ArkRescue
Adopt me please !
I have a tray I used to provide it free choice but I got lazy and haven't filled it lately ... let me punish MYSELF ... LOL 
Big snake eating my eggs - Help !!!
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ArkRescue
Adopt me please !
Ouch - Oooch .. okay okay I'll fill the calcium bin tomorrow .... I do feed a mixture of scratch grains and layer - maybe THAT'S my problem? Less scratch and more layer?
I have a tray I used to provide it free choice but I got lazy and haven't filled it lately ... let me punish MYSELF ... LOL
A lot can depend on age and breed of hen too. Oyster shell may help. I have seen a chicken lay an egg without a shell - very weird!!
ArkRescue
Adopt me please !
Pushrod
Patriot
Since you have the feral cats around, catch one and comb out some of the dander and hair and spread it around the outskirts of the nests. You'll have to see if this bothers the hens, but it should keep snakes at bay as they try to avoid predators.
As far as being bitten, a black snake or other non-venomous snake only have grasping teeth that do very little damage. wearing a set of garden gloves as you handle the snake to remove to another location will protect your hands, although you may get blasted with some smelly uric acid as they evacuate their cloaca.
Don't kill snakes, they are too important to the environment and just shows that people have a silly phobea of these reptiles.
As far as being bitten, a black snake or other non-venomous snake only have grasping teeth that do very little damage. wearing a set of garden gloves as you handle the snake to remove to another location will protect your hands, although you may get blasted with some smelly uric acid as they evacuate their cloaca.
Don't kill snakes, they are too important to the environment and just shows that people have a silly phobea of these reptiles.
ArkRescue
Adopt me please !
If I encounter another snake I'm not going to kill it - at the time I saw a snake the 2nd time I was not thinking straight and reacted badly by killing it. I was thinking that snake was the same one I ran off the day before and I was solving the problem by killing it since it persisted.
I actually don't have a phobia about snakes as some others do, as I handled snakes when I was younger. I just know to fear the venomous ones and the big constrictors.
I mentioned before that I felt bad for killing the snake, I still do.
I actually don't have a phobia about snakes as some others do, as I handled snakes when I was younger. I just know to fear the venomous ones and the big constrictors.
I mentioned before that I felt bad for killing the snake, I still do.
There are enough of God's other creatures that do the same job. The Bible says "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." I'm just doing what God intended - "crush" his head.
Seriously though - once a snake finds your hen house there is no way to keep them out and they will keep coming back. Snakes are lazy creatures and go after the easiest meal. They are in no way "hunters". If you choose to move them you'd better do it several miles away. I'll continue to make them into good snakes (dead ones).
Just out of curiosity, other than swallowing the occasional rodent baby what is this importance snakes have to the environment? I never have been able to figure that out when people tell me that. And never have I gotten a satisfactory answer to my question from any of them.
How old was she? Sometimes that just happens. I lost a couple to the 100 degree heat that were on the larger side and their coop is well vented and they have plenty of free range space. She could also have been egg bound if she was older. Big, heavy chickens are also more susceptible to cardiac problems.
ArkRescue
Adopt me please !
She was only 2 years old so at first I suspected she was egg-bound but I didn't feel an egg in her (if I was feeling the right spot?) .....
