Thief

I have a thief. I went out to the chicken coop this morning to feed the chickens. I turned around to look and see if I had any eggs where a few chickens have been laying them lately, not in their nest boxes. And what do I see? A SNAKE!!! At first, I was startled, but then I let my brain start to process what to look for. Do I see a rattle? No. Does it have orange stripes, like the poisonous coral snake? No. That's all I could remember for poisonous snakes. I was pretty sure it wasn't poisonous and I thought it looked like an oak snake or rat snake, so I breathed easier. I then stood there and watched my dumb chickens. They were curious about it and just stood way too close, in my opinion, to the snake and watched it. I thought, "you know, curiosity killed the cat or the chicken in this case."

Now back to why I have a thief. I am sure you can figure out why the snake was in the coop. I figured it might have eaten an egg. On closer examination, not too close, I see this egg shaped bulge in its middle. And I thought, "hey you stole my egg!!" The snake was trying to climb its way up and over a wooden wall. Here I thought, "can't you figure out how to get out, like the same way you got in. What, are you related to the chickens?" See previous post Chickens.

So I ran back into the house to retrieve my camera and a book to help identify the snake, hoping that the snake wouldn't get away before I got back to snap my shot. It was on its way out, but not before I took this picture.

It might be hard to tell, but in this picture, the egg is right where the snakes body turns around the wood on his way out of the chicken coop. I figure he might have a hard time getting through the chicken wire with that egg in his belly.

Before heading back into the house I opened my handy Florida's Fabulous Reptiles & Amphibians book and sure enough, I am correct, it is either a gray rat snake or oak snake, pictured here from that book.

I then looked through the venomous snake section of the book, and I was close to remembering all the poisonous snakes. I forgot about the copperhead. But I think if I had seen a copperhead, I would stay away. Pretty much anything with orange on it, I would stay away from. And definitely anything that rattled.