A slight surprise!

I went to the chicken coop to gather eggs from the next boxes in the morning recently. Sometimes I simply reach into the box/boxes and retrieve the eggs. Sometimes the chickens are a little messy and a few eggs will have some chicken poop on them so I look into the box to see how clean the eggs are before I retrieve them. When I looked into the box recently, one egg looked like it had a big, black glob on it. When I looked closer, I realized it wasn't chicken poop on the egg, but was a large snake head with the egg in it's mouth. I grabbed a large pair of tongs and removed the snake. He was almost four feet long, but only one inch thick. His head wasn't large enough to swallow the egg, but he had been breaking eggs in his mouth and leaving only the flattened shell in the nest box. I thought the chickens were breaking eggs as they climbed into and out of the nest box.

I let him go instead of killing him because I prefer snakes that eat rats and mice over rats that like to eat chickens. I also looked until I discovered the tiny hole which gave him access to the chicken run and up the ramp to the chicken coop. The hole is now closed. I saw him the next morning looking for a new entrance to the coop, but he hasn't found one in a couple of days.

In the garden, I always look before I reach. Now I will always do the same in the chicken coop.

Ted