As most of you know, I love my hens. A few days ago I went out to check on them at lunchtime and give them their noontime treats, and there was a rat snake in one of the nest boxes! I can't tolerate rat snakes eating my girls' eggs, so I grabbed the pair of barbecue tongs I keep in the barn for just such emergencies, went to the house for my garden gloves and husband who would be the door keeper, and returned to the coop. I grabbed the snake behind its head with the tongs, used my other hand to get a grip on its body, and my husband opened the coop door so I could get out and go to the fence to fling the snake into the pasture. The snake survived, our girls calmed down, and the barbecue tongs were returned to the nail where they hang and are not used for cooking! Rat snakes are non-venomous although their diet (rodents) cause them to have a nasty bite that infects easily. This is the second snake I've removed from a nest box. The nest boxes are too small for a snake to coil to strike, or at least that is what I keep telling myself. Our barn is pretty rodent-free, thanks to the resident snake who lives under the pallet where we store mulch. He seems to be content with catching the passing mouse, and hasn't invaded the coop. You ask how I know what snake is resident, and which is a passer-by? Our resident snake is about 4' long, and the one in the nest box was only about 3' long. Of course, by the time I got to the house and thought about it, the passer-by was at least 10' long and sneering at me!
I like hearing about this visitor of yours. if you had not removed him, how many eggs would it have swallowed at once do you think? I would have liked to have seen a youtube vid of your removal action that day.
Sjoerd, taking a video of my removing the snake would have required a third person--me to get the snake, husband to man the door, and some poor idiot with a video camera filming one irate/upset woman with barbecue tongs! That would have been a crowded coop. The snake had ingested one egg--you could tell by the huge bump just in back of its head. They usually eat one egg at a time. The problem is that they learn there is a food source, and return to get another egg. A flight through the air to the pasture usually convinces a snake that eggs just aren't worth the trouble!
Good for you keeping the coop free of snakes. I'm glad your girls calmed down once the invader was removed. I don't mind snakes but I would have done exactly what you did if I thought my hens were going to be upset by one in their house. At least the snake survived and will, hopefully, go on to eat all the rodents it comes across and no longer has a taste for eggs.
OH MY!....I hate snakes (scared of them too) so you are far braver than I could ever be...I would never pick one up ...I am glad things are back to normal
