Beins that you're sort of fond of the snakes, that is a very difficult problem you have there. The old timers used to put porcelean door knobs in the nests and the snakes would be fooled and swallow them and go off and die.

I would just keep it as snake unfriendly as possible by mowing real short around the hen house and being extra diligent with the weedwhackin. But you're probaly just going to have to try to get to the eggs before they do.
good luck and keep us posted.

Plinker

You could put a couple of hogs in the chicken run. That would solve the snake problem.
Also I don't know weather or not this old tale is true but an old cowboy myth states that if one puts a Horse Hair rope around their bedroll at night,Rattlers won't cross the rope to get into the bed with you. Like I said,don't know if that is true,but I DO know that the hog trick will work. derf

Is it possible to raise the chicken door to 5' above the ground? The chickens could fly in and out of the house.

WC

Sheep and goats also keep the snake population down. If you could tether a couple goats around the outside of the chicken house they will keep the grass mowed and also discourage the snakes.

Thanks for your suggestions, I might be winning, this week. I took three across the creek this past week and they've slowed down a little. We have had five to six eggs a day for almost a week, almost normal, and with the recent heat, might be OK.

Plinker, I had heard of the doorknob trick, but do hate to kill them unnecessarily. It might come to that, if it gets down to "them or me", which it might. If you stood there and watched them ambush starlings, you'd want some too. They would hole up in cavities in some of the big old maple trees around the house, eat starlings as they probed for bugs and nest sites. Every once in a while, I'd hear a starling start screaming, then choke off. If I looked long enough, I'd see the starling being drawn into one of the hollows by a blacksnake. I never had a mouse in the house until I started evicting snakes from the yard. Too bad they can't behave.

BTW, I shot a "blond" brown-headed cowbird over the weekend with the Beeman. An adult male with a head so pale brown/tan, looked almost yellow. Been blasting cowbirds for thirty five years and never saw one like this.

Yeah, Derf, I know the hogs would get them, but with gusto I'm afraid. I had heard about the horsehair rope myth, but heard just that, that is was a myth. I might try some "blood meal", a product sold locally for a rabbit repellant. Of course, I'd just blast the damn rabbits, no reason to treat them special, or any better than a squirrel.

WildcatCrazy, I have the coop floor and chicken door about 18" off the ground now, so that groundhogs and rats don't take up residence beneath the building. There is a short ramp, and sometimes, the chickens even treat that as "complicated". The next batch of chickens get an IQ test. Those same snakes have been seen thirty feet off the ground in a big maple, and I have watched them climb said tree, straight up the bark, like it was just another horizontal surface. On hot days, they lay across small branches in the breeze, twenty or thirty feet above the ground. In short, if I moved the chicken house up any higher, the snakes would be about the only thing that could enter, including me.

The sheep and goat suggestion is a good one, too, Mark. My wife adores those pygmy goats, and we have finally finished the privacy fence on that side of the property. If I got her a young pygmy goat, it would probably travel in and out of the coop with the chickens. Only drawback is yet more domestic animals. I just gave the "go ahead" for the wife to buy a damn domestic rabbit as a pet about two weeks back. She has two parrots, ten chickens, two dogs, this damn rabbit, and now, the prospect of a pygmy goat. I already don't get my dinner till everything else is fed. I dunno what's wrong with me for even considering this, but I guess I'll rationalize this somehow.

I really appreciate your responses and helping me. I might try some of the blood meal along the fence lines where the come through, and perhaps some moth balls around the coop. If that fails, maybe the wife would like a baby goat, just have to make her understand it's an "outdoor animal". I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again and if anything else occurs to you, I'm all ears!

I just found a intriguing article in www.nature.com june 16,2004 'Squirrels us infrared to defeat snakes'and they can differentiate between dangerous rattlers and others !

We had pygmy goats when I was growing up, those little SOB's can sure climb!

I didn't mention it to you since you wanted to do the kinder/gentler relocation thing, but if you have a couple of problem snakes that you need to get rid of, rather than doorknobs take an egg, blow it out and fill it with salt. Do that in each nest and it will get rid of your problem snakes and you don't have to run around looking for doorknobs.

Since you think the snakes are going and coming thru the door, why not try making a collar around the doorway out of nylon stockings filled with moth balls?

I have read snakes detest the odor and won't go near it. You'd have to figure a way so the chickens don't peck it but I don't think it would be a problem. Chickens don't like mothballs either.

Thanks to all for your replies.

Well, I though I had the upper hand for a while there, but they are becoming frequent again. Egg production, rather, harvest, has dropped off drastically. I took one snake away yesterday evening (with about 3 eggs inside) and two last week. The neighbor had one within the last few days too, near his baby rabbits and he tossed it over his 6' privacy fence, thinking it would stay gone. Haha, I say.

As suggested by some, I think I'll try mothballs with the refinement of Ncbowman's suggestion of making a collar to go around the door. The door is in a sheltered area and the mothballs should hold up to the weather pretty well. Now, to go buy one nylon stocking. . .

I have a cloth bag for the next one I catch, who will ride to work with me to be released at a local "environmental area", a creek bottom several miles long and ten miles away.

What about cats? I never had my cats KILL a snake that I know of but they sure like to torment and terrorize them...even big rattlers. Snakes don't like this and usually buzz off.

As for the door knobs and poison eggs etc, my thought is if you're going to kill the snakes, just go out and shoot them. Faster and more humane for everyone concerned.

It sounds like nothing is going to solve your problem but seriously modifying the chicken habitat.

I admire your appreciation of the snakes. I learned from living out in the country it's hard not to develop an appreciation for the wild critters out there and even come to respect even the most obnoxious ones. The only ones I never made peace with were the rattlers and skunks. One was too dangerous to tolerate and the other...well, you know skunks.

Check this out to repel snakes.

Snake Away