I keep rare chickens in the back yard (this year the chicken house has
gotten a lot of plantings of flowering shrubs, a shade tree, and flower
beds, as well as planter boxes of hyacinth beans to shade the chicken yard
in the hottest part of the summer, so this is SORT of on-topic, I need to be
down there a lot more than in past years, to take care of all the new
plants, as well as the birds).

I have had fewer eggs in the past week or so than expected. Last year I had
some black king snakes residing in the shed adjoining the chicken house,
apparently enjoying the mice that eat the grain left by the chickens, and a
striped nonpoisonous snake that had gotten so obese eating eggs that its
body was huge and its head looked like it belonged to a snake a fourth of
its size.

So when I saw a long black snake, about 2-1/2 ft long, IN a chicken pen, its
head inside the building but the rest of him in the chicken pen, I assumed
it was a king snake. I intended to grab it by the tail and crack it like a
whip to break its back, but am not sure enough of acting boldly, and those
king snakes in my yard have been large, and very aggressive towards my dogs
(and, I would assume, would be so towards me as well).

The snake had a fresh gleaming skin, with very faint cream colored,
diamond-shaped markings on its sides (actually only the lower half of each
diamond was visible). I nudged it with my shoe, and when its head came out,
it was a distinctly TRIANGULAR head, not the lozenge shape of the king
snake! Scared me thoroughly!

There is a pond very near my property, so it could have been a water
moccasin. It had no bumps in it, so had not eaten any eggs or chicks that
day (though one biggish very rare breed chick is missing), but it seemed
sluggish or at least not aggressive.

There are a LOT of snake-sized holes in the ground around the chicken yard.
I had not noticed them till I saw the snake. Are they snake holes, or made
by some other creature?

I am terrified of poisonous snakes, and don't have a cell phone to take with
me to the chicken yard in case one went after me, and also don't want snakes
eating the eggs I need to incubate, or possibly attacking my birds. My
birds had seen snakes enough that they didn't seem too bothered, which
worries me even more.

HELP! What can I do to make like St Patrick and drive the snakes out?

Moth balls bother MY breathing and I'd hate to put them down the snake holes
only to find they bothered my (pretty much organic) birds, when they were
under the ground and would be impossible to find to remove. I would be
afraid the chemicals in the moth balls might affect the eggs, which I eat
and sell to friends, and which I also hatch to sell the chicks of the rare
breeds (this helps finance chicken feed).

Obviously, I will put out those maze-type mouse traps to reduce the mouse
population (when I find a nest of mice, I let the chickens eat the babies,
chickens are omnivores, and LOVE a little protein as a treat, and that
reduces the future mouse population).

But are there folks in Wake County who will trap and remove snakes from your
property? Who? How do I find them?

With eggs, chicks, and mice to eat, these snakes (I doubt there's just one)
won't leave on their own.

HELP, PLEASE!

laurie (Mother Mastiff)