Copperhead

[FeatherstoneFrm]

My babies stayed out in the coop for the first time last night. I was nervous but all is well. Until today. I was in the run with my daughter sitting and visiting with the chicks and my daughter saw this copperhead behind me. It was outside the run but inside the garden fence. We did kill it.
I read once that gravel around the yard or run would deter them as they don't like to crawl across the gravel. Does anyone have experience with this or another idea for a deterrent?
Thanks

 

[Scratchychiken]

A wire skirt (preferably hardware cloth) would work better. Gravel may be uncomfortable for a snake, but not impossible to get through. It is harder to keep out snakes due to their anatomy and reptilian mindset, but take comfort in that snakes are not much of a problem if proper precautions are taken (and are not as wily as a mammalian predator) The only thing I can recommend right now is a wire skirt, since snakes haven’t been a problem for me so far.

Good luck, and take care!

 

[Tesumph]

The likelihood of them harming your chickens is very very low. Chickens have good snake instincts it seems. And if they do steal eggs you can often find them stuck in the wire trying to leave or curled up in a nesting box, and it’s easy to kill them from there. In the summer it’s not uncommon to see 1+ copperhead a day here, but we wear close toed shoes and educate the kids and so far it hasn’t really been a problem.
To keep them out you’d just need a smaller gauge wire and cover any small holes.

 

[pennyJo1960]

better then me we only have garter snakes in Western Washington
thank heavens I would take a 12 gauge to them

 

[Tesumph]

better then me we only have garter snakes in Western Washington
thank heavens I would take a 12 gauge to them

Last year a snake tore my arm up.. no, not from a bite. My arm was stretched all the way through some 2x4 rusty old wire fence and a cottonmouth came slithering up the wood post next to me. I screamed and jumped so hard I bent the wire fence up and it tore me up. Now that was a heart attack lol

 

[pennyJo1960]

would be me and the snake dead OH MY LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[FeatherstoneFrm]

Thanks everyone! I may do the hardware cloth skirt with gravel on top of it. Just in case.

 

[Tesumph]

Sounds good. Just make sure at least 2 feet up the run has hardware cloth (but preferably all the way up). Snakes are good climbers..

 

[ChickenRelatedUserName]

Those don't live in my part of the country (and I can't see people locations when browsing from a phone), are they venomous?

 

[FeatherstoneFrm]

Those don't live in my year of the country (and I can't see people locations when browsing from a phone), are they venomous?

Yes, extremely! We have copperheads and rattlesnake around but we also have big black snakes that are not venemous and will eat the other two. We don't kill those.