Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
SNAKE!!!
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) |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
SNAKE!!!
"laurie \(Mother Mastiff\)" wrote:
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! Could it have been--don't freak--a rattler which had recently shed its skin (thus the lighter color)? cl |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
SNAKE!!!
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! Could it have been--don't freak--a rattler which had recently shed its skin (thus the lighter color)? CL, The intruder was mostly black, with the faint markings low on its sides near the belly (as if partly painted over by a brushful of black paint), and a slim pointy tail, no rattle. Are young water moccasins marked lightly and then get darker as they mature? And HOW do I make them GO AWAY??!! laurie |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
SNAKE!!!
On Mon, 30 Jun 2003 12:35:56 -0400, in article
, Mother Mastiff\ wrote: 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! Could it have been--don't freak--a rattler which had recently shed its skin (thus the lighter color)? CL, The intruder was mostly black, with the faint markings low on its sides near the belly (as if partly painted over by a brushful of black paint), and a slim pointy tail, no rattle. Are young water moccasins marked lightly and then get darker as they mature? And HOW do I make them GO AWAY??!! It is almost certainly *not* a water moccasin, as they are not at all common in this area. My husband is a big herp-lover, and he's always so funny when I ask him to ID a snake I saw - he'll say "Did it have keeled scales?" as if (1) I understood what he was talking about and (2) I got close enough to look, and (3) I could actually have noticed with the blood rushing to my head ;-) I'll try to remember to ask him about your sighting and see what suggestions he has. To make poisonous snakes go away, I would advocate learning to tolerate the kingsnakes, as they prey on other snakes quite a bit from what I understand (plus they're beautiful). -- Susan "If we cannot adjust our differences peacefully we are less than human." - F. Herbert |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
SNAKE!!!
this website might be of help.
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/nreos/wild/wildlife/ ls laurie (Mother Mastiff) wrote: 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) |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
SNAKE!!!
On Mon, 30 Jun 2003 10:34:18 -0400, in article
, Mother Mastiff\ wrote: [snip] 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). I had some hens back in Kansas, and once one of my cats came to the porch proudly bearing his latest catch - a field mouse (sans head, of course, the cats liked me enough to share but always took the best parts for themselves The cat had just gotten to the walkway when he was rushed by a hen who grabbed his mouse, whereupon about a half-dozen hens starting fighting over the carcass - the cat wisely retreated. The hens also enjoyed eating raw bird guts when I dressed several pheasants I'd raised for Thanksgiving one year. But are there folks in Wake County who will trap and remove snakes from your property? Who? How do I find them? It's possible that I could interest my husband in such a venture, because he would enjoy finding a bunch of different snakes and would be horrified at the prospect of some other 'elimination' method being used. As a side bonus, maybe you and I could get him interested in rare-breed chickens (I've been wanting to start raising them -- Susan "If we cannot adjust our differences peacefully we are less than human." - F. Herbert |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
SNAKE!!!
I don't know much about snakes, but as for getting rid of them, Laurie, you
might call Critter Control at 919-382-0651. (We only used them for squirrel problems, but the man who was here seemed knowledgable about any number of pests.) Anne Lurie NE Raleigh "laurie (Mother Mastiff)" wrote in message ... 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) |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
SNAKE!!!
Susan Hogarth wrote:
On Mon, 30 Jun 2003 12:35:56 -0400, in article , Mother Mastiff\ wrote: The snake had a fresh gleaming skin, with very faint cream colored, diamond-shaped markings on its sides To make poisonous snakes go away, I would advocate learning to tolerate the kingsnakes, as they prey on other snakes quite a bit from what I understand (plus they're beautiful). See http://www.bio.davidson.edu/Biology/...s/Lam_get.html It was a king snake, most likely, since the markings can be very faint, especially on larger specimens. Please don't snap him like a whip. This is probably the single most beneficial snake you can have around. He might eat an egg now and then, but he'll eat all sorts of other things that you'll be glad to be rid of. MT |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
SNAKE!!!
You might want to check out pics of the Northern Water Snake:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/gaston/Pests...ges/nwater.htm This is a snake that is commonly mistaken as a water mocassin and killed. They can be aggressive if cornered or threatened. However, I would strongly advocate trapping and relocating if at all possible. Can you tell we're snake lovers? My s.o. just brought home a 40 gallon aquarium last night to house the painted box turtle I rescued from Club Blvd. He ate very readily so we highly suspect he was a released pet. *sigh* Hence why we haven't released him yet without further investigation. Anyway, the 40 gallon aquarium is targeted as a future herpetarium. *grin* Susan shsimko at duke dot edu |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
SNAKE!!!
