Will black snakes harm my chickens and chicks?

[Triple Willow]

I live in east Tennessee.  We couldn't find any bite marks, but unfortunately she died last night. ): After looking at lots of snake pictures I'm thinking it may have been a king snake, but would a king snake bite kill a chicken? 

Hi tntxdeb. No, a kingsnake will not kill your chickens from a bite. It is hard to tell from the picture- possibly chicken snake (rat snake), king snake or maybe even water moccasin (but I SERIOUSLY doubt the last). My guess would be that it is a chicken snake. But it would be worth it to me to pluck the chicken and check for a snake bite, just so I would know what I was dealing with. A venomous snake bite will be two puncture wounds with probably tissue damage around the wound. The NON-venomous snakes kill by constriction - squeezing the animal to death or at least until it passes out then swallowing it whole. But a constrictor could have scared your hen so bad that she died of a heat attack or shock or maybe she was just sick and a snake had nothing to do with it.

I don't usually kill snakes unless that are venomous. I would NEVER EVER kill a king snake because they kill the other snakes, including the venomous snakes. Other snakes will not even stay around where king snakes are. I have had a huge snake population here at my house for over 25 years. There is a den where I have seen them come and go many, many times. This den has mainly generations of big old black, gray and mixed chicken snakes (rat snakes) but I have also seen garter snakes and a dang copper head coming and going (he was executed!). It is just the "community snake den". LOL Well, this spring I have not seen the snakes sunning at the entrance to the den like I always do in the spring, many times two chicken snakes at a time sunning. Well about a week ago I was cleaning out a big flower bed next to the den and a big snake crawled out of the leaves that I think is a king snake! Well yeehaw, IF it is a king snake he will move the rest of them out! I never would kill or move them in the past because I KNOW that if I move the chicken snakes out the copperheads will move in. The chicken snakes won't hurt anybody. They only make you hurt yourself! LOL I can't have copperheads living here. There is a zero tolerance on them! The snake I saw left the flower bed and went into the snake den and I so hope it was a prairie king snake! I found a skin yesterday at the entrance to the den. It was still damp so whoever was wearing it had just come out of it. I am going to take a good look at it today and try to determine what kind of snake it belonged to. I am so hoping king snake!!!

I just really wonder how in the heck all these dang snakes find this den!!! Do they talk? lol Do they go by scent? I don't know but there is a bunch of them there! ...and it is in a very bad place. Family and friends have tried to get me to do away with it for years but I am afraid that will invite copperheads in and I can't stand the thought of somebody being bit by a copperhead! There are elderly as well as kids at my place and a copperhead bite could be fatal.

 

[Triple Willow]

Here is a picture of the snake

Do you have any more pictures of the snake?

 

[Triple Willow]

I live in Iowa, and my local police officer said if any animal attacks your livestock(aka chickens) you can kill them, and I live within city limits and I can still shoot them! I would assume that means snakes too! Does anyone think hardware cloth around the bottom of a chicken run fence would keep snakes out? my run is totally fenced and the fencing is buried 4 inches underground to keep predators out). I am terrified of snakes and have heard to many stories of reaching into to get eggs and SURPRISE there is a snake in the nesting box! Yeeek. I don't care if they are poisonous, indangered or eat every rodent on my acreage I would freak! so any advice to keep them out I will take!

Hi agunderson. Keeping snakes out of your coop and run is a lot like keeping them out of your house. You have to seal up all of the places they can get in. Your coop needs to have all the holes and cracks of any size at all sealed. They can come in a very small opening. Also, you need to use hardware cloth to keep them from coming in through the fencing. Putting hardware cloth just around the bottom won't work because they are great climbers. That includes the top of the run too. They could climb up the fence and go in through the top or they could drop in from a overhead tree. lol The hardware cloth would need to be buried a few inches to keep them from going under too. They are good at going under things like doors so a fence that is sitting on the ground would be easy for them to go under. Then there is the ground of the coop/run. If there are holes in the ground that have been made by mice, rats, moles, etc - snakes will use those hole and underground tunnels. I have seen a snake go in a hole then come out of the ground several yards away! You have to keep all of the holes in the ground plugged. If you do all of that they shouldn't get in. However, this only keeps the bigger ones out. The real small ones can still come through the hardware cloth. The small ones are harmless to you and your chickens (unless they are venomous). Your chickens will probably eat the small ones.

You could have one wait for you by the door and come in when you do like one did me! LOL Not a good feeling to see a chicken snake sitting in your livingroom floor- even if it's not a big one! LOL

 

[Triple Willow]

Here is a very informative website about snakes. http://www.snake-removal.com/faq.html

 

[skitzkle]

I had what I thought was a garter snake by my garden so I left it alone. An hour later I hear the chicks in the brooder going crazy and the snake is climbing my sun room wall to get to the chicks. there was a screened window between them, but the screen is not in great shape. My husband was amazed that he climbed the plastic wall of the sun room. He also went right by my older 10 week pullets that were in the run and they apparently did not care!

 

[Triple Willow]

I had what I thought was a garter snake by my garden so I left it alone. An hour later I hear the chicks in the brooder going crazy and the snake is climbing my sun room wall to get to the chicks. there was a screened window between them, but the screen is not in great shape. My husband was amazed that he climbed the plastic wall of the sun room. He also went right by my older 10 week pullets that were in the run and they apparently did not care!

It has the markings of a Yellow Rat Snake which is from your area but it doesn't look yellow. It is probably a Yellow Rat crossed with a Gray Rat Snake. It is the "chicken snake" local for your area. They are great climbers!

 

[slipshift]

Around here we use mothballs to keep snakes away from homes. Maybe it would work in chicken pens but don't know about the toxic effect. My deterent of choice is a machete.

Jim

 

[tammyfarms]

We have lost a couple of chicks this year to black snakes. Unfortunately, once they eat a chick, they prefer chicks soooo... those two did not survive as I don't have any place to relocate them.

I like to have (non-poisonous) snakes around to keep the mouse population down. A snake would rather eat a mouse than an egg. As long as they stick to mice an even an occasional egg, we can co-exist.

 

[Jimmyjaffee]

PLEASE DO NOT KILL THE SNAKES!

No matter how creeped out or scared of snakes you might be, it still doesn't give you a good reason to decapitate it with a shovel, even if it ate some of your chicks. ITS PART OF LIFE, SO DEAL WITH IT. Snakes are beneficial to the environment and help reduce rodent populations. Unfortunately, many snake populations continue to decline do to human persecution and lack of knowledge. (Keep in mind that there are many snake species that are listed as endangered or speices of special concern under the Endangered Species Act Protection of Fish and Wildlife Service: it is prohibited to harm, collect, or held of possession without a special permit. The penalties for killing, collecting, possessing or even harassing these species - some of which have declined dramatically due to illegal collection - can range as high as a $5,000 fine and/or imprisonment for 180 days. In addition, anyone killing an endangered species may be required to make a restitution payment of $2,000 per animal. ) If you find a snake, then just relocate it.

 

[bellabeagle]

Here in nc when raising chickens a snake is a snake. my chickens are my kids just like my kids and ill protect them all. I found this today sitting in my free range guinea nest she was trying to hatch out.there was 15 eggs this morning and one missing at lunch and found this in nest with only six left uneaten.not tolerated