It happened again. While collecting chicken eggs out of the nesting boxes, my daughter found another egg eater! These darned rat snakes love to feast on chicken eggs. As you can see, this particular snake is BIG!
Tim had me take various pictures to show a friend of his how you know a snake is not poisonous. If the head is triangular, the snake is generally poisonous. If the eyes look like cat eyes, it is generally poisonous. See how the eyes on this snake are not "cat like"? See how the head is not triangular?
A blunt tail indicates a poisonous snake. The tail on this snake is pointed. So, it is not poisonous. This is a rat snake. They generally feed on mice and rats. So, they are good to have around....unless you have small chicks or eggs around. Yes, they will eat small chicks. We've lost a few to snakes.
As you can see here, my daughter does not take after me when it comes to snakes. I will touch it's back when someone else is holding it, but that is as far as I go. Someone else has to catch it. If no one is around to help, I kill it! My husband believes in the "catch and release" program for snakes. We have friends that raise horses on their property and they love for us to give them the snakes. It keeps their rodent population down. If we can't get by their place, we simply release the snakes in a field far, far away from our property. We have a no return policy here at our place.
Tis the season. My farm is not nearly as generous as yours about "catch and release." I'm usually by myself and I always find them eating eggs. So, it's "off with their heads." I like to believe that there are smarter snakes on my property that just stay out of the nests and out of sight, busy eating rodents. Love that kind of snake.
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