Way to go, Dawn! I like to consider myself a "co-mingler" with nature, but I'm with you as far as snakes go, especially in these circumstances (though I'm petrified of them in ANY circumstance)! It's amazing what keats have to go through to make it to adulthood. I wish we could have them here, but I'm in the city limits and they don't even allow laying hens. :-(

~ Ada

Ada,

I love my guineas. Yesterday they were in the veggie garden for hours hunting down grasshoppers and other pests.
It is very hard to get them from egg-sized to adult-sized so we are just trying to be extra-vigilant. No snakes got inside the henhouse last night, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

It was very hot here in Marietta yesterday--97 degrees at our house, and when it gets this hot (which normally happens later in July), the snakes become a big problem. I've seen more snakes this week than in the 3 previous months combined.

Last year, with all the rain and cool weather, it was a "good" snake year with very few snakes at all, and almost no venomous ones. This year, it looks like it will be completely different.

I love having chickens and guineas, and wish everyone could have them. They are great company, make very lovaable pets (mine usually come when called, like little dogs) and do a fantastic job of bug control.

We do have hawk, coyote and bobcat predation problems, but we've gotten better at keeping the wild things away. Earlier this spring, DH literally snatched a guinea out of a hawk's grasp. I really hope these keats make it to adulthood. We're enjoying our hen eggs, but missing the guinea eggs.

Dawn

I've seen black snakes get that big, Dawn. We used to have one that lived under our porch in Kansas. We didn't have chickens, though, and he wouldn't let anyone mess with the snake because it would get the field mice that infiltrated his vegetable garden. I swear the thing was the entire length of our front porch (probably about 7-8') and was fat....verrrry fat! They can get quite large!

As for your guinea keats and chicks, I'd be like a fierce mama, too! I wish you luck with all of them. I've seen your stories over the last few years about their predators and the difficulties you've experienced with protecting them.

Susan

Dawn,

I'm glad to hear all is still well! I'd love to have guineas and chickens. We lived out on property at our last place, but we had an old farm house to restore, and by the time we finished we were ready to move (I had an amazing scholarship opportunity), so still no chance to have guineas or chickens. It's too bad since the city isn't exactly bug free! I'd much rather have that kind of pest control than the chemical variety, although we haven't had to resort to that so far...I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

As much of an animal lover as I am, the idea of guineas and chickens following me around sounds wonderful! I guess I'll have to be happy with my four dogs and two cats, LOL!

I remember the hawk issue out at our last place, though. We had just brought a new kitten home and the hawks were out in force. We watched her like a hawk (pun intended!) until she was big enough they decided she'd be a difficult lunch. I can just see my husband trying to rescue her from a hawk, yay to DH!

Best of luck on the guinea front. :-)

~Ada

Tonight was Round Two. Arriving home from a shopping trip to Dallas, I went into the chicken coop to turn on the heat lamp to keep the keats warm overnight and there was a big old long chicken snake stretched out on the chicken roost. Of course, by the time I turned on the lamp and saw him or her, I was already past the snake and it was between me and the door, so I had to go back past the snake to exit the chicken coop. (sigh)

Several "hysterical woman" phone calls later, two sets of neighbors arrived, gloves and guns in hand. (We have the world's most wonderful friends and neighbors.) One dragged that ugly old snake out of the chicken house, the other shot it, and peace and calm reigned again. I did call DH at work to tell him that his "snakeproof" chicken coop, as he has repeatedly described it since building it--most recently two days ago--is NOT snakeproof. (I wish it was.) I believe we will spend his days off attempting to do some more snakeproofing.

The good news is that, for the second time in a week, a snake got into the building but not into the bird brooder cage, which DS apparently did an excellent job of snakeproofing. And, I hate to say that for fear I will jinx us and the next snake we see will be inside the cage eating keats.

And, by the way, fresh, home-grown tomatoes are an excellent "thank you" to give a neighbor who comes running to rescue your keats from a big ol' bad ol' snake. I gave one neighbor a bagful and promised one to bring one to the other neighbor tomorrow after I pick tomatoes.

Only six more weeks until the keats are theorectically large enough that a snake cannot crush them and eat them. Of course, it still will be a battle with the other predators, but the guineas usually can fight that battle on their own pretty well.

Ada, my cousin's cat was picked up and carried away by a red-tailed hawk about 25 or 26 years ago....and then the hawk dropped the cat into a pasture and it made its own way home, a little scratched up and bloodied, but it survived. However, from what I recall, that cat pretty much stayed inside the house after that....and that cousin had a big snake problem as well, but with western diamondback rattlers.....I'd rather have the chicken snakes.

Dawn

P.S. If the neighbors hadn't come to our rescue, I guess Kristine and I would have shot it, but we would not have dragged it out of the chicken coop first, because we weren't going to touch it....and we didn't really want to blow a hole in the wall.

Dawn,

We've had a lot of problem with rat snakes in the last two years. I've come up with a good technique for getting them to where I can kill'em. Grab'em by the tail and drag them out! If they turn up on you, you just shake them back down again. Never had one threaten to bite.

I'm playing with you! This technique really works. But my wife would NEVER do it. So I guess, given what you've written, you wouldn't either!

Last week I had a turkey hen hatch out a batch of chicks. I left them in the "hatching nest box" under that hen, for a day and decided that the following morning I'd move them out of there, since Momma could get out of the nest, but babies could not). That morning I went in to move them and discovered that there wasn't a single chick under that turkey. A snake got them all during the night!

I hate killing snakes. But we've learned that we cannot tolerate black snakes in our buildings. They are incurable about eating eggs and chicks, even killing pullets which they cannot swallow.

George
Tahlequah, OK

PS. Just for information's sake: I've found a hoe kill them better than a gun. I can wield it while still in the coop.

George,

Oh, I hope you enjoy grabbing and shaking those snakes, 'cause I'm never going to do that!

I am so sorry to hear about your turkey chicks. I just hate those snakes! It is very frustrating to lose chicks to them over and over again.

We have learned we cannot tolerate them either, and my DH hates to kill them because they do keep the field mouse and vole population down. But, kill them he does, because it is either them or the baby birds.

Both times last week, I casually strolled into the henhouse only to discover I was inside a small building with a large snake. (sigh) You can bet I set a new land speed record getting out of that building!

I grew up "in the city" (but at least got to visit relatives in the country) and lived there for the first 39 years of my life, and had almost no experience with snakes until we moved here in 1999. You would think that after almost 10 years here, I'd be used to encountering a snake several times a week during snake season, but I'm not. I guess I never will be.

My neighbors think I make a pretty good "country girl" EXCEPT for my aversion to snakes, guns and deer hunting. Oh, and camoflage clothing. I just won't wear it!!! (In the fall, though, I'm about the only one who doesn't wear it here.) I guess you can take the girl out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the girl. LOL

And, if I am close enough to a snake to chop it up with a hoe, I am too close! I think 15 or 20 feet is about as close as I can get to a snake without feeling immense panic. Here on our place, we have copperheads, cottonmouths, western diamond rattlers and timber rattlesnakes as well as a wide variety of non-venomous snakes. I don't care for them much, although I kinda like the green tree snakes. Occasionally I chop up a snake (accidentally) with the law mower or weed eater. Ooops.

We have lost several cats to copperhead bites, although one kitty has survived being bitten twice even though the vet thought the 2nd bite would be fatal. Our Rottweiler, Duke, survived being bitten on the nose by a timber rattler.

I suppose we're too close to the Red River and the wilderness that surrounds it to ever be snake free. (sigh) Other than the snakes, living here is pretty close to perfect.

Dawn