![]() ![]() Keep bushes and shrubbed trimmed a few inches, at least, above the ground, and mow the grass around your coop frequently. Rocks, woodpiles, tall grasses, and low bushes are all excellent hiding places for a hungry snake, so keeping all of these and similar growths and structures far away from the coop will make it significantly less appetizing to a snake. Snakes are ambush predators, who are unlikely to attack a coop that they cannot safely get close to. Keep the area around the coop clear of hiding places.As the coop ages and warps or decays, patch even the smallest holes that develop with more hardware cloth, especially if a sturdier fix is not possible or practicable. ![]() The most effective way to utilize hardware mesh is to cover the entire bottom of your coop with it, including the floor and at least six inches up the sides of the walls. Unlike chicken wire, which has holes small enough to contain most chickens but large enough to let in most predators, hardware cloth is sturdy enough and fine enough to keep out even the smallest and most tenacious of burrowing predators, including almost all snakes. Hardware cloth or hardware mesh is the one size fits all miracle of chicken coop reinforcement. Reinforce the bottom of your coop with hardware cloth.If the design of your coop or the landscape around it does not allow for this, sink the walls as deep as you can, and then cover the rest of the depth with hardware mesh (see below). Sinking the walls of the coop at least six inches if not a foot deep should be enough to deter any burrowers from making their way into the coop. Chicken coops, then, especially those with dirt floors, need to be protected from all directions, including the bottom. Even the sturdiest walls in the world do not mean much to something that can simply sneak right under them. Snakes, along with weasels, skunks, and many other common menaces to chicken coops, are low to the ground, burrowing predators. Bury your coop walls at least six inches deep.6 Tips for How to Keep Snakes Out of Chicken Coops An eastern kingsnake (Lampropeltis geluta) coiled on a log. With the six tips below, even a first-time chicken keeper should be able to achieve a snake-proof chicken coop - or as snake-proof as possible in any area populated by scaly sneak thieves. Preventing serpent incursions into a chicken coop is a daunting but doable task, so long as you are not afraid of a little elbow grease and a lot of attention to detail. ![]()
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