplying as they only attract coyotes and snakes. I'd rather have hawks and owls.

Racoons are my worst predator. They kill and don't eat which I just don't understand.

Gypsi I've caught snakes by accident with the bird netting. I put some out to keep the chickens off some seeds I'd just sown. I had a dream that a snake would get caught in it, and sure enough the next morning I found one.

Yeah the drought 2 summers ago caused everything to mass produce. The pecan trees last fall were overloaded. On the vacant property up the road (old homesteads) my friend and I must have picked over 1200 lbs of pecans. People were selling them for 2 dollars a lb. I have mine all in boxes to try to sell this coming fall as all the work and time I put in was not selling huge paper shells or the others for 2.00 a lb. Everyone said it was an amazing year and tools to pick them up could not be found.

When plants and animals think they are going to die (drought) they will reproduce. Like a purple passion vine if you withhold its water to the brink of death and them water it it will bloom. The program I saw was about mice and the hauntavirus years ago because after a drought the rats and mice reproduced under their house. They needed to repair something and breathed in the dried droppings and the young couple died from it before they knew what it was.

I've got a red tailed hawk and a chicken hawk, so far the red tail hasn't found my yard, and while I've found the chicken hawk nose to nose with my hens, the hens are bigger. Pretty funny, so far... They keep the rodents down. My feral cat helps a lot too. I got him fixed 3 years ago, got a dose of Revolution on him last month and put tape worm meds in some wet food, but he won't come in or let me handle much. Does a NICE job ratting.

I have a feral cat here at the shop. We can now handle her as she us used to us...we don't have a barn yet. Once we do she can go home with us. We had her fixed and vetted up and she is an excellent mouser. Just not ready to have her at the house yet. I set out mouse traps and they were catching many mice. But something in the night looked at my mouse traps with victims enclosed and carried the whole enchilada off to parts unknown. I started out with about 20 traps and now have none. Bother!

I don't have a barn, but have 3 sheds, and neighbors have shed and junk piles. At one time we had 120 ferals around here, but the coyotes got most and I started fixing the rest. Still have a couple of tom cats to catch, I haven't caught any since 2010, obviously I'm behind, but I only actually have seen one gray tom assume unfixed, and this little family. I think she may have been a pet at one time.

So sad. I'm glad you are helping out with the stray cats. Thank you ☺!

I haven't seen my red tailed hawks (who were nesting on our property) for a while either....Most people like bunnies. But to me they are a leading indicator of lack of aerial predators and that coyotes and snakes will be here soon. Would rather have the hawks and owls myself.

plenty of wild rabbits around here, fortunately for my hens. One of my neighbors planted the rabbits their own garden with lots of lettuce. I forget now what the rabbits ate but it wasn't the lettuce. They do like marigolds.. and I have a snake in my fish pond to catch. That is always fun.

I had a feral cat that lived here for about a year...now he thinks owns the place and sleeps on the couch!

lol Lisa. My regular front porch feral won't come in the house, afraid of my dogs. But his nose is seriously out of joint over the mama with kittens. She moved across the street to my neighbor's old car in the carport. I take her food and water there. need to go collect wet food in a minute so it doesn't draw her trouble, like skunks possums or coyotes. But up in that non running engine they will be pretty safe.

Racoons eat everything I leave out, including my chickens. I caught one looking in the window at me one nite this last week. Tank just looks at them.

I have never seen a raccoon here, but I had only glimpsed the weasel once from a distance, and eventually he found the chickens. Coops are weasel proof but probably not coon proof.

You're lucky. I have a mud hole for the pig and I see coon tracks around it all the time. Other tracks too so it's kind of fun. I'm really careful about leaving food out but they have been a problem here the entire time I've lived here which is 20 yrs.

grits’
From the responses I agree with “rat snake” but disagree with “a dead snake, the very best kind..” Get rid of all the snakes, then standby for a rodent invasion more prolific than Pharaoh’s frogs.

In this locale they are most often referred to as chicken snakes. They are a bane to keepers of poultry, which I am. They are also rough on song birds. I ran two out of a blue bird house a few years ago. It was their combo sugar shackdining room, I guess. One escaped to recall pleasant memories; one didn’t. The hen blue bird had quit her box. I knew that she had been brooding. Garden hoe in hand, I peaked in at a knot of snake. I wasn’t prepared for two. The future daydreamer made it to the tall grass. Once upon a time I got one out of a purple martin house. It had climbed a fifteen foot, shiny, slick metal pole or either beamed up. Another once upon a time I killed a huge one in the chicken house. The rooster and all his wives were calling frantically. Postmortem investigation showed lumps along the abdomen. Hen eggs, I surmised, then figured that they’d still be good. The opening revealed not intact hen eggs but fledgling blue jays. It must have had a voracious appetite, I thought, or was just assaying the cupboard for next repast.

Away from the place, I let ‘em slide—everything has to be somewhere, elementary physics and common sense will tell you that if you care to listen—but if they’re prowling on or inside the short grass, they’ve got to go.

Pleasant dreams.

I am going to sulfur my fencelines as soon as I'm done watering and putting down the beneficial nematodes, maybe Monday. I usually put them in during april, but this april they would have frozen. may got away and june is making good its escape. Sulphur is also going on a pond edge that has a convenient snake sized gap. I think I chased him out when I dumped isopropyl alcohol on him the other day. They don't like sulphur, and I don't want snakes in the pond.,