Snakes Like Eggs (Part 2)

Back in mid-July, we had a surprise visit from a large black rat snake in the back yard of our rental cottage. He was somewhat docile, so we relocated him away from our chickens and eggs. About a week later, Dionne opened the garage door only to find an even longer, more aggressive snake slithering around trying to reach the peacock eggs that we were incubating for Danna. The adrenaline kicked in and Dionne took charge of the situation.

We'll spare you the more gruesome photos, but this time the snake was decapitated and buried to avoid any future problems with our chickens, nearby livestock, or the kids. I had snakes as pets growing up so I felt terrible about this, but I'm guessing this isn't the last time we'll be killing wild animals in defense.

Snakes Like Eggs

Today, Foster was looking out the back sliding glass doors of Rose Cottage when he spotted a 4.5-foot-long Black Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta). These are non-venomous and generally avoid humans, but they do eat eggs. With Danna's help and a large cooler, Dionne decided to transport it down the road and into the woods near a creek and far away from our hen fruit.



If it were a King Snake (Lampropeltis getula), we would have released it on our 13-acre property since King Snakes will eat other, more dangerous snakes.