Snake Repellent (now with pics)

[allan]

Bill, that ain't nothing. I grew up in the mountains of south las padres nat forest in california and thought myself quite the snake man so when the fam and I were returning from the commissary in fort Knox and I saw a snake crossing the road...

I had to stop the car and catch it. Wife wasn't happy. So there I was playing with the snake while Gloria cooked dinner. I was trying to stare the snake down, you know eye contact and all that.

When suddenly I noticed that I could see the inside of the snake's mouth, in particular it's teeth...

...ouch!

Gloria walked into the room and asked what was wrong.
"nothing honey!" brave face
"something is wrong, tell m... The snake bit you didn't it?"
"no honey, of course not!"
"yes it did Allan don't lie to me," she pointed at my nose. "I can see the blood, now let the snake go!"

Sure enough, after letting the snake go I checked in the mirror and saw a ring of blood around the tip of my nose.

[Bill S]

Good one, Allan. Have you ever been to Gabe's and seen his snakes? You need to.

[Europhyllia]

I am not trying to completely eradicate snakes on this place (would be sort of futile anyway). I just want to keep them away from areas the kids play in.
Allan I wish Gloria liked fish tanks. I feel like she deserves a free frag of something nice or something ;)

[allan]

Ha, Karin that was funny. I went down and let Gloria read the last few posts and had one thing to say,

"see, I'm not the only one who thinks you're an idiot"

[Europhyllia]

lol
here's some pics from tonight.
could tell he was in the coop by the way the chickens huddled together. Normally they like to spread out on the roosts.


sitting on top:

[Bill S]

Wow. Pretty cool. Rat snakes CAN climb, and climb rather well.

[Europhyllia]

yes. the barn wall is pretty nice smooth tongue and groove 2x6 boards (had them milled for me) and they can even climb that straight up.
this one is really light colored. I usually see them much more black-ish

[jroescher]

I prefer bird shot, about 7 1/2. Cats do a pretty good job of keeping mice and snakes away. Especially if you don't feed them a lot.

[apedroza]

Why not try Guineas (sp?) they kill and eat snakes and should get along with the chickens.

[Europhyllia]

Guineas are too noisy. They're pretty though. Weird twist:
the silly snake ate my CLAY egg! We use it to show the chickens where to lay there eggs.
They haven't been laying in the nest anymore anyway and moved on to lay their eggs in the goat house. All that was left in the chicken nest box was the clay egg.
I thought snakes had this special organ for smelling stuff?
That clay egg is impossible to crack and probably a real PITA to pass...