Snake in the Chicken Pen

I just realized the title of this blog posting sounds like a Bluegrass song...

I walked down to check on the chickens yesterday and found a visitor in the chicken pen...a giant Black Rat Snake...

See, we still have 8 babies that are about 6 weeks old (half the size of a full grown chicken) and Broody Mamma Hen in a smaller enclosure inside the big chicken pen.  The other big gals were out in the yard at the time.  I assume the snake thought he might get a tasty snack when he saw the babies...but upon entering the cage he must have realized they were too big to eat. 

When I came upon the scene, the chicks and Broody Mamma were all scruntched up on one end of the pen and the snake was scruntched up on the other trying to find a way out!  I think he was just as afraid of the entire situation as the chicks and Broody Mamma were!  

The discovery of the snake happened at the very same time that hubby pulled into the driveway from work.  So he comes home to be yelling about a snake in the chicken pen.  

Now, there is something you may not know about me...

I love snakes, I respect them and love to see them in my yard.  I know they are at work killing mice and other vermin.  I don't particullarly want to see a venomous snake in my yard, but I still respect and like them all nonetheless.  However, I don't want to see them in my chicken pen and up until now we have never seen one even remotely close to the chicken pen...only a matter of time I suppose!

Anyway, I used the garden rake and eased the big guy out of the pen and he slithered away into the wood pile where I assume he has been living for a while now.  I didn't get any pictures because I was so caught off gaurd from the discovery!  But I do have this picture from about 2 years ago...

This is a baby black rat snake we found in the driveway.  We let him go unharmed that day.  The snake we found yesterday was about the size of a healthy two year old Black Rat Snake...hmmmm....so we meet again!