Help! A Black Snake keeps eating my eggs!

[Splinter022]

Please help! I was only a week away from hatching chicks, and they were all gone when I checked. I was a week away from hatching more chicks and I walked in my coop to find a black snake. Worst part was that I walked in on him eating the last egg that was under my broody hen. I now have more eggs getting ready to hatch in about a week also. Any suggestions on what to do to get him out? (I think he's living in my coop where I can't get to him, I'm also comepletly fine with holding snakes.) I definelty don't want him eating my eggs I have under my hen now. Thanks in advance!

 

[BYCforlife]

Please help! I was only a week away from hatching chicks, and they were all gone when I checked. I was a week away from hatching more chicks and I walked in my coop to find a black snake. Worst part was that I walked in on him eating the last egg that was under my broody hen. I now have more eggs getting ready to hatch in about a week also. Any suggestions on what to do to get him out? (I think he's living in my coop where I can't get to him, I'm also comepletly fine with holding snakes.) I definelty don't want him eating my eggs I have under my hen now. Thanks in advance!

I guess you just need to catch him and take him far away, or kill him. I have not had many problems with snakes.

 

[Splinter022]

I guess you just need to catch him and take him far away, or kill him. I have not had many problems with snakes.

I'm hopefully not going to kill him beacause he's a completely harmless snake. The problem is that I can't find him, and he seems o be waiting until a week before to eat the eggs. But thanks anyways!

 

[centrarchid]

Show a picture of where broody hen is located. You may be able to make so snake cannot get to nest easily.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree, barriers are your best protection against predators. I've had a snake get through 1" hardware cloth and still be big enough to eat a chick so you are looking at making some mighty small holes. You just can't leave any cracks.

You might try a minnow trap. It's not that unusual to find water snakes in real minnow traps in the water. Again, use a very small mesh wire for the minnow trap. I haven't tried it myself but some members say they bait them with eggs.

Since you are OK handling snakes you might try sort of twisting or wadding up bird netting or deer netting so it can get tangled up in it. You'll probably have to cut the netting off to release the snake.

You might position a snake catcher and a pillow case to hold it where you can get to them quickly in case you see it in the coop again. I made a snake catcher by putting an angle bracket on a piece of wood. A friend wants me to relocate any non-poisonous snake I catch eating eggs or chicks to her property. I'm glad to oblige but catching them can be a pain. I've relocated four so far.

If you relocate it you need to get a long way away or it will probably come back. I'm talking a few miles, not a few hundred feet. It's probably illegal to release it anywhere except on your own property without the land owner's permission, you might want to talk to a wildlife official, they may have a legal release point. But that's up to your ethics. It's also probably illegal to kill it, though there might be an exception since it is harming your "livestock". Each state has its own laws.

Good luck, snakes can be challenging but since you are OK handling them you have more options.

 

[JackE]

Reminds me of a story about my grandmom. She came out to the coop one morning to collect eggs, and found a large blacksnake wrapping itself around a post. She could see that the snake had ate a few eggs, and was fixing to smash the eggs, by wrapping itself around the post. Well, the snake didn't get breakfast that morning, or any other in the future. She grabbed a hoe, and chopped his head off, then used the hoe to remove the eggs through the opening left, from where the snake had lost his head. Those eggs went to the family for breakfast.

I guess it's another benefit from having the coop surrounded with electrified poultry net. Snakes can't get to my coop at all. I saved one snake who tried. Lucky for him I saw him before the fence totally killed him. Another snake was not so lucky.

 

[Splinter022]

Here's some pics. Thanks for your help! Any advice is appreciated!

 

[Taote]

I'm hopefully not going to kill him beacause he's a completely harmless snake. The problem is that I can't find him, and he seems o be waiting until a week before to eat the eggs. But thanks anyways!

He isn't harmless, he's eating your chicks.

You have to choose, and there isn't a wrong answer, which is more imprtant to you - the life of the snake, or the lives of your chicks and their potential to improve your bottom line.

And you have a third option. Get him out and snake proof the coop. Might not be easy or without cost in materials or convenience, but if you can't stomach the alternatives you can make it work.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I'm hopefully not going to kill him beacause he's a completely harmless snake. The problem is that I can't find him, and he seems o be waiting until a week before to eat the eggs. But thanks anyways!

Here is the way that one BYC member solved his snake problem.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/best-way-ive-found-yet-to-deal-with-snake-problems.515899/

There is also a good explanation on how to recycle snakes into garden mulch.
I also guess that you could feed the rats on your place in the hope that the snakes would be so stuffed with rodents that they couldn't hold another egg.

Before pronouncing these snakes harmless perhaps you should ask your baby chickens what their opinions are on being digested alive.

 

[bobbieschicks]

Ditto about the snake not being harmless just because it's not poisonous, it's still eating your soon to hatch eggs.

I bought 7 day old chicks and had a broody raising them, they started disappearing and I wasn't stumped. By the time I figured out it must be a snake I was mostly finished "snake proofing" my coop.

I finally caught him when I saw him sitting next to the run with the lumps of his two latest victims still in his belly. I was down to two chicks by then and got angry enough to decide I'd had enough of feeding the snake.

Now my coop has the rafter openings closed off with 1/4" hardware cloth, a 1/2" hardware cloth covered brooder for chicks and broody, and deer netting draped around the perimeter that I plan to hang on the 2x4 welded wire run once the yard is cleared by the big chickens. I have the trail camera set up and watching for evening activity until I can get the electric fence working again.

And I'm still on guard because snakes can get through very tiny holes and they aren't afraid to try and eat big things.