It was a king snake, most likely, since the markings can be very faint,
especially on larger specimens. Please don't snap him like a whip. This is probably the single most beneficial snake you can have around. He might eat an egg now and then, but he'll eat all sorts of other things that you'll be glad to be rid of. A herpetologist at the Museum of Nat Sci send me this EXCELLENT url to help anyone identify any of the 35 species of snakes found in NC. http://www.bio.davidson.edu/Biology/...rps_of_NC.html I determined from the pictures and descriptions that it was a late adolescent black Rat Snake (the behavior was even perfectly described, the markings matched, and so did the head shape). Usually I would welcome the OCCASIONAL non-poisonous snake, but I raise rare poultry and have to sell chicks in spring and summer to cover the costs of feeding the birds year around. I usually get about 2 or 3 dozen eggs a day this time of year from the Marans, the Welsummers, the Leghorns, and even the Rapa Nuis (the egg basket is HEAVY every day this time of year), but there was not even ONE egg today (except in the Welsummer pen, up the hill from the others), just part of ONE shell. Yesterday I got two eggs from the main pen. Out of over 65 hens I am feeding and 20 roosters. That's a LOT of chicken feed! I think I have a LOT of big snakes here, more than even before. Is this revenge by the snakes for letting the chickens eat the baby mice? I am also missing one of my four baby Rapa Nui bantams, about 8 weeks old. That REALLY upset me, their daddy is getting old and I wanted all of Mahogany's babies I could get this year. It was their pen I saw the snake in, so I believe the snakes have been getting all their eggs, preventing me from getting any other Mahogany babies, and no telling when the snakes will eat the other babies. To me, knowing the rarity of this particular type of bird, the loss is devastating. Most poultry fanciers, if they could have this kind of bird at all, would kill ANY kind of predator to protect them! Egg theft and chick eating by huge snakes is not fair to the chickens, and I still have people on my waiting list for chicks from eggs I haven't gotten because the snakes got there first. The snakes are going in and eating the eggs before I get home and can go down to collect them. These people deserve live babies a LOT more than uninvited giant snakes deserve a free meal. This isn't just one snake, and I literally cannot afford the losses I am now incurring (don't want to return a lot of deposits or disappoint return customers). The birds are healthy and recently wormed, they ARE laying, but I am not getting the eggs, the snakes are, they must patrol the nests several times a day. I can't meet my chick orders with eggs from just the two days a week when I can go out and collect eggs once an hour! While I generally believe in "live and let live", when the actions of intruders threaten my ability to keep and feed my beloved birds, can you blame me for wanting the snakes gone? When they eat my long-awaited babies and make me unable to hatch any more, it upsets me very badly. If I can get someone who knows how to trap snakes to REMOVE them (preferably relocating them to unoccupied country), then I can use traps and/or bait for the mice, and get things back to normal. DESPERATELY, laurie |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
SNAKE!!!
It was a king snake, most likely, since the markings can be very faint,
especially on larger specimens. Please don't snap him like a whip. This is probably the single most beneficial snake you can have around. He might eat an egg now and then, but he'll eat all sorts of other things that you'll be glad to be rid of. A herpetologist at the Museum of Nat Sci send me this EXCELLENT url to help anyone identify any of the 35 species of snakes found in NC. http://www.bio.davidson.edu/Biology/...rps_of_NC.html I determined from the pictures and descriptions that it was a late adolescent black Rat Snake (the behavior was even perfectly described, the markings matched, and so did the head shape). Usually I would welcome the OCCASIONAL non-poisonous snake, but I raise rare poultry and have to sell chicks in spring and summer to cover the costs of feeding the birds year around. I usually get about 2 or 3 dozen eggs a day this time of year from the Marans, the Welsummers, the Leghorns, and even the Rapa Nuis (the egg basket is HEAVY every day this time of year), but there was not even ONE egg today (except in the Welsummer pen, up the hill from the others), just part of ONE shell. Yesterday I got two eggs from the main pen. Out of over 65 hens I am feeding and 20 roosters. That's a LOT of chicken feed! I think I have a LOT of big snakes here, more than even before. Is this revenge by the snakes for letting the chickens eat the baby mice? I am also missing one of my four baby Rapa Nui bantams, about 8 weeks old. That REALLY upset me, their daddy is getting old and I wanted all of Mahogany's babies I could get this year. It was their pen I saw the snake in, so I believe the snakes have been getting all their eggs, preventing me from getting any other Mahogany babies, and no telling when the snakes will eat the other babies. To me, knowing the rarity of this particular type of bird, the loss is devastating. Most poultry fanciers, if they could have this kind of bird at all, would kill ANY kind of predator to protect them! Egg theft and chick eating by huge snakes is not fair to the chickens, and I still have people on my waiting list for chicks from eggs I haven't gotten because the snakes got there first. The snakes are going in and eating the eggs before I get home and can go down to collect them. These people deserve live babies a LOT more than uninvited giant snakes deserve a free meal. This isn't just one snake, and I literally cannot afford the losses I am now incurring (don't want to return a lot of deposits or disappoint return customers). The birds are healthy and recently wormed, they ARE laying, but I am not getting the eggs, the snakes are, they must patrol the nests several times a day. I can't meet my chick orders with eggs from just the two days a week when I can go out and collect eggs once an hour! While I generally believe in "live and let live", when the actions of intruders threaten my ability to keep and feed my beloved birds, can you blame me for wanting the snakes gone? When they eat my long-awaited babies and make me unable to hatch any more, it upsets me very badly. If I can get someone who knows how to trap snakes to REMOVE them (preferably relocating them to unoccupied country), then I can use traps and/or bait for the mice, and get things back to normal. DESPERATELY, laurie |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
SNAKE!!!
