SNAKE!!!

SUSAN:
On Saturday we gave the coop a "spring cleaning". This involves moving EVERYTHING out of the coop -- including all of the pine shavings (soiled & not), food, water, etc. When Nigel was moving the goat/chook food, he discovered a SNAKE underneath!! It was a black snack -- ABOUT 5 FEET LONG -- with a white underbelly. The snake attempted to get away from him, so Nigel grabbed it by the tail & was trying to pull the snake so that he wouldn't get away & without breaking its back or hurting it in anyway! [Note: SNAKE is stronger.]

Long story short ... I was responsible for protecting the chooks and basically just stood a good distance away from the snake. Nigel finally was able to get the snake untangled from the chicken wire and place him outside of the coop where he scurried over into our neighbor's yard. RELIEF!

Our biggest question now is HOW did the snake get into the coop? And, how can we prevent this from happening in the future? Nige has placed the food bags up higher on some crates to hopefully prevent any snakes hanging out there in the future.

NIGEL:
It was a beautiful snake! Not certain, but we think it was a rat snake. I was nervous about hurting it when pulling on it's tail. Susan was remarkably calm (for her) while this was going on!