Hens catching snakes

[Pratt Vereen]

We have 6 hens of varying ages, 2-10 years, all different breeds. We let them out of the their pen/coop every afternoon for supervised (he have a lot of hawks) foraging time.
Yesterday Dora, a 'Production Red' found a harmless little Dekay's Brown Snake about 10" long and took off running with it so the others wouldn't get it. We had one of the others girls do the same with a larger garter snake last year an we were able to get it away from her and relocate it to another part of the yard. (Non venemous snakes are beneficial) Dora out-ran us through shrubs and to different parts of the yard and when we flnally caught up to her she was swallowing the tail of the snake. That can't be a good thing. She seems OK this morning.
Will she be able to digest a whole snake?

 

[Alexandra Runner]

I wouldn't worry about it at all! My RIR Kate adores snakes, for some reason, haha, and there is no getting them away from her - last time I name a hen after an escape artist!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Will she be able to digest a whole snake?

Yes. She could also digest a frog or mouse if she can catch one. Chickens are omnivores and will eat about anything that doesn't eat them first.

Be careful and don't go to sleep in your chicken run.

 

[Eggs_Over_EZ]

Yup with our last flock we did have an occasional “chicken cat”. Catching mice on occasion. Like all finds they run around bagging about it, clucking up a storm causing chaos in the run as the other ladies wanted to share in the find.

 

[tlcmurphy]

Mine eat small snakes like spaghetti whenever they can find them, it won’t hurt the chickens at all. The snakes, not so much…

 

[FrostRanger]

Don't worry about it, chickens hunt stuff like snakes, frogs and lizards all the time. The extra protein and calcium is good for them, I just enjoy the inevitable game of keepaway that happens when someone catches something

 

[RDchicken99]

We have 6 hens of varying ages, 2-10 years, all different breeds. We let them out of the their pen/coop every afternoon for supervised (he have a lot of hawks) foraging time.
Yesterday Dora, a 'Production Red' found a harmless little Dekay's Brown Snake about 10" long and took off running with it so the others wouldn't get it. We had one of the others girls do the same with a larger garter snake last year an we were able to get it away from her and relocate it to another part of the yard. (Non venemous snakes are beneficial) Dora out-ran us through shrubs and to different parts of the yard and when we flnally caught up to her she was swallowing the tail of the snake. That can't be a good thing. She seems OK this morning.
Will she be able to digest a whole snake?

She’ll be fine!
I had a hen slurp up a juvenile Western Black Rat snake like it was a spaghetti noodle, that was not a pleasant sight to see.
They’ll catch and eat pretty much any small thing that runs, I wouldn’t worry about it.