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The perils of owning chickens

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by slim12, Jun 8, 2019.

  1. slim12

    slim12 Super Moderator Staff Member

    Day before yesterday my wife called out that she had young chickens dead in a brooder box. They were actually young pullets, maybe the size of a man's two fists, or thereabouts. I walked in the chicken coop, leaned over and went to open the door and damn near shit in my pants.

    It was a monster of a black snake. A monster. I'm deathly afraid of all snakes so all I can do is shoot them and someone else has to pick them up to get rid of them. This snake had killed six of these chickens and had already ate two. I was thinking they ate something then lounged around until they eat another. Not this guy.

    The kid that rents from me built a noose on a pole and pulled him out. I was standing about 25 feet away and was freaked out. The chicken coop poles are on 8 foot center. He had his head at one pole and more than a foot passed the next pole. An easy 9 footer and he was as big around as my forearm. He put him in a trash can and hauled him off as I said just chop his freakin' head off.

    He gave me all this horse shit story about they kill rats, and keep other snakes away, and he does not believe in killing black snakes. We have killed 7 copperheads thus far this year (they logged across from us and the critters are moving to my side of the road). So this big bastard must have gotten too fat and too lazy to kill other snakes and worry about catching rats. He moved into a box where he had them cornered and it was akin to shooting fish in a barrel.

    He took him five or six miles from here and dropped him off, much to my objection, but since I can't man up and take care of them I am at the mercy of those that can. I'm thinking that fellow knows where lunch it at now and is on his return path.

    Then yesterday, (I was on the phone with a guy from this very board) and my wife called out again. This time a black snake about 3 foot or so laying in the floor of the chicken coop waiting on eggs I guess.

    I found the shovel, tested the handle against the ground to make sure it was sound and in good shape, I opened the door, handed it to my wife and said, "Go get'im dear". It was about the best I could do for her.

    I filled the hen nests up with golf balls last night so I will be trading a golf ball for a dead snake for the rest of the summer I suppose.

    And people think these vicious pit bulls are a handful. Not even close to the chicken business.

    S
     
  2. stedz

    stedz Top Dog

    what type of snake are these black snakes mate?
     
  3. stedz

    stedz Top Dog

    Black rat snake? glad we havent got to worry about these evil looking things over the pond.
     
    stickler likes this.
  4. stickler

    stickler Banned

    Slim knows for sure how to tell a story. Wished he would write a book.

    >:) =)) #:-S
     
    The Keep Book, stedz and 80BOWTIE like this.
  5. stedz

    stedz Top Dog

    Didn't you know slim is actually stephen king.
     
    The Keep Book likes this.
  6. slim12

    slim12 Super Moderator Staff Member

    Mail the checks and money to......

    Black rat snake I guess. I scared to death of nay snake, for me they are the same.

    I have this tree hugger guy at work that went all into the ecosystem and all that. He was really pissed when I told him I did not give a flying F^&% about the snake part of the ecosystem. I kill them all at my house, of course, from a distance, and with a gun.

    S
     
    The Keep Book and david63 like this.
  7. slim12

    slim12 Super Moderator Staff Member

    The art of babbling comes natural.

    I was born into a military family. I joined the military out of high school for six years. I worked for my pops for a year or so.

    I got my first public job when I was like 24 or so, and for the first time in my life someone 'asked' me to do something and asked for my opinion.

    Once asked, I have not shut up 25 years later.

    S
     
    The Keep Book and stedz like this.
  8. stedz

    stedz Top Dog

    Id rather have the odd rat around the place than one of those things,gives me the creeps.
     
    david63 likes this.
  9. stedz

    stedz Top Dog

    I was reading a magazine one day about the vietnam war,and it said there were 136 species of snake there and 130 were deadly poisonous,if a us soldier got bitten by one,they would then have to catch the snake for the medics to know what antidote to give.
     
