Huge Black Snake in the Chicken Yard

Rouse heard the chickens making an unusually loud and disturbed racket. Thinking there must be a hawk in the chicken yard, he ran over to investigate. The older hens were not acting too bothered out in the yard, but the young ones were going crazy in their containment area. He looked around, then saw a 6-foot black snake climbing the wall of the chicken coop. He said it was the biggest one he's ever seen out there.

We usually do not kill black snakes, even though they do make a dent in the egg supply. I'm sure this one has been eating his fill. At least once a week, recently, I've been finding an empty nest when collecting eggs. Our usual practice is to catch the offender, then relocate him.

So Rouse grabbed him by the tail and jerked him down off the wall. The snake was strong and didn't want to be trapped. In the midst of the struggle, he got himself caught in the fencing that forms the gate separating the juvenile birds' space from the rest of the chicken yard. He got cut up pretty bad and Rouse felt obliged to finish him off. All this happened just minutes before the first of about 25 guests arrived for a hammered dulcimer jam and potluck supper at our house. He said he had to wash his hands three times to get the stinky snake smell off them!