Guineas and Snakes?

[Lyndssxo08]

Hiiiii everyone!

I found a pretty big black snake in our backyard a few days ago (literally deathly terrified of snakes - I'm not going to lie LOL). Now all I can think of is trying to keep snakes from getting anywhere near our coop and run. I have been googling and asking around in regards to find ideas to keep them away and keep my chickens safe. I have read a few times now that guineas help do this. Does anyone have any experience with them attacking/scaring off snakes? If I do get some, how many should I get to put in with everyone? Currently I have almost everyone in the same place together (chickens, turkeys, pheasants, ducks, and a goose). I never cared much for guineas when we had some on our family farm growing up, buttttt if they keep the snakes away - I will probably buy as many as I can

thanks in advance for the help on this!

 

[Kessel23]

Well snakes do a lot of moving during the day and night. Guineas might help prevent some. I do not have to deal with snakes around my coop. Most of them are small enough for the chickens to kill and eat.

 

[Lyndssxo08]

Well snakes do a lot of moving during the day and night. Guineas might help prevent some. I do not have to deal with snakes around my coop. Most of them are small enough for the chickens to kill and eat.

ugh I wish snakes just didn't exist! LOL

 

[drumstick diva]

I know most snakes are allegedly harmless. But if they scare people enough so they trip or fall or scream themselves into a coma - they are very Harmful.

I've have made peace with the toads- even though they pee* on me when I pick up to show them how nice I am.They probably eat a lot of the same things snakes do (except eggs & baby chicks) without causing hysteria.

When we first moved out to the sticks about 50 years ago. I ran in the house to tell my father that a toad was eating a snake. Actually I got that in reverse. My father hit the snake with a stick, at the back of his head. He let go and my father swung him around and pitched him into the field.

Toad was frozen in place. I picked him up to move to a safer location and he peed all over my hand. * I have been self taught since that time to put my hand around their sides, hold away from my body so their piss doesn't touch me.

 

[drumstick diva]

For snakes I used my snake stick- it's a well worn hoe. I never knew you had to sharpen hoes, I thought they came ready to use and did so. The best it could do was put some minor dents in the snake. I'm sure they lived to eat a fat mouse and push the dents out.

 

[50-45-1]

Having a snake or two is not necessarily a bad thing. I know you dont like them but...
Do you know that the snake is patroling the area and keeping your rodent population down. Mainly he will eat mice.
A snake is beneficial.
In my farm i see ocasionally a blue racer. I also have guineas and i dont know what impact that has on the snakes. I would hate it if they moved my snakes away.
I love that they are here. As long as i see them at a distance...

 

[Biddybot]

Guineas won't keep snakes away per se. It's really only the horrific noise a bunch of them can make that DOES spook some animals, like a roosting hawk, into moving on, at least temporarily. But snakes wouldn't be able to hear most of their screaming, so...not much use there as an initial deterrent...

What guineas WILL do, if there are enough of them and they're feeling brave, is surround any snake they find out in the open and hold it in place. Sometimes they just torment it until they get bored with the game and the snake manages to break through their ring and make a break for it. Other times they'll actually attack the snake and kill it or at least severely injure it. We only have small, harmless species and I like snakes in general anyways so I'd always go out and try to rescue any snakes who were being harassed by my guinea gang. They did nail some over the years, though, and if the victims were small enough, they or more often a large chicken would eat them.

A snake that got away from guineas might well become more cautious about showing itself out in the open afterwards during the day, but I don't think they'd be inclined to leave if they otherwise found your property to their liking. I always had plenty of snakes around even when I was keeping the maximum number of guineas I ever kept.

My resident snakes had a funny moment of revenge last spring shortly after it got warm enough for them to first start emerging from their winter hibernation. I built a nice dusting complex for the chickens some years back under a pussy willow in the backyard, south-facing, a couple of little rock walls and piles to hold in the dusting sand/dirt. I let the birds out one really fine sunny morning and one of the brown-egg-layer hens ran straight for her favourite dusting hole, a nice deep one right up next to a big rock. She jumped in...and jumped right back out again, straight up in the air, and started screaming her head off. I went to look and there was this big adult garter snake lying in the hole, just trying to bask in the sunlight and soak up a little warmth. The hen had landed on it and been understandably freaked out, and the snake was none too impressed either. Anyway, it was a comical sight, the way that hen launched herself straight up, as if jet-propelled. And they say commercial laying hens can't fly!

 

[The Moonshiner]