11 Ways to Keep Snakes Out of Your Chicken Coop

There is no shortage of predators out to make a meal of our precious chickens. Turns out that people aren’t the only living things that think chickens are delicious! When it comes to predators, most folks are already familiar with mice and rats and larger critters like coyotes and the occasional roaming dog or cat. But what you might not be prepared for are snakes.

Snakes live up to their reputation, and they are sneaky, silent, stealthy, and very difficult to see coming. Plus, they are so small and such great climbers they can always figure out a way into the coop.

Accordingly, your best course of action is a proactive defense. You’ll probably need to employ multiple methods to form an effective response to snake intrusion, and I’ll tell you about some proven ways to do that and the rest of this article…

What are the Signs of a Snake Issue?

Before we get to the list, let’s take a moment to assess the situation and see if you really are dealing with snake predation in and around your coop.

Missing Chicks or Eggs

One of the most shocking and obvious signs of snake intrusion is missing eggs or chicks.

If you have a large flock, you might not notice at first, but you almost certainly will when numbers dwindle or if you only have a dozen chickens or so. This is why performing a head count is so important, especially concerning chicks.

Unlike other more violent predators, snakes rarely leave much evidence of their attack, preferring instead to swallow whole after crushing or envenomating their prey.

Missing eggs can also be a lot trickier to detect because chickens aren’t always on a clockwork-reliable laying schedule. That said, if you notice a seeming downturn in egg production over several successive days, there is likely a snake lurking nearby poaching your prizes!

Evidence of Snake’s Passage

If you have soft sand, soil, or other fine, loosely packed ground cover or substrate inside the coop, it’s possible to spot the distinctive passage a snake makes.

Look for an undulating track over the ground: chickens, obviously, leave easily identified footprints but snakes, slithering on their belly as they do, do not.

Injured or Dead Adult Birds

As a rule, snakes are after chicks and eggs for a meal, but it isn’t out of the question that they could kill and eat, or attempt to eat, an adult chicken, especially in the case of smaller birds or larger snakes.

If you notice any chickens lying dead in the coop when morning comes, look them over closely for any signs of a bite or constriction injuries.

Venomous snakes will leave behind two puncture marks, and a bite from a non-venomous snake will leave behind one or two horseshoe-shaped cuts or abrasions from their much smaller teeth.

Scattered Bits of Eggshell

When snakes eat an egg, they tend to swallow it, crush it, digest the yolk and white, and then regurgitate the eggshell because it is pretty much indigestible. If you see any oddly clean bits of shell lying around, especially out of a nesting box, it might be the leavings of a snake.

Snakeskin

Speaking of leavings, keep your eyes peeled, no pun intended, for snakeskin. Snakes that are currently shedding or suffering from various ailments might lose papery, translucent patches of their scales which are easily identified if you can look at them under good light.

A snake that is close to the end of shedding might leave behind large or completely intact whole snakeskins! This, more than anything else, is certain evidence that you’re dealing with a snake.

Snake Poop

Another kind of evidence that snakes might leave behind is their poop, which looks like a tight, compressed cylinder that often has tiny bones and bits of fur sticking out of it. In any case, it looks totally distinct from chicken poop, particularly in the case of larger species.

Grab your flashlight and look closely. If you keep your coop very clean you’ve got a good chance of spotting their droppings.

If you find one or more conclusive pieces of evidence listed above, you know you’ve got a snake problem and you can bet your bottom dollar they will come back again and again for an easy meal until they depopulate your coop, or at least get rid of all the eggs and chicks.

Time to take action!

11 Ways to Keep Snakes Out of Your Chicken Coop

Always Perform a Sweep for Snakes in the Morning and Evening

The first thing you need to do if you want to keep snakes out of your coop is due an inspection of the coop and surrounds looking just for them. Perform this inspection in the morning and in the evening when it snakes are most active and out looking for food.

One thing you might find is that a snake, having infiltrated the coop and gobbled up a chick or, especially, an egg will be unable to get back out the way it came in. Truly, you’ll have the perpetrator caught red-handed!

Deal with the snake accordingly, but be very, very careful because if it’s a venomous snake, it could put you in the hospital or kill you. Use common sense and be safe.

Keep Rodent Populations Dealt With

One of the most commonly overlooked countermeasures for keeping snakes at bay is keeping rodents in check. Believe it or not, most snakes are on the prowl for mice and sometimes rats, not specifically looking for chicks and eggs.

Oh, make no mistake they will certainly eat them if they encounter them, but it’s highly likely that the snakes are actually following the scent of rodents that also tend to run around and get into the coop. Keep the mice and rats away, and you’ll cut down on snake intrusions, too.

Keep Ground Debris and Clutter Picked Up or Pulled Back from the Coop

Snakes greatly prefer staying out of sight and undercover, because they themselves are prey animals for all sorts of larger predators that are higher up on the food chain.

The old saying about the snake in the grass is very true… Tall grass, leaves, and any other sort of detritus or debris on the ground can conceal snakes and give them a covered approach to get close to the coop without detection.

Make it a point to keep all of this debris picked up and thrown away or at the very least pulled well back from the coop, and keep that grass cut down low, to make things harder for snakes.

Seal the Coop Tightly

Snakes are persistent and difficult predators to deal with, partly because they are so mobile, small, and flexible.

Anywhere that a snake can fit its head the rest of its body can follow unless they’ve eaten something that is much bigger than themselves. Accordingly, snakes can easily slip silently through the smallest gaps and holes in the coop.

Loose boards on the wall, poorly fitting framing at the foundation, cracks, and crevices in vents or around windows, and poorly fitted doors are all easy entrances for snakes to take advantage of. The solution, naturally, is to go out and seal up the coop with a vengeance.

