unwelcome visitor in the chicken coop

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Biggkidd

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Well this morning got exciting for a minute. This fella was in the chicken coop. One shot with my 1911 from about 15 feet. Can you say lucky?

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Do not click the second pic if you have a weak stomach!

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Often times I will relocate a black snake but once they find a chicken coop they got to go.
 
We have at least one, maybe two resident black snakes. Every once in a while they will meander through the patio. One was either under the front porch, or nested in the bushes just to the right of the front door. I don't know if it succeeded, but one day I saw one climbing up the aluminum siding heading for a birds' nest, which was in a planter adjacent to the front door. Way to close for comfort, and DANG! leave the birds alone. There are plenty of other vermin to keep you satisfied.
 
View attachment 87517There's always more blood if you do it manually😃🤪

That reminds me when I was a kid. Dad worked 2nd shift and we had went to church. Cane home to a little snake on the dirt floor. I think mother cut that thing in 20 pieces. Dad came home to blood all over the basement. He thought someone had been murdered. It was only the little snake
 
I usually adopt a "live and let live" policy toward snakes, especially non-venomous snakes... in most cases, they're good to have around, as they cut down the rodent population. But if I encounter a venomous snake near domestic animals or kids, and I can't get it to turn away and crawl off, then it's all over for the snake. :confused:

I don't like killing things unnecessarily, and I got used to encountering rattlers in my hiking & climbing days. Usually they'd crawl off if you gave 'em an out, or I'd just work my way around 'em. The non-venomous snakes are cool, though I'd probably feel differently if I had coops like BK. I like racers & coachwhips, those are a pleasure to watch. :cool:
 
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Aside from timber rattlers in the Appalachian mountains to our east we don't have venomous snakes. Black and garter snakes. I let them all get away. The granddaughters named one garter Greg. He get himself stuck in some deer netting with a mouse in his stomach. Could get through the mesh. The girls mourned his passing.

Ben
 
I painted the tail end of a black snake I removed and relocated it a mile away it was back in the chicken coop a week later. If they are around I let em be sometimes I even move them to better areas IE: out of a road. etc. But once they start on eggs or chicks there isn't much option they gotta go. This one had at least three whole eggs inside.
 
They say there are NO snakes in Alaska. In theory NO rats in Alaska, at least on the mainland. I guess a few of the islands have rats.
 
I moved a coral snake yesterday from inside my yard across the road. I really need a snake grabber. Scooped it with hoe all the way. They are such pretty snakes and surprisingly about 18 inch’s. Nice size
Coral snakes are deadly, but the fact it didn't strike at you means it was probably a king snake, they look a lot alike but are far mellower!

True story:
About thirty years ago, when I rolled into town, I lived in this 6 home trailer park run by my aunt.
I'm sitting at home with the door open doing something, when I hear "Jeremy" (4 year old pest.) screaming blue murder and going up in pitch and volume as he did so, I jogged out to see if he'd been stung and there in front of him was a 4' copper head! I told the kid to back up, but he was rooted to the spot, so I jumped the snake and grabbed the kid just as the bugger struck at me, then he struck again just as I was out of range! I parked the brat on his porch and grabbed my Remington 870 as it was the nearest gun, now the story gets interesting! at a distance of ten feet I aimed at the viscous little sucker's head and let fly, well. seems in my hurry to load the thing, I stuffed the pipe with a Bernakie sabot slug, I got a clean headshot, but the resulting crater blew a divot in the driveway and showered the land lady's brand new double wide with gravel. I knew at that point, I was going to have an interesting life. I've been here 35 years, this is the last trailer in that park but hers.
 
They say there are NO snakes in Alaska. In theory NO rats in Alaska, at least on the mainland. I guess a few of the islands have rats.
Juneau is loaded with snakes and rats, at least during session.
No poisonous spiders when I moved here, now we have the brown recluse.
 
f it steals eggs, it dies. No exceptions. Glad you were able to solve the problem
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Here in the far north we only have the very occasional garter snake.. I think I have seen only 2 in the last 6 years...

However... I have had to "intervein" with lynx, fox, coyote, wolf, and long tail weasel a number of times.. Long tail weasel (ermine) being the worst in that I have trapped at least a dozen IN the chicken house vestibule over the last 5 years.. Most of our bird losses have been to weasel..

There are also bear scratches around the chicken house door.. Like the saying goes for bears ......a fed bear is a dead bear.... This pretty much goes for any predator as they never forget..
 
We encountered that 4 foot prairie rattler at work the other day. He was hiding in the shade under some ties that we had stacked on top of 2 pieces of rail. One of the guys got 2 long sticks and somehow picked him up with those and carried him away and let him go. I didn't see that because I went to the truck for a round nose shovel and it was done by the time I got back. I was going to turn that snake into a jigsaw puzzle and keep his rattles. He had 8 or 9 of them...
 
There are two things you normally hear right together here...
"SNAKE!" and a shotgun blast.
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Pretty much the same here... You hear the alarm "BEAR".....
The focus of the gun blast will depend on if it is meant to hasten the critters exit, or how much of a menace it poses to livestock at that moment....
 
There are two things you normally hear right together here...
"SNAKE!" and a shotgun blast.
--- ---
Pretty much the same here... You hear the alarm "BEAR".....
The focus of the gun blast will depend on if it is meant to hasten the critters exit, or how much of a menace it poses to livestock at that moment....
You know, they're making a 454 Casull lever action now that would be great on bruins.
IDK why, but I hate bears!
 

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