    The Keep Book and david63 like this.
  10. OsageDogman2014

    OsageDogman2014 Big Dog

    Every year it seems that there is always some kind of new experience with what we call "Chicken Snakes" where I am from. They are in fact Black Rat Snakes. Unlike Slim, I welcome them, but not in the same way as some of the more "ecologists" minded people do. I kill them, and then I skin them, and use their skin to back the wooden bows I make. I have people call me up and give me all kinds of snakes that they have had to kill for one reason or another. I've even had people call me up to kill them for them.

    We raise over 40 chickens here and we have two main brooder houses. Starting last year is the first year my wife and kids can feel at ease gathering eggs out of the laying boxes. What I did to keep them out was to cover the entire hen house with chicken wire (poultry netting) small enough to keep them out. I haven't had a snake get in since I done that.

    I have killed many snakes through the years while they are gorging on our chickens eggs. There isn't anything more unsettling than to start to reach into a laying box for eggs, only to be greeted with a huge black snake as long, or longer than you are.

    Last year I was sitting on the back porch and kept hearing some blue jays going nuts right beside out house. My daughter had a young cat that had been getting harassed by crows and blue jays. Those birds would chase it around and tree this young cat, and we would have to rescue it....lol. So, I thought maybe a rescue was in order. What I found, however, was that the blue jays were freaking out because there were two very large chicken snakes wrapped around each other, up in the tree, engaged in a mating session 20 feet high off the ground. The blue jays had a nest close by and didn't take kindly to them being there and were letting them know about it.

    I asked my daughter to get the .22 out of the house and bring it to me. She thought I was going to shoot the blue jays. When she gave me the gun, she looked up and saw what it really was. She never knew that snakes climb up into the trees, and to this day she still looks up into those trees....lol. I've actually had them fall out of trees around me when clearing brush before and it really sucks. I ain't as scared of them as Slim is, but it still scares me.

    I shot both snakes in the head. One of them slowly started to fall out of the tree, but the other one was getting lodged in the tree branches. Their blood was dripping down and it looked pretty nasty. I used a long piece of conduit to get the other snake down out of the tree. Both of them were over 7 feet long.....
     
    The Keep Book likes this.
  11. slim12

    slim12 Super Moderator Staff Member

    I have never had one falln me but I have seen it when hanging tobacco in a stick barn. I was the most careful climber on the farm.

    Last year we killed 9 or 10 copperheads. No black snakes. This year the copperheads are at 7 and one black snake, and one the monster that I am sure is on the way back to the 'lunchroom'.

    We live between two creeks with a pond on one end, damn near on an island. LOL. We built our house in their 'path'. Our fault I suppose.

    S
     
    The Keep Book likes this.
  12. AGK

    AGK Super duper pooper scooper Administrator

    We just have garner snakes around here. I never see them though.
     
  13. Box Bulldog

    Box Bulldog Top Dog

    Same here just garter snakes don't see them to often use to catch them as a kid. I don't mind garter snake's small and harmless but poisonous snakes would scare the shit out of me.
     
    david63 likes this.
  14. Box Bulldog

    Box Bulldog Top Dog

    Couldn't a guy buy a few guinea fowl to lay a licking on those limbless slithering poisonous bastards???
     
    The Keep Book and DISCOIII like this.
  15. The Keep Book

    The Keep Book Reclusive Misanthrope

    I usually am not afraid of snakes that cannot kill/eat me. Finding a nine-foot wild snake in a chicken coop might well be a fatal heart attack.
     
    slim12 and david63 like this.
  16. david63

    david63 CH Dog

    F### any Snake
     
    slim12 and The Keep Book like this.
  17. david63

    david63 CH Dog

    Dam Those Snakes it's like The Keep Book says a fatal heart attack waiting. I'm with slim12 on this one.I said it once I'll say it again F### any Snake.
     
    The Keep Book and Box Bulldog like this.
  18. Holocaust

    Holocaust Match dog

    If you can keep other predators from smoking them or them wondering off. I have had a half feral cat the whole time I've been here. We dont see many lizards, rabbits, squirrels, and definitely not snakes... hes a little badass and keeps most critters smaller than him at bay...
     
    david63 likes this.

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