Close call....

[Florida Bullfrog]

... for one of them. I noticed the snake wouldn't move a muscle. Impression I had was it had a degree of fear of the chickens. Of course had it been bigger the little ones could have been its dinner:

 

[centrarchid]

They do not appear to see it. Mine raise all sorts of ruckus when they see a snake of that size, and it does not have to move to be seen.

 

[3mile]

My biggest fear. Only predator I cant face

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

They do not appear to see it. Mine raise all sorts of ruckus when they see a snake of that size, and it does not have to move to be seen.

Those young ones may not have realized what it was. They did see something of it because they looked sideways at it hard before approaching closer. The broodcock and some mature hens were the ones to originally see it and surrounded it, but after looking at it a bit lost interest. They never cackled or seemed particularly alarmed. They probably see snakes on a daily basis and venomous ones on a weekly basis. The only reason I paid mind was it went to singing when they surrounded it. When that was happening I grabbed my youngest dog and put him up before he could see the snake. He’s not old enough to take a snakebite yet. When I came back to take pics and remove the snake only the young ones were casually walking around it. That’s the third venomous snake in the yard this week, the two previous ones being cottonmouths. Its hot and wet here and that has them moving hard. Lots of frogs about.

 

[centrarchid]

Mine harass even the big snakes during the day. They attack the intermediate sized snakes, often causing damage. The smaller snakes are consumed. It is when they go after the copperheads that we sometimes get into trouble. The chickens do not seem to know which snakes are poisonous.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Whether chickens can tell the difference I haven’t observed enough snake interaction to have an opinion. There is some evidence wild turkeys can tell the difference between snake species. But turkeys would have also adapted along side the same north American snake species and could explain how or why they may be able to tell a difference.

I’d love to breed some of that fire into mine that would consume a snake on sight.