I can always tell when there is something up in the barn yard when the boys come in the house with this certain “look” and rocket speed scrambling to find dad. They don’t tell me because usually that type of news upsets me….and they know that from experience. They just head for dad.
One morning recently, our 7 year old runs in the house in a frantic bee line to get to daddy. He had something important to tell him. He and his big brother had been in the barn collecting eggs when they noticed that their prized hen named “Fluffy Feet” was not sitting on her nest and making a stink about something. She is the broody hen that hatched out several chicks a while back. Well, she is sitting on more eggs. The boys picked her up to put her back on her nest and there to meet them was a very large black snake curled up in the chicken nesting box. Yikes…This is why I don’t collect eggs or stay in the barn very long.
So after the 7 year old gets out all the exciting news to daddy, he and daddy go running off to the barn. Daddy comes back to the house to show the rest of us the big snake he caught. We could tell the snake had eaten 3 eggs, not only because the boys knew how many eggs were missing, but also because you could see them bulging out of the snake’s belly.
…and no, he didn’t kill it!
Update: Fluffy Feet hatched out 6 new baby chicks this morning! I guess we didn’t down size for long…
Update 2: Fluffy Feet has 2 more baby chicks…. grand total is now 8 new chicks.
He didn’t kill it?!?!?! I would have got a hoe and chopped it into little bits and pieces……starting with head off first. I know that sounds disgusting….but I hate snakes….I mean really hate them!! The only good snake is a dead snake!
At one place where we used to live, we had had 3 snakes around during the summer. One I smashed to smithereens with a 2×4. So I read that moth balls keep snakes away. So bought lots of moth balls and put them around our house. My dh hates the smell of moth balls. It is actually quite funny now that I think back on it. Anybody who drove by had to see this circle of moth balls around our house. lol. My dh didn’t tell about a snake skin he found close by this year (the children told me)….I think my dh feared the moth balls……..
Oh yeah, that would have been one dead snake! Of course, my husband would have had to do the killing because I would have been having a hysterical melt-down. I’ll kill a snake but I’d have to use my shotgun to do it. A hoe isn’t long enough. I can’t believe Paul is touching that ugly thing! Yucko!
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