The snake taking the first bite!!

This morning while taking our morning walk through the garden, I suggested to my husband to gather the eggs. We usually wait until afternoon, because the hens are usually up in the coop sitting on the eggs, and don’t like to be disturbed. I had noticed that all the hens were down in the run, so figured they had gotten done early….I was wrong!!!!  When Bob opened the door, he was greeted by a snake about 5′ long, eating an egg.  I ran for my camara, and he ran to make a noose.  We counted 5 eggs when we opened the coop, he devoured 2 very quickly.  As we watched, it ate another egg, and started for the 4th.  We could actually hear the egg crack as it moved down through the snake’s body.  Bob grabbed some pvc pipe and rope, made a quick noose, and slipped it over the snake’s head. It began to writhe and squirm around.  One of our daughters put on gloves, and grabbed it behind the head.  They took it deep into the woods, and let it go.  Looking back, we should have chopped the head off, as we believe it will be back.  We got some great pictures. We have never seen a snake in our coop before today.  After two years of keeping chickens we thought the coop was predator proof, but apparently snakes can get through very small openings. We believe it was a rat snake.  Just one more thing we must learn to guard against.  We are learning so much on this homesteading journey.  Not sure how we’ll keep snakes out of our chicken coop. Sometimes chickens will kill a snake, this one may have been too big for the chickens to take on….no wonder they were all down in the run!!

 The egg just after the snake swallowed it.

you can see the egg moving down the snake’s body.

 Bob and our daughter holding the snake just before releasing it.