Lost an chick to a snake! Ugh......

Now I have only one baby chick and two adults. Dustin went to feed the chickens.. he entered the pen and open the small pen for baby chick and he scared and screamed.. The snake was stucking and hanging between cage wires. He couldnt ecape which he ate the chick and stuck in cage. DH grabbed his gun and came and shot snake's head. He's dead. They remove cage out of pen. They was scared to touch the snake. Me,, I went and pull and loose the snake. I was not scare of snake. Anyway, it was pretty huge snake near 5 feet long. I am 5'3" tall. We are not sure what kind snake is. chicken snake? Water moccian?sp?, Not rattlesnake. The head was gone. DH shot twice at head.


You can see I am feeling better??!!??? LOL.. It felt good to be out of house and walked around. But I am still all sore from surgery.
Here's me, my dog Buster and the dead snake!

This message was edited Jun 19, 2006 8:15 PM

Me throwing the snake back of our pasture. Hope my dogs won't go and roll on it. My dog Buster looked.

At least it wasn't a boomerang! I hope your dogs don't roll in it, either...Sarah's roll in a dead fish was bad enough. Wonder what rotten snake smells like. *pah!*

Oh my goodness.........that's a big snake. I bet you're glad he's gone.

Glad to hear that you're feeling better.

No, not a Moccasin,
More like a rat or corn snake..They love eggs and chicks..

Larkie

All together now......." Another one Bites the dust"....., Good throw Mini, Now you just have to be on the look out for its mate! Yep , they always travel in Two's.

jeepers..........

I think Ricky just put your gardening shoe over the snake's head. If it killed that black widow spider, it could kill a snake. *snicker*!

Gardenwife... lol! Thanks for the laughing.. my tummy hurts!

When I had surgery shortly after Howie and I got married, I had an incision from my bellybutton on down my abdomen. When he'd visit me in the hospital and walk down the hallway, he had me laughing until I was crying both from laughter and from pain. LOL!!

oh my God. That is a big snake, and you are so
brave to even pick it up after it is dead.

That doesn't look like any Garter snake to me.

I think I would have died if I found a snake in
with my baby chickens, ducks and geese.

I am still shuddering. ugh.
sheri

Only good snake is a dead snake or at least one not in our yard. If the other one shows up, take it to your local University Extension agent or Dept. of Conservation agency. Or look up common LA snakes on the internet. The MO Dept. of Conservation Agency has a small booklet out about the snakes in MO.You need to learn what you are dealing with. A peacock or guinea fowl are both enemies of the snakes around here. The guineas make enough noise when they see one to raise the dead.

Mini, look it up. The only corn snakes I ever saw were orange, so that one is a new one on me. Definitely big enough to worry about. Let us know when you have it identified. Or take it to your county extension and see if they can tell you. Would be good to know if venomous or not. BAM

That looks like what we call a Bull Snake here in Texas (by looking at the design pattern and tail). I killed one that was 4-1/2 foot long 2 days ago. Talk about perfect timing, in a way. I have a 10' x 20' coop (all corrugated tin), with a concrete floor. I let the 2 week old chicks (25 Pearl White Leghorns and 25 RIR's) out in their fenced yard to play/scratch/what-ever while I hosed down the floor and cleaned it up. I have the 1st 4 foot away from the door blocked off so the chicks can't get to the door (or feed barrel). I installed a fan to pull air thru (and suck the heat out)..and I put the empty fan box in the corner of the coop to throw trash in. That box had been in there for a week (and I guess the Bull Snake too). The snake was hiding behind the box (that I never looked behind!). Well, after cleaning the floor (where the chicks stay)....not the 1st 4' where they can't get to....I was outside watching them play..and all of a sudden I heard one 'scream'....low and behold this snake had coiled the chick up and was squeezing it. The snake just came from inside the door of the coop...from behind the fan box. I had my shovel handy and hit that snake in the head until he let go of the chick (RIR).....then I killed the snake and measured him! The chick was laying there looked like it was dead....and when I got thru with the snake, my chick wasn't laying there...so it got up and was OK, I guess...just shocked for a few minutes. Anyway, the snake got in under the door due to a small gap I had there. Well, the gap is no longer there...and the fan box and 'anything' that a snake can hide around/behind has been taken out of the coop! After the snake incident, I counted my chicks.....and I guess that snake ate well for the week it was in the coop. I had 2 RIR's and 1 Leghorn missing. I have Never even seen a snake around here..until now! My landlord has killed a few copper heads, but I haven't seen any myself. I bet I will see plenty of sankes now that I have chickens...LOL

DJ (North Central Texas)