Monday, May 23, 2011

Tina Turner the MIGHTY snake hunter

My chickens were out free-ranging today, and I took over 570 photos, so I have some good-lookin' poultry shots for the blogging days to come. But today it's all about Tina Turner, one of our smallest hens. While out free-ranging today, she caught, killed and ate a GARTER SNAKE!

I had my camera with me and managed to snap some photos, but it was difficult because she kept running away from me, thinking I'd steal her kill!


Oh. My. GOD!


Don't MESS with Tina!



She swallowed that piece whole right after I got this shot. Geez, I was amazed last summer when I saw a hen running around with a frog in her beak, but a garter snake??

I gotta watch my back in the coop...

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:30 pm

    I wonder what snakey tasting eggs will be like?

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  2. I remember as a kid my grandma killing snakes if they got into the house and then feeding it to the hens. I remember not wanting to eat the eggs after in case they tasted weird. Poor snakes....no one seems to care about them. Really lousy karma.

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  3. Ms. Turner is welcome here any time. I'm tired of dispatching infant sidewinders in the yard! She can lay eggs with a rattle.

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  4. Tina says the snake taste like chicken...wait, that's just not right!

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  5. Andrew, I had the same question myself last night! I know what Tina's eggs look like, so I will have to crack one open today.

    Deb, I agree. SNakes get too much bad press. I felt sorry for Tina's victim but by the time I found her, there wasn't much I could do! There wasn't much snake left!!

    Katnip Lounge, wow, we don't get any exciting venomous snakes here (well, technically there is a Massassauga Rattlesnake in Ontario, but they are rare and endangered.) I'm sure Tina would take on a baby sidewinder.

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  6. I never knew that chickens would take on a snake, even a little one

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  7. Go Tina!!!! Go Tina!!! She's pretty amazing!!!

    When we first got chickens a small garter snake got in their pen. It was killed and carried all around by all the hens. But it was never eaten!

    I bet the eggs will taste no different.

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  8. Anonymous12:30 am

    I wish I had thought of the "tastes like chicken comment" first. Excellent.

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  9. Jams, I hadn't realized it either, but then I guess they'll eat mice and frogs! They are more omnivorous than I'd realized before I started keeping chickens.

    Lynn, she swallowed that piece whole! Little piggy!! :)


    CogDis, I agree. I was too slow...

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Thank you for all your comments, which I love to read!