For the past two nights, we have had visitors in the barn. SNAKES! I was bragging in an earlier post about how we had only one encounter thus far with a snake this summer. I spoke too soon! Hailey was collecting chicken eggs again when she spotted the snake in one of the roosting boxes. Tim to the rescue!
The very next evening, Hailey is back out collecting chicken eggs when she noticed another visitor. This was the third and biggest snake this summer. We didn't get a picture of the last snake, but we did get one from the night before. The latest snake coughed up FOUR chicken eggs when Tim held him by his tail.
We don't kill these snakes around here. Yes, they are a hassle and they do eat our chickens eggs, which is why we don't want them on our property. However, these snakes are very beneficial to have in the area for keeping the rodent population down. So, we usually take the snakes to another area, usually by a creek, and release them.
Let's hope this is the last snake for the summer! There is no telling how many eggs we are losing to these guys!
I dreamed about snakes all night last night. Glad to hear they're all over at YOUR house. I saw the tail of a snake slide under one of our scrap wood piles a couple of days ago. You can bet I look pretty closely as I walk by that pile every day. It's near my feed room, so I bet he's patroling for mice and rats that may congregate there. At least, that's what I tell myself.
ReplyDeletePS - Tim is insane.
ReplyDeleteYikes. What kind of snakes? Around here, rattlesnakes are very common and scare the you-know-what out of me! good luck!
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