This has been an abundant year for blacksnakes in our chicken house. The snake in the photo is #6.

This is only the start of September, and in a normal year we get one or two blacksnakes all summer, not eight before the start of Fall. And the eight snakes represent only the snakes we caught, not the snakes that escaped before we found them.

We haul the blacksnakes a mile down the road and release them into the forest. Hopefully that is far enough away that they won't find their way back to our chicken house.

Blacksnakes are usually docile critters that seem to enjoy human contact once they are captured and held. Blacksnakes rarely bite. But one nervous snake was the exception. It bit Judy twice during capture and advertised that it was ready to bite as often as possible right up to its release back into the forest.

Blacksnakes are difficult to see in a semi-dark chicken house, especially in a nest box where chickens lay their eggs. The tip-off is empty nest boxes. If there are no eggs, look for a well-fed blacksnake with several egg-size lumps curled up nearby.

So the question is, are there snakes in our chicken house, or do we have chickens in our snake house? It could go either way this year.

Bill Jud
Fredericktown MO