SNAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning while I was hanging out clothes I noticed the ducks were louder than usual. I finished with the clothes, gave the young chicks some fresh water then I checked on the ducks. They were in the corner of the pen with the two ducks quacking loudly and the drake making his own noise. I looked to see what was going on in there but couldn't see anything that would be so upsetting UNTIL....I looked to the left side where the nests are. There it was....a huge chicken snake laying in the ducks' nest.

The snake was laying on the eggs as if he was incubating them. I went to get a hoe but by the time I had gotten back the snake had settled down where I couldn't get a good swing at him.

So being the brave woman I am, I called William. He came home, got his gun and went on a snake hunt. The snake had completely disappeared. We hunted all around the pens and couldn't find it.

Before I called William I had called Mom to see if Dub was at home. Of course not, he had gone to town to do several errands.

After William left going back to school, Mom called to see if the snake was still in the ducks' pen. I explained what happened and she told me "Don't worry. He'll be back and this time he'll have his wife with him." Yikes!!!!

I know that snakes are beneficial as they catch mice and other rodents. BUT...they also eat duck eggs that are almost ready to hatch. If I have to choose between having mice or duck eggs guess which one I am going to choose. You got it! I will go with the mice because we have a way of doing away with them ourselves and the ducks only lay so many eggs each spring.

I want ducklings!