14 Jan ’14
Where I grew up in Jersey a guy down the street kept chickens and we had a lot of snakes. We had huge black racers. Anyways for us kids he was like the old guy from home alone. We were afraid of him, and called him swamp man because he had a small swamp looking pond across the street from his property he maintained. Long story short we became buddies, and turned out he would be our high school bio teacher.
He loved animals and snakes, and always told us to embrace the snakes as they control rodents, and to embrace the racers because if it wasn't them startling us it would be rattlers and copperheads because thy kept them away.
He kept an angled fence around his chicken coop like this to keep them out,
That was framed with wood and positioned a 45 degree or so angle pointing away from the coop. Apparantly snakes couldnt climb it or pass through it.
8 Mar ’14
30305 said:
limb-lining for snakes
Pretty much the same concept. Yes some snakes can be beneficial with eating rodents , but when you have a snake that climbs into your chicken coop to eat your eggs, than that is a different story. We would normally get around a dozen a day, but then it dropped down and down. . . apparently he called in his buddys. We caught 5 in less than a week and one was 7 1/2 foot long. I live in Texas too.
19 Feb ’14
I am more concerned for my wife because she has never raised chickens, nor encountered a snake in the nest or hen house. I dont want her start in the country to be a tramatic one off the bat. It will be a while before we get chickens, because we are starting from scratch including building our own home on the 7 acres. Great info guys and ladies. Please keep it coming as we are taking it all in. I would hate for her to faint or even worse have a seizure by a snake encounter. She has a seizure disorder but dont let that stop her from being productive. She has taught school for 22 years now and still going strong.
30375 said:
<div class="d4p-bbt-quote-title">groinkick wrote:</div>
limb-lining for snakesPretty much the same concept. Yes some snakes can be beneficial with eating rodents , but when you have a snake that climbs into your chicken coop to eat your eggs, than that is a different story. We would normally get around a dozen a day, but then it dropped down and down. . . apparently he called in his buddys. We caught 5 in less than a week and one was 7 1/2 foot long. I live in Texas too.
i agree with you completely! When the critters go after my food, I go after them. I don't have any egg eating snakes, but I do have copper heads and rattlers. Black snakes are my friend!
Be RADICAL Grow Food
8 Mar ’14
There is a product called 'Snake Be Gone' which you can find at your local Lowes or Home Depot. From what I am told, you just sprinkle it around the area you want to keep the snakes out of, but when we had a snake problem last year, it was wet and rainy which just would have washed away the line, so we took the alternative . . . if I was the one that found the snake you would have heard my squeal in the next county. When eggs came up missing and hunny started catching snake, hunny was the one that had to go collect the eggs for the next few days. I don't do snakes either
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