Danny Merrell’s Chicken Coop Snake Adventure

Usually when you find a rat snake in one of the nests in your chicken coop, it's not a good thing.  That's exactly what happened a few evenings ago when I raised the lid to search for eggs in the nests of our chicken coop.  Right there, curled up in one of the nests was a good-sized rat snake.

It was apparent that this guy didn't seem to have any ulterior motives in mind.  There was a chicken in the next nest over, and the snake didn't bother it.  He also didn't make any advances towards any of the eggs in the other nests nearby.  So, what was his motive to be coiled in the warm, dry nest of our chicken coop?

It was pretty obvious to me.  Just like us, that snake was sick and tired of the crazy amounts of rain we've had lately.  I discovered the rat snake about an hour after the big deluge we had on Tuesday afternoon.  I'm sure it was out in our pasture and had finally had enough.  If a snake could talk chicken, he probably told ours something like, "Don't mind me ladies, I'm just looking for a nice, dry bed."

I knew that I couldn't leave the snake with the chickens.  Not only because it goes against the laws of nature, but also because when I suggested leaving the snake alone, my wife let out a sound that only our dogs could hear.  So, I retrieved the snake out of its comfy nest (I could almost hear it whisper Sssssstop, pleasssssse) and placed it way back into the wet pastureland.

Side note about snakes...did you know that snakes can be very romantic? Married snakes are known to give each other a goodnight hiss before bedtime.

Sorry...anyway, check out the video of the retrieval.