Snake in the chick cage, killed two, one eaten. SO MAD *picture added*

[Coralietg]

We had three chicks die a few days a go, no sign of injury, a little bit of plucking, I honestly thought they had killed each other.
Was hanging washing up in the dining room at 1am (feeling guilty about leaving wet washing in) and heard the chicks squealing (?) outside. Got a knife (no idea why, maybe I thought there was an intruder?), went to check on the chicks, there was a snake hanging in the cage. URGH.
I honestly didn't think we had snakes big enough around here to eat chicks, they are about 4 weeks old and a good size. Lost 5 chicks out of 10 in 3 days.
Not a good start to our chicken raising

I'm feeling really upset and disheartened.
I killed the snake, hope no-one will be mad about that. Will post pictures of the snake in the morning, bugger was striking at me.

That lump is my chick

Any idea what kind of snake it is other than a mean chicken eating snake.

 

[tammyd57]

Last Spring a large snake got into my outdoor brooder and ate 5 of the babies. We found the snake next morning in our water heater shed barely able to move it was so full of chicks. I chopped his head off myself and I still get so mad a year later.
It made me cry thinking how scared all those little babies had to be, getting chased around their brooder by that huge snake. I made absolutely sure it could never happen again.
I'm so sorry you lost babies too.

 

[chickbird]

Quote:
good job...i would have done the same.

 

[tammyd57]

I don't know what kind of snake it is, but it looks a lot like the one I had, only with 5 lumps and maybe a little bit more yellow than tan on the light part of his pattern.

He's the best kind of snake---DEAD!

 

[Crittercrzy]

I would have done the same thing..Sorry for your loss

 

[chickensioux]

Oh no! So sorry for the loss of your chicks

 

[Yardbirds286]

So sorry for you and the babies. I am glad you were able to kill it before it had the chance to do more harm.

 

[HennyPenny2]

That is a juvenile rat snake. Incase you were wondering or didn't know. I have had a repeat offender garter snake eat my eggs. It was probably best you killed him though I am not infavor of people killing snakes but it most likely after finding a food source would have returned for more. They can travel long distances to get back to a food source one they find it. So sorry for your loss.

 

[TXmom]

I'm so sorry you lost your chicks....that's very upsetting

I agree it's probably a rat snake...I found one like that in my coop a couple weeks ago eating all my eggs! I called a neighbor to come help me deal with it because it was striking at me and the hens. This dude was about 6 feet long and feasted on my eggs that day, and probably several times before. He got a shovel to the head too, and that upsets a lot of people on this site. I don't go out of my way to kill snakes, but when they are threatening me, my family, my pets...it's time to GO.

 

[zDoc]

I agree with tammyd57 the best kind of snake is a dead one (at least when it comes to my yard). If my wife would have seen that, she would have fainted. Then the snake would have tried to eat her too.

I'm really sorry for your loss, and feel bad for your little chicks, they must have been mortified. Snakes do have a purpose in the world just not (imo) near any kind of population.