@mrsg47 & @k8tpayaso You guys are so funny!
I was going to say, “sick it fido!” I see it all cleary Mrs. G.! 
Dax
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My chippie has watched our wabbits. Now he eats clover. Just like they do. Totally serious. Weird sweet little dog
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so…this happened…TWICE!!! This is just about 10 feet from my orchard. Can you believe that I found these 2 snakes just 2 days apart. And these are not some piddly garter snakes-those I can handle. These are chicken snakes, and as you can see, the first one was absolutely living up to his name. He was on his way into my chicken brood-house where he no doubt would have had a nice meal!!! This is the largest snake I’ve ever found, and honestly I didn’t know they got this large. Believe it or not, the one on the chicken pen measured 7 feet and 2 inches!!! 7 ft 2!!! Are you kidding. I must confess that I somehow didn’t see him until I was about a foot away, at which point I’m not toooo ashamed to admit I screamed like a little girl!!! ha. I rarely kill snakes, and the second one (it was “ONLY” 5’ 4 inches) I didn’t kill- put it in a bucket and drove him about 2 miles away and released him. But the first guy trying to kill my chickens went to far so…it was OFF WITH HIS HEAD! Sorry. I know they kill mice and other pests but he was killing chickens and I can’t have that. Plus he was just too big for my comfort level! haha
This guy got to live…
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I’ve killed aggressive snakes out of reaction. Sometimes given a situation we react in a way we didn’t expect to. When I was younger an old guy I knew trained military and police snipers and he always told me people full of adrenaline are difficult to predict. He worked on fishing poles in his spare time I would assume to gather and control his thoughts. Never can we control that initial reaction when we see a seven foot snake. Hopefully the next one goes in a bucket and goes to a nearby wild area out of harm. I don’t blame you for killing it but hopefully next time you won’t. The response is Fight or flight and what you do depends on you and of course the given day and mood your in. When I was a kid snakes were something I grew up around so I react different. Once an aggressive bunch of water snakes moved in on me and my reaction was to mow that entire area which killed a couple and at least a dozen left the area asap. They caught me in a bad mood and came after me which ended badly. My next step would have been to burn all undergrowth I couldn’t reach with the mower so luckily for them they chose option A and left. Much the same in your situation the chickens needed protected so you did the best you could at the time.
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Thank-you, Clark, for that kind and forgiving and interesting post. I hope you noticed that I at least did put the second snake (the one I’m holding by the head-it is alive) in a bucket and drove it a couple miles away and released it in a great place. I really and truly am not someone who kills snakes 99% of the time. Really. But what you just described and said is just a perfectly accurate description of the situation and why I killed that big one. It startled me big-time because as obvious as it is in the photo, I somehow didn’t see it until I was inches away. So my adrenaline was pumping. Then there happened to be a garden hoe right there by it, and just as you said- it was a combination of me being pumped up, maybe a little mad at it for scaring me and for hunting my chickens (which is a natural instinct I shouldn’t blame him for), and I reacted to all those stimuli. I regretted it within a few minutes. No doubt if I’d had time to think about it more- even if I had needed to walk 5 minutes to get my hoe instead of it being right there- chances are I’d have calmed down and wouldn’t have killed it. Now, what is unusual about all this is you and I are having this pretty heartfelt discussion about how I shouldn’t have killed that snake, but I will tell you now that I’ll shoot the next squirrel and rabbit I see… Not sure how you feel about that-you would likely be opposed. But the difference to me is a big one. This snake hurts no one, actually does a lot of good, and deserved to live. Animals that constantly wreak havoc on my fruit growing efforts and are highly (if not OVER) populated are fair game to me and have to go…though I almost always eat them and that helps me feel better about killing them since they don’t go to waste. Anyway, neat discussion. Thanks.
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Killing anything is not something I enjoy but there is times when I need to. I’ve killed plenty more things in my life more than I cared to. When I was younger I killed plenty for food and plenty to protect our chickens and other livestock. As I got older I got smarter and broke away from the old timers way of killing and learned most of the times I can outsmart my enemies and not kill them. Rabbits will kill your trees so I use tree guards but the old timers would have killed everyone they saw and some of them they would have hunted miles away for thinking about killing trees someday cause it’s in their nature. I’m not as reactive and I’m cautious feeling all things have a balance. I won’t kill when I have a choice to do anything different. Same with squirrels, raccoons, opossums etc. Animals Fear my gardens because I will electric fence them if I need to. A raccoon who feels the juice cuts a wide path around my corn patch. Everyone has their own way but my conscious is something I need to live with. If I don’t eat it I don’t plan to kill it when I can do something different and those are my own rules I live by. Some things don’t give you a choice eg. had a dog charge me years back which had it been out in the open I would have had to fight him but thankfully I closed a door and called a neighbor that time. My friend killed a pack of wild dogs that were dumped and were attacking livestock and tried attacking him. To me he is a hero he likely saved someone else’s life. It’s a tough world at times and I don’t judge people for their way of handling these things.
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i believe our fear of snakes is ingrained in our genetics. humans evolved in africa , where there were snakes large enough to at least eat our children! its normal to have a reaction like that. until we get ourselves together and realize they aren’t the boggyman our dna precevies them to be. dont blame you for killing the big one. not everyone is comfortable handling a large wild snake! 
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Is the big snake stuck in the wire?
I think so too Moose
My wife was cleaning out some weeds around the potato and pepper patch, which is below the barn. She thought she’d also clear out some weeds that were growing against the barn.
I was in the house and heard her yell, and went down to see what the ruckus was about. I heard the dog barking furiously, and found out why:
It was what looks like a black king snake, not poisonous. It looked about to be 3ft long, and had yellowish dots near its belly. She wanted to whack it with her hoe, but I said let it be, as it feeds on rodents, and I believe even poisonous snakes. I was down by the barn a few days ago, and saw a snake going into some other weeds, it looked like this one, so it may be the same one, hanging out in the barn doing some hunting.
So, we let it go, and it slinked away into another weedy patch. We are very careful when we are outside, taking care where we reach, and walk. I have never seen a poisonous snake around our farm, but my bro in law killed one at their place about half a mile from here last year.
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A Northern Bob White I saw go greet the robins moments ago and then having fun chasing them as well as running fast to an undetermined place and then running back! I rarely see these but hear them non-stop which I love their call.
Dax
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Nice pictures. I haven’t seen one in ages but I do hear them.
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It’s amazing how much we take for granted. I used to see them all the time and I always enjoyed them but never realized how much until they were gone.
P.S. great pic
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No picture this time, but a couple nights ago I was watering trees in my small orchard right by the open walk in gate, and a brazen young bull moose walked up eyeing my tasty trees. He was only a few feet away when I hopped over and latched the gate in his face. These critters have a lot of nerve.
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I hear them wish one would visit.
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They were all but gone here. I started eliminating their natural predators that eat their eggs. Quail, Doves etc. Lay their eggs on the ground. Possums, raccoon, armadillo, coyote will all eat every egg they can find. I started about 5 years ago now and the last two years I have entire covey’s of quail and dove in abundance. Very nice healthy turkey population too.
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Awesome pictures, Dutch.
Dax
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Beautiful and beautiful land too!
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Here in Missouri it’s mostly habitat loss, fescue has replaced warm season grasses and farmers keep fence rows and pasture borders clean eliminating edge habitat.
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