Beware of Rat Snakes **GRAPHIC IMAGES**

buffy-the-eggpile-layer said:

It's good to know this. I don't plan to go hunt and kill any and all snakes in my radius, but if our poultry are dying in this way and I find the culprit in their coop...well... Fair game.

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JadeFarms said:

My main problem around here is when a Tegu tries to eat a chicken or a quail. I don’t kill them, I just can’t. But I do trap the ones that are eating my animals and find a place for them.

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buffy-the-eggpile-layer said:

I'm posting this as a warning about large rat snakes, which are commonly regarded as helpful to keep around for pest control. We recently had seen several in our coops--one of them over 5 feet long--and caught/released them thinking they were harmless (despite the egg casualty) and ultimately useful for rodent control. We thought wrong.

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ColtHandorf said:

That is highly irresponsible. Tegus are not native to Florida and are considered invasive. Florida Parks and Wildlife destroys any Tegus that are captured in an effort to control them. They negatively impact populations of native and endangered wildlife. If you're trapping Tegus you need to be contacting the proper authorities to have them destroyed.

https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/reptiles/argentine-black-and-white-tegu/

https://crocdoc.ifas.ufl.edu/projects/Argentineblackandwhitetegus/



Last year I relocated the first three rat snakes (in as many weeks) that I caught in the hen house eating eggs. After that I gave up. I killed over 18 rat snakes last year, sometimes more than one in a single day/night. I went months without getting any eggs ( I had a very small flock). When I brought in some new pullets about 3.5 months of age, the snakes killed all but one in a few days in the same manner the poult in the OP died. This year I've only killed three.

That being said, I keep the grass mowed very short throughout the entire yard. I minimize plantings/flower beds, standing water, etc, to minimize the attractiveness of the environment and dissuade them from hanging out.

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Al Gerhart said:

People assume that having chickens means having rodents and thus need snakes around to control the rodents. I can understand a farmer with a corn crib that has holes in it needing snakes but anytime you create an unnatural environment by leaving pounds of chicken feed just sitting out unprotected you are asking to have rats and mice. In the natural world a rodent is going to have a fairly large territory and it is going to have to defend it against other rodents. The size of the territory depends upon the amount of food the territory can provide year round. You take a city block and it can support 100 rats in a colony, waste food in trash cans and dumpsters mostly. But a city block size of rural land won't be able to support a couple of rats if that.

If you do not have a secure feeder your coop will support a rat colony and you probably won't notice the amount of feed being eaten as it slowly ramps up as the colony grows. The single best thing to do is to weigh the feed you are feeding each day, a quarter pound per laying hen or growing broiler, ignore the roosters as they eat little. If you are feeding more than that you are feeding more than chickens.

Secure the feed and the rodents will leave. Predators will leave shortly after that as they get hungry. Even better secure the feed before you have a rodent problem or a predator problem or mites and lice that you cannot get rid of.

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ColtHandorf said:

Tegus are not native to Florida and are considered invasive. Florida Parks and Wildlife destroys any Tegus that are captured in an effort to control them. They negatively impact populations of native and endangered wildlife. If you're trapping Tegus you need to be contacting the proper authorities to have them destroyed.

https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/reptiles/argentine-black-and-white-tegu/

https://crocdoc.ifas.ufl.edu/projects/Argentineblackandwhitetegus/



Last year I relocated the first three rat snakes (in as many weeks) that I caught in the hen house eating eggs. After that I gave up. I killed over 18 rat snakes last year, sometimes more than one in a single day/night. I went months without getting any eggs ( I had a very small flock). When I brought in some new pullets about 3.5 months of age, the snakes killed all but one in a few days in the same manner the poult in the OP died. This year I've only killed three.

That being said, I keep the grass mowed very short throughout the entire yard. I minimize plantings/flower beds, standing water, etc, to minimize the attractiveness of the environment and dissuade them from hanging out.

Click to expand...