Snakes: When good Chickens turn into Velociraptors

5 Dirty Backyard Chicken Secrets

By Julie Anderson
The Stir
November 3, 2010

Excerpt:

Keeping chickens in your backyard for fresh eggs and perfectly roasted Sunday dinners seems like such a sweet “Little House on the Prairie” idea, but are you cut out for the hardcore realities of urban farming?

My kids have been begging for backyard chickens ever since we saw some at the county fair this summer, so I went to have tea with a friend who has her own little flock, and some of the things she said made me afraid.

Here are five things that may happen in your very own yard if you turn it into an urban chicken farm:

5. Snakes: When good Chickens turn into Velociraptors It’s true that in certain areas of the country, people have to worry about egg stealing snakes moving into their neighborhood when they set up their backyard coops, but in the Northwest, most of our snakes are small and quietly do their job of eating insects and rodents without much fuss. And chickens love little snakes. In fact, when one chicken finds a snake, she’s suddenly so popular that all the rest of the chickens chase her to get it, and the closest thing to a real life Jurassic Park Velociraptors killing scene. And it’s a bloody mob scene, according to my friend, one we’re not really used to seeing in our backyard.

Despite all this violence and gore, my friend and her family are thrilled to be urban chicken farmers, and she says the fresh eggs and sweet chicken companions are worth the trouble.

Read the complete article here.