Ratsnake in the henhouse!

[MegF.]

One of my trimming clients called to say she had a ratsnake in her henhouse and it had eaten 6 eggs from various nests. Hens refused to go in the coop and she had to move all the nests out. I came that afternoon and pulled this large boy from there and relocated to someplace safer. He was almost 5 ft long if not over 5 ft I imagine. Picture quality is not that great since I only had the point and shoot I use to photograph hooves. Forget how much I hate them now!

 

[RoseRed]

Awesome find! Obviously not for the hens though lol

 

[Nanci]

He's lucky he got removed, not killed.

 

[MegF.]

Yes. Fortunately, these people move them each time they find them, but her husband is absolutely afraid of them and so hates to have to move them himself. It was kind of funny though...when I got there it was pouring rain....I even brought out my almost never used umbrella in order to have something to keep the snake fairly dry until I could put him in my snake box. The chickens were all outside huddled under the small tin shade area...wet and bedraggled.....they wanted back in their house!

 

[Nanci]

Did you show the chickens the snake as you removed him, so they would know it was safe?

 

[MegF.]

I just took the snake out...she had to put the nesting boxes back in and let the chickens back in....she had locked them all out. I wasn't going to stand around in a growing flood to show chickens ANYTHING LOL! I wanted to get out of there before the road out was too waterlogged for my poor car to drive!