Egg Eating Rat Snake

Today at lunch, while checking on our chickens my husband almost stepped on a huge black snake by the coop door. It was trying to enter the coop like we were; looking for eggs. I have been shorted an egg a day for the last 2 weeks. Not being prepared to kill, the snake took off before I could whack it with a stick. It seated itself under the coop and evaded the eyes of 4 adults after a hay lunch hunt. We moved all the hay bales to find this snake.

This evening I did my usual chicken check and there was the same snake, parked above the chickens in the coop rafters. The chicken wire was keeping him at bay. This time we were armed with an maul, shovel and a hard rake. The snake was huge, black and angry for being poked out of the rafters. My husband poked the snake and got the snake to fall onto the ground. Then I jumped in to end its life. But a final blow from the maul did the deed.

I hate to kill any living thing, I even like snakes. But this big one was determined to make a feast out of our eggs and chicks since we don't have any rodents around. I don't want to have to do this again. It is not a nice feeling ending the life of one of God's creatures.