Kittens can be raised around chickens so that they will leave your birds alone and they will often eat both rodents and snakes.and alot of chickens will eat rodents and small snakes
Just found a rat snake in one of my small coops set up for young chicks, almost 7 weeks old, HAD five in each, now only have three in the one I found the snake in, he killed one and ate another! Open season on snakes for me!
Hi bullfrog, I’ve been subbed to your channel since you modified your marauder and made that bullpup stock a long time ago. Just curious why not 1/2in square mesh wire around your hen house or where ever you have hens with eggs or chicks so the snakes can’t get in. My grandfather raised chickens as long as I can remember as a kid and I know I saw the 1/2in square mesh wire in certain areas instead of chicken wire where he kept his chickens.
I leave my main coop open so the hens and chicks can come and go at will. The only coops I close totally off are those with specific hens and roosters I’m doing selective breeding with. Also the side boards regularly get dug under. I’d have to build a fresh coop to make it snake proof.
Rat snakes can be aggressive I use a wire nuse through a pipe to a stick so put it around the snakes head and pull and it can be removed without ever touching it... F y I I've used bird netting for fruit trees is like a plastic mesh..but when rolled up on the ground in areas snakes travel will get entangled in it like a trap! You can with some effort removed them unharmed if you want but they can't on their own escape it once they are tangled... deliberately putting it in certain areas to catch them may also be a means to control the snake problem in the coop ..I discovered this by accident so you'd have to experiment with it but caught many rat snakes by accident leave the used netting on the ground...
The new taxonomy of rat snakes means that the rat snakes in Ohio and West Virginia are the same species as you white oak snakes, which is the gray rat snake. However, there are 0 gray phase rat snakes in the whole area. All of them are black. I have a video of one in West Virginia on my channel where I incorreclty identify it it as an Eastern rat snake lol.
Someone got into an argument me once as to whether these snakes were grey rat snakes or not. I had to do some research and I found that rat snake classification causes a major stink between herpetologists.
I just almost stepped on a baby just like this snake.. caught him in a bucket and started hunting online to see what kind it was.. I was coming back from clothes line.. my chicken coop is between my house and clothes line.. which had me concerned.. my thinking if there is one baby then there’s a mama and more close by.. looks like I’m snake hunting today.. 💯
Another thing you can do is if you catch one of snakes it’s like cut it open pretty good enough to injury it and then throw it to the rest the chickens they’ll dispose of it
Had a 5 1/2 foot black rat snake going for my chicks the other day. Needless to say that snake didn't live to see another day. Luckily I seen him before it got to any of them.
Pretty cheap for rare breed and gamefowl. Go onto ebay and look for some of the rarer breed hatching eggs. $80 is usually where they start and go up from there. Some go as high as $300-$500 a dozen.
Yes. Both for the practicality of having a tough survival bird and for the fun of collecting breeds they don’t have. I sell every egg they lay except for what I keep for expanding the flock. And as they’re free range upkeep is cheap. Selling hatching eggs is the way to have a flock pay for itself. There are so many rare breeds out there that fetch good prices that anyone ought to be able to find a breed they like and keep some for the hatching eggs to pay for the rest of the flock.
If I had snakes trying to eat my bitties I'd have the biddies sleeping in the house with me . That's nuts. I raised five sultan bitties at a wma and I had less wildlife interference than you do
Usually the snake just gets trapped and can be removed while it’s still alive. However farmers have to dispatch all types of pests, to protect their livestock. By the way, how do rat snakes kill their prey? They are constrictors, squeezing the breath out of those poor little cute chicks 🐥. The natural world is a very cruel place.
@@fredmaner6551 those chick's aren't nature! They're invasive species that we introduced to that environment! The snakes belong to that ecosystem! That texas prepper guy is killing those native animals! It's so selfish and so wrong!
@@chelseac4481 Chickens may not be native but they are certainly natural creatures. All the fowl of the air were created by the living God for our use, benefit and pleasure. Stop worshiping the creature and acknowledge the Creator. I like your spirit, you may have the gift of the evangelist. I hope you learn to use it, as God intends.
I totally understand that there's a time and a place and a completely understand where you are coming from - that being said there are Plenty of people who want those (and will pay to good money to have them brought and released on their land) ....what's that saying again ? 2 birds.....😉🙄
@@bjorngoodwin4432 lol I guess. I killed the heck out of those rat snakes because my Guinea fowl keets and eggs drew them in. I tried minnow traps with un-fertilized eggs and caught smaller snakes that I then relocated or killed (depending upon the breed). I was more curious if Bullfrog had tried traps before and if so, what did he do. My birds cooped at night, so I mainly found the monster snakes right out side the coop stuck in plastic mesh or had the misfortune almost stepping on them in the dawn hours when I went to double check the run door was also closed. Dang raccoons will go into the run and eat the feed.
Sorry I was reading your comment and responded to the wrong one (was meant for the main thread .. 🙄) you are definitely on the right track!! I would try the trap with bedding from the nest box and a couple different eggs size and type wise (unwashed of course) Best of Luck!!!!!
