This being the first of the month I made my rounds of the powersheds under my protection, topping off batteries with distilled water.
First stop, since his shed gets the hottest the fastest, was Former Neighbor J. I went armed for rabbit, as I usually do, but saw none. What I did see, right at the ramp to the powershed, was the biggest kingsnake* of the year.
I didn’t ask him to stretch out for my tape measure, but I’d put him at about five feet. Now, some modicum of snake identification is important in the desert, but they make it easy for us: Rattles Bad, No Rattles Good. It’s bad luck to kill a kingsnake.
Curiously, just a while later I saw a small one in my own yard, booking like hell to get under the siding stack.
While at Landlady’s, of course I went to visit the chicks. Where my education continued apace.
First the good news, they seem to be doing fine. No death, no lethargy, no slimy butts. The bad news: five baby chicks can empty a feeder as you watch. They’re worse than Mexican Jays. I found the contents in a mound on the floor under the table. They also foul their water with abandon, but I expected that. They’re chickens. And who knew how badly they can stink up a brooder in less than two days? They’re tiny baby chicks, and each seems to have shit at least her own weight in slime on the floor.
So I swept up the mess and put a cardboard box under the table. Then I spread straw in the brooder to deal with the chicken shit. Being chickens, they naturally freaked right out and attempted to kill themselves squeezing through the bars of the brooder. But they settled right down once I picked them up and set them on the straw. Truth is they seemed to find it an immediate improvement. Live and learn, I guess.
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*There’s some confusion as to the precise taxonomic nomenclature of these snakes, to be honest. Some call them gopher snakes and some call them bull snakes.
Snakes, I hate snakes… Snakes scare the crap out of me. Glad it was you and not me as my encounter would have ended with me blazing away and missing had I been carrying a gun then running away screaming like a little frightened kid.
Red, black and yellow bands are generally considered king snakes in central and southern AZ. If they look kind of like a rattlesnake without rattles, they are gopher or bull snakes. Kings and gopher snakes good. If they are small with Red, yellow , black bands they are coral snakes and poisonous. Coral snakes are rare and not generally aggressive. I don’t think they hang out in your area.
The way Grandma kept chickens from fouling their drinking water was to insert a cast concrete ‘ball’ (picture a bowling ball cut in 1/2, the flat base inside the water container). Enough room to insert their beak and draw back, but too slanted to stand on.
I had water pans that looked like troughs, and the chickens would stand in the water if they could. The trough was deep enough, so I put in ping pong balls. They could drink just fine between them, but if they tried to climb in with them they slid right off as the balls turned in the water. It was hysterical to watch, actually. 🙂
Worked wonderfully teaching turkey babies to drink too. Yes, they are that stupid.
Bullsnakes and King Snakes are different species. Bullsnakes are Pituophis, King Snakes are Lampropeltis. It’s the Bullsnake that is often confused with rattlesnakes, but the Wikipedia entry on the Bullsnake gives some clues to behavior differences that allow you to tell the difference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullsnake#Behavior
The main behavior difference is hissing: bullsnakes hiss, rattlesnakes don’t.
If they’re truly kingsnakes then you definitely want them around. They actually specialize in eating other snakes, including rattlesnakes (they’re immune to the venom for just that reason). Very cool snakes and not at all venomous themselves (they’re constrictors). I’d keep them away from your eggs and chicks though. Come to think of it, they’re probably pretty fond of packrats and mice too…
I’m quite prepared to believe that they’re bull snakes. I’ve always called them kingsnakes because when I first got here somebody pointed at one and said, “That’s a kingsnake. Don’t kill them.” And that was the extent of my research into the matter. But everybody around here encourages them.
We’d call that critter a gopher snake here in Utah. When they get defensive they’ll coil up & ‘rattle’ their rattle-less tails on the ground or dry leaves in, depending on the situation, a hilarious or terrifying fake-out act. Not even close to that distinctive rattlesnake buzz, but enough to get your adrenaline pumping until you get a closer look. (Or run off screaming like a little girl.) 🙂