One day i went outside and found an 8 foot snake skin hanging from the top of the pullet pen. I had never seen a snake that long and made a note that there was a rather large snake in the area. Now, rat snakes like to climb up high to shed their skins and so it seemed based on the location of the shed that most likely i was living with a very large rat snake nearby.
A month went by and i assumed the snake had just passed through and moved on. I did think it was strange that the shed was found in the pullet pen vs the chicken pen because olive was still laying eggs in the chicken pen and the pullets hadnt started laying yet, so seemingly he picked the wrong pen. As it would turn out, the pullets had started laying a month early and i just didnt know because this rat snake had been eating every single egg. One night i heard the chickens going ballistic. They would not load up. I went outside with the head lamp and the first thing i saw was a big wavy branch that had somehow fallen on the top and side of the pullet pen. As i went to remove the branch i realized, it was actually not a branch. It was an 8 foot mostly gray but patterned rat snake! It was wound around and through the rectangles on the side of the chicken pen. I jumped back and said, “wo! Not a branch!” The chickens were like, “no shit sherlock!” I went inside and loaded the gun but of course, by the time i got back outside, it was gone. I looked for it for a while, to no avail. This continued for weeks until i just started leaving the gun loaded, and then taking it with me to lock up the chicken coop and pen, just in case i saw it. Every day while i was at work it would eat the eggs. So i put some ceramic eggs in there hoping he’d break his insides trying to squish them. Well, he could tell the ceramic eggs were bigger than the pullet eggs and he ate the real eggs and left the ceramic eggs alone.
Up until this point i had only really dealt with garter snakes and rattlesnakes. garter snakes didnt eat eggs. They also didnt pay me much mind. They were only interested in staying out of my way and being left alone. Rattlesnakes coiled and watched me from a distance, waiting for me to go away. A rat snake is much smarter and more active than these snakes. They are fast moving and they dont usually coil or fold over on themselves. They’ll be stretched out in a long line. Harder to shoot. But it didnt stop me trying. The main thing i noticed about this rat snake is that it never would sit still. As soon as i left to get the gun or bullets it was on the move. One morning i had it in my sights but it was at the top of the pen near its shed again. So, i couldnt shoot it full of rat shot without blowing holes in the tarp roof. The same thing happened when i found it half under the coop and half exposed. It was inches from the chickens. I couldnt use rat shot on it because it would spray and get some of the chickens standing beside it. Then the day came where it was folded over on itself behind the chicken coop in between two pieces of the old chicken coop i had put there to deter the birds from getting stuck behind the coop. It was perfect. All the chickens were put up. He was right where i wanted him between two pieces of metal and folded over on himself. I went and got the gun with the rat shot already loaded and tried to shoot him. The gun seemed to jam. It is a bolt action rifle. I should have been able to access one of the five bullets i had put in the little clip and then fire. But i couldnt complete the process. I looked to see why. The rat shot bullet was jammed diagonally. I took it out and loaded another. Same thing. Jammed diagonally. Meanwhile the snake is now poking its head out and smelling the air, bobbing his head around trying to see what im doing. He’s starting to move. I desperately want to shoot him, but i cant because no rat shot bullets will get into the little tunnel properly (forgive me….didnt grow up with guns….dont have the proper vocabulary to describe what’s going on.). They keep jamming diagonally. So, the rat shot bullets are slightly wider than the plain 22 bullets. They are a hollow tube that the guy at the gun show filled with stuff and crimped shut. Home made rat shot. I had not yet realized that something about the size, shape, or weight of these bullets…they were not loading smoothly into the little tunnel. They were getting stuck diagonally on the way in. I shot a test bullet into the ground. It actually fired. Now i thought i was ready to shoot the snake and upon trying to rack another bullet again, it got stuck. I fiddled and struggled to free the diagonal bullets and lead them again. Finally i aimed the end of the rifled right at the rat snake folded on itself, the end of the rifle basically in it. I heard the “pop” when i pulled the trigger. This bullet did not get stuck but it did not sound as loud as it did when i fired into the ground either. I saw no blood, though the snake began moving quickly the moment i heard the pop. I assumed i somehow missed him because i saw no blood. How could i miss a snake with the end of the rifle basically touching it?! I figured it must have malfunctioned again but when i looked in to find any stuck diagonal bullets the tunnel was empty. The bullet had fired. So why did it sound only half as loud as it should and why was there no blood? I decided i was done with rat shot once and for all and went to the house to get real bullets. I loaded 5 and rushed back outside with the rifle and the head lamp. This hunt was botched in so many ways but i just kept thinking, “i dont care how sloppy this process ends up being, as long as i get him!” Well, he was gone.
