Quote: Ana Kozlowsky

I might be a treehugger nut, but only to a point. In fact, reading this forum starts to tell - I was browsing hunting gear without a shudder a couple of days ago.

You GO girl!! One more tree hugger teetering toward sanity!! (Just TEASING everyone, please don't get your panties in a bunch!!)

Willie - yeah on your pup! I need a snake dog... SOMETHING got a JUST hatched chick out of my coop yesterday and a snake is all I can figure! Can you breed me one of those real quick??

 Quote: Barbara Schuler

 Quote: Ana Kozlowsky

I might be a treehugger nut, but only to a point. In fact, reading this forum starts to tell - I was browsing hunting gear without a shudder a couple of days ago.

You GO girl!! One more tree hugger teetering toward sanity!! (Just TEASING everyone, please don't get your panties in a bunch!!)

Willie - yeah on your pup! I need a snake dog... SOMETHING got a JUST hatched chick out of my coop yesterday and a snake is all I can figure! Can you breed me one of those real quick??

Maybe a JRT?



or a Mongoose

Barbara, not sure if this pertains to you and your situation but earlier today i googled "aversion training" and there is this one guy who teaches dog to stay away from rattlers.

Oh no Barbara, not one of the cute little chicks!

Robyne, lol she needs a dog to kill snakes...a snake got a baby chick.
I actually have a great snake dog....but she is spayed.
Our old farm dog...the one that got mauled by the coyote is a great snake dog.
She corners them, stays out of reach and does a great bark and hold.
I never trained her....lol she can also trail a wounded dear through anything, over anything and anywhere...again...no training.
She also has rescued baby chicks out of the water trough half drowned and brought them to us....I'll be lost with out her..even though she isn't working now out side...she is still on duty!


We herd her growling in one of the kid's rooms the other night...
she hadn't got to the barking yet, I had my husband go check..he laughingly called me to come...I did.
Java was doing her classic snake hold behavior ...bouncing back and forth snapping and growling dancing back and forth. lol
I looked down and saw a snake pinned against the wall.....but it wasn't a snake....it was a stretched out piece of a black trash bag.
Every time she lunged forward and snapped at it, her breath would make the plastic move like a real snake... It had me fooled.
I looked at john and smiled and then said good girl!! and grabbed a shoe..and "crushed" it.
Then I threw it in the trash and we all praised her to the Nth degree!!!!
She might be old and half crippled...but its nice to know she is still on duty!!!! The kids are safe!!!!

Actually, this little guy hatched yesterday and I never even got to see it!! I came home to find the egg which had obviously been "zipped" by the chick but absolutely NO sign of a baby. Nadda. My first thougth was "momma ate her baby???" but quickly realized there was no blood, no remains = simply an empty shell. The hen is by herself so no one else did it. All I can figure is a snake got in and grabbed it. This is my first loss "chicken-wise" so I don't have much experience to draw on. The chicken yard had two hot wires around the base, so nothing "large" got in.

rats, weasels, or maybe even a skunk

 Quote: willie tilton

We herd her growling in one of the kid's rooms the other night...
she hadn't got to the barking yet, I had my husband go check..he laughingly called me to come...I did.
Java was doing her classic snake hold behavior ...bouncing back and forth snapping and growling dancing back and forth. lol
I looked down and saw a snake pinned against the wall.....but it wasn't a snake....it was a stretched out piece of a black trash bag.
Every time she lunged forward and snapped at it, her breath would make the plastic move like a real snake... It had me fooled.
I looked at john and smiled and then said good girl!! and grabbed a shoe..and "crushed" it.
Then I threw it in the trash and we all praised her to the Nth degree!!!!
She might be old and half crippled...but its nice to know she is still on duty!!!! The kids are safe!!!!

Waaaayy back when I was an infant, we lived in Hawaii. Supposedly there are these huge spiders, I think my mom called them Banana spiders. One night my older sister starts screaming for mom - there is something evil under my crib. Mom is freaking out because dad was off on duty (Navy) and here she was with five kids and a creature under the baby's bed. The broom was handy so she gets one of my brothers to go kill the evil thing under the crib. My sister is crying, mom is yelling at him to be careful, etc... He is smacking, stabbing, hacking this thing that was popping around in the carpet... shag carpet no less.

It turned out to be a golf ball the dog had partially chewed and all the rubber bands were popping and jumping apart.

 Quote: Dennis Jones

rats, weasels, or maybe even a skunk

I know these guys eat chickens but with the hot fence on, I don't see them as the culprit this time. Plus, the heavy wood lid on the brooder was in place.

A weasel can get through a really small gap. Like an unbelievable small gap.
That said, They usually take off the heads.
I'm not an expert, but with the experience I have, I'd say snake.
But who knows, could have been anything.