I removed a BIG black rat snake from the hen house

He didn't want to go! I had to wrestle him out of the rafters.

My sister, Janet, spotted him when she went into the chicken coop to gather the eggs. I told her to watch where he went while I ran to the house to get my snake grabber. She wasn't all that comfortable watching the snake  :-)

He retreated to an upper corner of the coop. I really did have to wrestle him down. We stuffed him into a brown paper grocery bag and removed him from our property to a nice patch of unpopulated woods. He was big and healthy ... obviously well fed. That explains the recent drop in the egg count.