A chicken keeper in Florida has spent almost a year trying to get rid of a 6-foot yellow rat snake that keeps slipping back into the coop for eggs. The homeowner has caught the same snake three times and relocated it farther away each time, most recently about 12 miles to a nature preserve. The running standoff drew plenty of attention after the homeowner shared it on Reddit.
The first relocation in July 2025 found the owner moving the snake about half a mile from the property, but it returned. A second move that September took it two miles out. The snake still found its way back to the coop a third time. The homeowner explained in their post that when a snake gets into the coop and eats the eggs, “they have to go.”
The homeowner also made a deal with their daughter that if the snake turned up a fourth time, it could stay for good. The standoff struck a chord on Reddit, where many commenters praised the homeowner for relocating the snake rather than killing it. Others, though, questioned whether moving it so far was the right call at all.
The scene is a familiar one for backyard chicken keepers, whose numbers have grown in recent years. A coop full of eggs is an easy meal for a snake, and a single rat snake will keep coming back for more. Wildlife experts have also warned for years that moving a snake far from home often does not work and can even kill it.
Why Did the Snake Keep Coming Back?
Do snakes have homing beacons
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u/Far_Landscape7089 in
snakes
Snakes don’t actually have a homing radar. They do have a home range, though, the familiar area where they hunt, shelter, and breed. When a snake is moved only a short distance, it can often find its way back to that range, especially toward a reliable food source such as a coop full of eggs. Even if one snake is removed for good, the eggs and the rodents drawn to a coop will keep attracting others.
Moving a snake far outside its home range is also risky for the animal. Research on relocated snakes has found that many die, killed by predators or vehicles or worn down by the stress of navigating unfamiliar ground. Wildlife agencies generally advise against long-distance moves, and they note that rat snakes are nonvenomous and help by eating rats and mice, which is part of why many keepers choose to coexist with them.
How Can You Keep Snakes Out of a Coop?
The most effective fix to get rid of a snake is to make the coop itself harder to enter. Snakes can squeeze through any gap larger than about a quarter of an inch. That means you have to replace any wide chicken wire with quarter-inch hardware cloth and seal cracks around the floor, walls, and roof. Burying a skirt of hardware cloth around the base helps stop snakes and other predators from getting in underneath.
You can also take away what draws snakes to the coop. That means collecting eggs often so they aren’t left as an easy meal, and storing feed in sealed containers. You’ll also want to keep rodent populations down, since snakes follow them. If you do find a snake and need it gone, move it only a short distance to nearby natural cover rather than miles away, or call a local wildlife removal service or your state wildlife agency for help.