Rattlesnakes are widespread predators across North America, raising valid concerns for individuals maintaining backyard chicken flocks. Encountering a venomous snake while collecting eggs or tending to birds is a serious issue for poultry owners. Understanding the specific threats posed by rattlesnakes, as opposed to other common predators, is the first step in ensuring the safety of the flock and the homeowner.
A Rattlesnake’s Natural Diet
Rattlesnakes are pit vipers that primarily hunt small, warm-blooded prey using heat-sensing facial pits and venom. Their diet is largely composed of rodents like mice, rats, ground squirrels, and rabbits, which provide high caloric density. An adult rattlesnake may only need to consume a meal once every few weeks, relying on an ambush strategy. While they can eat small birds and lizards, rattlesnakes strongly prefer mammals detected by their heat signature. This dietary focus explains why a chicken coop environment might become attractive.
The Threat to Chickens and Eggs
The common belief that rattlesnakes actively seek out and consume chicken eggs is inaccurate, as they are not physically adapted for egg predation. Unlike non-venomous snakes, rattlesnakes lack the specialized vertebral extensions necessary to internally crush a shelled egg. Attempting to ingest a large chicken egg would likely be detrimental to the snake’s health, so they do not target eggs as a primary food source. However, newly hatched chicks or very small bantam chickens are vulnerable targets if a rattlesnake is hunting nearby.
Adult chickens are generally too large for all but the largest rattlesnake species to consume, but a defensive strike can still be fatal to a bird. The primary danger arises because chicken coops are often rich environments for rodents attracted by spilled feed and stored grains. These rodents are the rattlesnake’s preferred meal, meaning the snake is drawn to the coop not by the poultry, but by the high concentration of its natural prey. The chickens and their young become secondary targets or victims of opportunity.
Practical Coop Security Measures
The most effective method for protecting a flock is to eliminate the factors that attract snakes to the coop environment. Storing all chicken feed in secure, rodent-proof metal containers is a step toward reducing the population of mice and rats that draw in predators. Using a treadle feeder, which only grants access to feed when a chicken stands on it, can further minimize spillage and food availability for rodents.
Physical barriers are necessary to exclude snakes from the coop and run entirely. Standard chicken wire is ineffective because a snake can easily pass through openings larger than its head. Owners should use hardware cloth with a mesh size of one-half inch or, preferably, one-quarter inch. This finer mesh must be installed around the entire perimeter of the run and coop, ensuring all gaps and openings are covered.
For maximum security, this hardware cloth barrier must be sunk into the ground to create an underground apron extending outward. Burying the cloth at least six inches deep and then bending it outward discourages both burrowing rodents and snakes from digging underneath the enclosure walls. Clearing all debris like woodpiles, tall grass, and trash from around the coop removes the cover that snakes use to hide while traveling or ambushing prey.
Distinguishing Rattlesnake Predation
Determining the specific predator responsible for flock losses is important for implementing the correct security response. If eggs are disappearing entirely without any shell fragments or mess, the culprit is likely a non-venomous egg-eating snake, such as a black rat snake, that swallows the egg whole. A rattlesnake attack on a chick or small bird may sometimes leave a distinct sign, such as a dead young bird with a noticeable wet area around the head, where the snake attempted and failed to swallow the prey.
Rattlesnakes, being venomous, kill their prey before consumption, but they do not leave excessive carnage like mammals such as raccoons or skunks. Finding a shed snakeskin near the coop or a snake resting with a large bulge in its body is a clear indication that a snake has successfully fed within the enclosure. If a rattlesnake is found, the safest action is to contact a professional wildlife removal service for non-lethal relocation, as prevention is always the surest method of coexistence.