Pretty soon i started getting eggs so i knew he wasnt coming while i was at work, but everyone said, “oh you didnt kill him? He’ll be back.” Someone suggested a glue trap. I didnt want to have to put dawn dish soap on feathers and get large or small birds out of the traps so i chose only to put them out at night. The field mice said heck no. The snakes did not try it out. However, insects did. I put the glue trap right behind the coop where i had seen the big old rat snake most. But he was never on it when i woke up and went to go check. One morning before dawn i went out there and found that there were about 20 bugs trapped in the glue. Most of the bugs were pains in my asses so i kind of said good riddens and set the trap out again every night. Well, one morning i found half the whole trap covered in dirt and swarming with ants cutting up and harvesting the trapped insects piece by piece and hauling them underground. The ants were not stuck in the glue trap because they had cleverly assessed that the trap was sticky and thrown an impressive amount of dirt granules over 50 percent of the trap to render it “not sticky” in places where they wished to stand and travel. I quickly grabbed it and threw it closed and into the fire pit (not lit) before too many of them could climb my hand and bite me. I left it there a couple weeks before throwing it out in the weekly trash but vowed that i was done with glue traps on account of being outsmarted by ants and having the trap rendered useless by insects the size of a sesame seed. I never saw the rat snake again. I thought id finally get some eggs. Nutmeg had a different plan. Nutmeg wanted to see what it was the snake found so enticing about her and her sisters’ eggs. So she tasted one. She decided the snake was onto something and that’s how nutmeg became an avid egg eater. She grew fat on the eggs. She ate every last one of them for a week. I had all these chickens and was getting zero eggs. I was worried she’d peak her sisters’ interest and teach the others. I had to do something. She would follow me into the coop to collect and be right wherever i was, pecking at anything i touched. Thats how i knew it was her and not the others. Nutmeg was a large, bold, high ranking chicken amongst her little group. I needed to break her of this habit or separate her from the others before they learned. I put extra ceramic eggs in the nesting boxes hoping she’d peck them and hurt her beak, thus breaking her of the habit. However, just like the snake, she knew the real eggs were about half the size of the ceramic ones and just avoided them. Ultimately i made the decision that instead of culling her i’d put her with the menopausal ladies in the retirement pen. I thought at least that would save me the trauma of having to kill another chicken i raised by hand from 1 day old and if by chance she ever grew out of it or missed one here or there i might get an occasional egg out of her in the future. I purposefully threw her into the older hens flock without any pre-introduction, hoping they’d bully her a bit and force her to the bottom of the totem pole. She was already attacking me upon entry of the pullet pen as if she were a rooster and she was way too bold about eating eggs. She needed taken down a peg. A week later, it became evident that the plan worked better than i could have hoped. The older hens found this new young bird in their pen with an attitude problem and an ego and a half. She waltzed in there with her chest puffed up, cocking her head and bluffing those older girls who took her straight to the ground and beat her up every time she squared up to one of them. Within a week she knew she was bottom of the totem pole. She didnt dare stay in the coop for longer than it took to lay her egg, which meant that every other day or so id find an egg in there. She also started doing a submissive squat in front of me whenever i entered the pen instead of flying at me, grabbing my skin in her beak, and twisting her head and thrashing about like a dog with its kill. She actually comes to me now and lets me pet her. So Nutmeg is in the menopausal hen pen learning humility. She will be there for the rest of her life even if she stops eating eggs. I cant risk putting her back because now that she’s not as bold about it, if ahe is still doing it or starts up again, i may not be able to tell who is doing it and needs separated. They all look pretty identical right now. Nana pudding and the rest of the chocolate orpingtons are in the pullet pen where i will put a rooster by february and see if i cant incubate some eggs and hatch chicks. Oh yeah, when i put Nutmeg in the menopausal hen pen i put Sumac over in the pullet pen as a trade. See, one day Sumac laid an egg and i realized Sumac was really more like a Sue…..she was not going to grow tail feathers and start crowing….she simply had stunted tail feather growth when they were young pullets but she was 100 percent a hen….identified by the day she laid an egg. Its easier to tell with some breeds than others. There are things to look for in the feather growth, but there are always exceptions and no matter how non existent the tail feathers were in comparison to her sisters at teenage pullet age…when she lays an egg, its time to admit you were wrong, rename her, and start shopping for a rooster on the county chicken facebook page.