Use caulk, mesh, and everything else that you can to leave no individual opening or gap that’s wider than a quarter inch.

This can be quite a task depending on the condition and design of your coop, but it must be done. Remember, though, that you must allow for adequate ventilation as usual!

Check the section after this list for advice on what you should use for surrounding and sealing your coop.

Install a Mulch or Gravel Perimeter “Moat”

One of my favorite methods for deterring snakes is to set up a mulch or gravel “moat” around the coop. No, it isn’t a trench or real moat, but it is a wide perimeter of ground cover that can deter snakes.

Snakes, as you know, must slither on their bellies everywhere they go, and they do their best to avoid crawling over anything that is highly abrasive. Rough wood mulch and, especially, sharp gravel can deter them.

By placing a moat of this mulch or gravel around the coop, and then removing any obstacles that snakes might use as a bridge, it’s entirely possible they will decide to take their chances somewhere else rather than crawl around on it getting torn up while looking for a way in.

Remember to pull up the ramp at night, too- just like a drawbridge of old!

Stay on Top of Egg Collection

Snakes, like all predators, go where the food is. If there’s no food to be found they’ve got no reason to hang around. Accordingly, make it a point to diligently collect your eggs at least twice a day.

Check first thing in the morning and in the evening to make sure none of your girls have cranked out an egg.

Obviously, chicks and adult birds will still be at risk from predation, but when it comes to food sources, eggs are the easiest meal that a snake will ever get, and after they’ve had a few they come to prefer them. Stop that from happening and you will lessen your snake problem overall.

Lockup or Remove Water and Food at Night

Snakes don’t eat chicken food, no, but the smell of the food might attract them, nonetheless.

Likewise, snakes need water like all living things, and so if you can remove or lock up your flock’s food and water at night, replacing it first thing in the morning, that can go a little ways toward keeping snakes at a safe distance. Let them find a watering hole somewhere else!

Plant Snake-Repellent Plants

There are quite a few plants out there that are natural snake repellents, most of them being herbs of one kind or another with a pungent smell.

Planting a perimeter of these particular plants around the coop might form a natural sort of force field that could send snakes packing. Worthwhile options include;

• cinnamon,
• lemongrass,
• marigold,
• peppermint,
• sage,
• lavender,
• basil,
• and oregano.

The downside is, of course, the fact that you’ll have to take care of these plans to keep them alive and you’ll also have to keep them safe from your chickens: they will nibble on most of them!

That being, said once they are well established, you can usually count on them to hold up especially if you can plant them outside of the run fence.

Dried Herbal Repellents Work Too

In the same way that live plants can repel snakes, you can use most of them dried, as herbs, to form a barrier that might prove effective.

The same herbs listed above, including basil, oregano, lavender, sage, peppermint, and more, are pungent enough to upset the incredibly sensitive olfactory glands of snakes.

The downside is that these lose effectiveness fairly quickly especially after it rains or after they’re exposed to continual UV from the sun. Make sure you replenish them periodically.

Make a Chicken-Safe Snake Repellent with Irish Spring Soap

One of the coolest methods on this list for repelling snakes is to use Irish Spring bar soap. No, I’m not kidding and I promise I didn’t just have a stroke. This is one old-timers’ trick that borders on an urban legend, but I’m thrilled to report that it is absolutely true.

There’s something about the fragrance of Irish Spring soap in particular that repels all kinds of animals, mammals and reptiles included. And, yes, snakes specifically!

To use this trick, all you need is a fresh bar of Irish Spring, then shred it using a cheese grater for packing some shavings and an old sock or a simple cloth sachet. Then leave those bags in the four corners of the chicken coop on the outside. With a little luck, snakes won’t come anywhere close, and it won’t touch your birds!

Get a Rooster

The nuclear option, of sorts, for keeping snakes out of the coop is to get a rooster if you don’t have one already…

Yes, yes, I know that there are plenty of chicken owners who just don’t want to put up with that kind of headache and hassle, and nobody enjoys the noise they make.

But, when it comes to having a legitimate guardian and indeed a partner in your fight against predators, roosters make a lot of sense. It is they who will actually be there when the snake attacks.

Roosters are constantly alert, belligerent, and protective of their hens and territory generally. They’re also better equipped than females to deal with predators, thanks to their larger and stronger beaks, greater muscle mass, and of course those vicious spurs on the back of their legs.

A rooster, especially a large rooster, can and will tear a snake apart, or at least a mortally wound the thing so that it dies soon after the attack. Yes, this is of course risky for the rooster if the snake is dangerous, but it is a price that it would gladly pay to protect its flock.

If you’ve been contemplating the purchase of a rooster for any reason, go on and chalk this up as another bullet point in the “positives” column.

What to You Put Around Your Coop to Keep Snakes Out

As mentioned above, keeping snakes out of the coop entirely is the very best way to protect your chickens from them. If they can’t get inside, especially at night all the chickens are sleeping, you likely aren’t going to lose eggs or chicks.

But because of snakes are so small and maneuverable you’ve got to work really hard to keep them at a distance. Chicken wire just isn’t going to do it, because it’s still large enough to allow most of the common species that prey on chickens routinely.

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A better choice, for fencing and also for spot protection on openings, is to use ¼” or smaller hardware cloth. It is significantly more expensive compared to chicken wire, yes, but it will only admit the tiniest snakes which are far less likely to be a legitimate hazard to your birds.

Another good option for covering ventilation openings in the coop is to use metal, heavy gauge screen door mesh. This can be stapled down very tightly to prevent any snake and most bugs from getting in, but it’s a poor choice for fencing material because of its relative fragility.