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Chicken Snakes

M

Mo in NE Tx

Member
Been out in the Tractor Shed, which has the chicken house attached, saw a "BIG" snake crossing across the door, it was quickly dispatched with a sharp shooter shovel. I looked into the chicken pen and there's another one trying to swallow one of the month old chicks, it got away before I could get there. How do you trap something like this? The dead one measured a full six foot long and as big around as the exhaust pipe on my "A" Farmall. One big sucker. Need to find the other and dispatch it, only way I know is to catch it "red-handed".
 
Chicken Snakes ??? I'd like to see a photo please ? Not doubting you but I'd like to see this monster !!
 
Yes, they do get that big & they are some real nest robbers. We had one climb into a bird house and get all the baby Martins....The old way to get rid of them was to put glass eggs in a nest. They will swallow them whole, can't digest the glass. They were available at the local feed stores. Grandpa had one in all his chicken nests.
 
Reminds me of the video of the rabbit chasing a snake. That snake's got to be around 6' also. If you haven't seen the video check it out on Utube "rabbit chasing a snake".
 
Chicken snakes are also known as pine, corn and rat snakes. They eat eggs, rats and small birds and can commonly be found in wooded areas and farms
 
OK - you called me, it was only 5'8" and that's without the head. That's a 2 1/2 gallon jug of MSMA as a guide, and it was 2 1/2" across.
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Have you ever seen a large mouth bass eat a one month duckling? If I hadn't seen it happen, I would have never believed it. Good thing I wasn't the only one to see it or they may have thought I was a bubble off.
 
I'm not a real stickler on taxonomy. Believe I'd just classify that one as a Bigole Snake, along with all others of similar size, and let it go at that.
 
Looks like a bull snake to me. Without seeing the head it's not for sure. They have a husky body and will eat most anything they can catch. They are known for having a bad attitude and will bite, although not poisonous.

We catch them all the time around where I live, on the south plains of Texas. I don't have anything they want to eat, besides mice, so I usually don't kill them. If they are in the way I'll relocate them out in the pasture. I know they will come back but I rarely see what I think is the same one again.

The biggest one I have seen is one that was run over on the road in front of my house. It was similar in size to the one in the pictures, didn't measure it.

For the uneducated, they look very similar in markings to a rattlesnake, and will kinda coil and strike like one. The head is shaped differently, more rounded than that of the vipers.

Pretty much harmless for the most part to humans.
 
Many fish will try to stuff down the largest thing they can handle.


"Studies in Texas and Mississippi show that really big trout strongly prefer to feed on mullets; a large trout will find the largest mullet it can handle and try to swallow it. Often the mullet is half or two-thirds as large as the trout. The key to catching large trout is to fish where they are and use big baits."
 
I keep plastic Easter type eggs in many of my nest boxes and they have a golf ball in them. Every once in a while one will go missing and all I can figure is a snake has ate one and I bet he has problem after that but have not found one dead so not for sure
 
Never kept any chickens myself, but I've heard all my life that my Great Grandma used glass, or ceramic eggs to get rid of the snakes that got into her hen houses. From the looks of the other replies the practice has been around for a long time, so it seems that is a pretty common way to do it because it must work.
 
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