My flock will certainly eat snakes, if the Jack Russell Terrier leaves them around after she kills them. They also enjoy frogs/toads/lizards/worms/squirrels/rabbits, anything they can get. My flock free-ranges on 1 1/4 fenced acres with over 400 fruit trees. They eat very well. I buy grain and pellets only once a month, since they find so much food on their own. They are horrible with small prey. One hen will have a lizard/frog/toad in her beak, running around, as the other birds rip it apart by grabbing legs.. Ugh! They seem to have no ill effects, ever when eating Bufo Toads. Lisa

Every year I plant Grandpa Otts morning glory seeds and plants. That way I have flowers early and all season long. This year, two plants have drowned and disappeared in our unusually rainy May and June, and the other two are petering out though they have put out a couple of puny flowers three inches from the ground. The seedlings did well a week or so and then have slowly disappeared. I have lost well-established agastache, nepeta, and lamium. I lost an expensive new variety of bleeding heart. My miniature Joe Pye weed is wilting at the top, and I am going to try to pinch these to see if it stimulates better growth now that the sun is finally here. These are disappointments due to the weather, and I am sure I will have more to come. My coneflowers are in early bud, but the plants look spindly. I expect some disappointments there, too. I have also had some disappointments due to mislabeling of plants. I don't like orange, but the burgundy gallardia that I bought is just starting to bloom, and it looks a lot like Goblin. I have a funky neon peachy-orange-colored red hot poker which I put next to the soft yellow one I had bought the year before to increase its numbers. Finally, a white boltonia is really a pink boltonia. Which is really not a disappointment, except the pink boltonia tends to flop for me.

Marcia, Please help me find out what kind of snake I came across today. While I was at the local dog park (near Orlando) I came across a yellow with black stripes snake. It looked to be between 3.5-4 feet long and did not appear at first glance (that was all I gave it out of fear) to be shiny. I was about 3 feet from it and didn't know it until my dog almost stepped on it. She obviously didn't see it either. The snake seemed a pit peeved about the whole thing but it decided not to attack and to slowly slither towards ME to get away from my dog. Needless to say, I took off in a different direction real quick and hollered for my dog to follow. I am not like you or others on this site. I am not a fan of snakes and am extremely afraid of them. Although, I don't mind the black racers that seem to have taken up permanent residence in MY back yard and they love to procreate often (or so it seems). I have seen a lot less field rats since the racers moved in and that makes me very happy. Anyway, can you help me figure out what this snake was? I have spent hours and hours online tonight trying to find it and just can't seem to find anything that looks like it. I am guessing that it is not dangerous to me or my dogs??? I am scared to take my dogs back through those woods that they so dearly love. As soon as I told them, "No more woods until the snakes are gone again," they "told" me to find it if it was dangerous or not and if it isn't that they want to go back again. So that is mostly why I am asking you for your help. We all love the walks but I am afraid of the snakes. Please help me feel safer about going back. Thanks in advance for your help.

We live in an area where our backyards all view a small lake. It is a private lake owned by those whose boundries enter the water. Many years ago, it was a watering hole for all the cattle headed to the Swift plant in the Fort Worth Stockyards. It is Trinity River fed, and quite large now. There have been many snake sightings. My DH killed a 4 ft snake in our fenced back yard several years ago, and it had several feet of tail missing from an earlier escape from a shovel. This happened while I ran to the store one day. He had to shoot it several times to stop it from lunging at him. Not an easy task for a one armed guy with a backyard full of dogs. I have had to call animal control on several occasions,when snakes were inbetween my dogs and the back door, and they are here within minutes. They know this area and how dangerous it can be when the weather gets warm. Sadly, I believe, I lost one of my older Lhasa's from a snake bite. He died so very suddenly, that I could have been nothing else. I believe he met his fate when he crawled under his doghouse to cool off. I hate snakes, and have found the cats playing with babies, INSIDE the house in the middle of the night. Yuk. When the neighbors shoot them, they typically hang them from a stake in full view as a prize catch for all to see. Not of all of the animal lovers would agree to this, but they are very aggressive, and, I am sorry, but the only snake I like, well.....is a dead one. We have removed all the bush landscape close to the house, as it seemed to be an ideal hideout for snakes every year. Now, can we talk about tarantulas? I do catch and release them. So I am not all about the kill, I promise. Trin