It was a king snake, most likely, since the markings can be very faint,
especially on larger specimens. Please don't snap him like a whip. This is probably the single most beneficial snake you can have around. He might eat an egg now and then, but he'll eat all sorts of other things that you'll be glad to be rid of. A herpetologist at the Museum of Nat Sci send me this EXCELLENT url to help anyone identify any of the 35 species of snakes found in NC. http://www.bio.davidson.edu/Biology/...rps_of_NC.html I determined from the pictures and descriptions that it was a late adolescent black Rat Snake (the behavior was even perfectly described, the markings matched, and so did the head shape). Usually I would welcome the OCCASIONAL non-poisonous snake, but I raise rare poultry and have to sell chicks in spring and summer to cover the costs of feeding the birds year around. I usually get about 2 or 3 dozen eggs a day this time of year from the Marans, the Welsummers, the Leghorns, and even the Rapa Nuis (the egg basket is HEAVY every day this time of year), but there was not even ONE egg today (except in the Welsummer pen, up the hill from the others), just part of ONE shell. Yesterday I got two eggs from the main pen. Out of over 65 hens I am feeding and 20 roosters. That's a LOT of chicken feed! I think I have a LOT of big snakes here, more than even before. Is this revenge by the snakes for letting the chickens eat the baby mice? I am also missing one of my four baby Rapa Nui bantams, about 8 weeks old. That REALLY upset me, their daddy is getting old and I wanted all of Mahogany's babies I could get this year. It was their pen I saw the snake in, so I believe the snakes have been getting all their eggs, preventing me from getting any other Mahogany babies, and no telling when the snakes will eat the other babies. To me, knowing the rarity of this particular type of bird, the loss is devastating. Most poultry fanciers, if they could have this kind of bird at all, would kill ANY kind of predator to protect them! Egg theft and chick eating by huge snakes is not fair to the chickens, and I still have people on my waiting list for chicks from eggs I haven't gotten because the snakes got there first. The snakes are going in and eating the eggs before I get home and can go down to collect them. These people deserve live babies a LOT more than uninvited giant snakes deserve a free meal. This isn't just one snake, and I literally cannot afford the losses I am now incurring (don't want to return a lot of deposits or disappoint return customers). The birds are healthy and recently wormed, they ARE laying, but I am not getting the eggs, the snakes are, they must patrol the nests several times a day. I can't meet my chick orders with eggs from just the two days a week when I can go out and collect eggs once an hour! While I generally believe in "live and let live", when the actions of intruders threaten my ability to keep and feed my beloved birds, can you blame me for wanting the snakes gone? When they eat my long-awaited babies and make me unable to hatch any more, it upsets me very badly. If I can get someone who knows how to trap snakes to REMOVE them (preferably relocating them to unoccupied country), then I can use traps and/or bait for the mice, and get things back to normal. DESPERATELY, laurie |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
SNAKE!!!
"laurie \(Mother Mastiff\)" wrote:
Usually I would welcome the OCCASIONAL non-poisonous snake, but I raise rare poultry and have to sell chicks in spring and summer to cover the costs of Just a personal note, Laurie, to say that I appreciate your anxiety. Even "natural" behavior is disturbing when it harms something else. I don't believe in killing snakes, but I certainly understand your desire to protect your birds. (I've always wanted to raise some fowl, but having just moved into a condo, I guess that's no longer possible. I'll have to be content with my parrots!) I applaud your requests for information on capture and release, and I wish you good luck! cl |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
white snake - white snake.jpg | Garden Photos | |||
Water Snake = Grass Snake? | United Kingdom | |||
Snake--- cool snake story... | Ponds | |||
Snake repellent | Gardening | |||
Snake Traps [safe for you & wont harm the snake] | North Carolina |