Snakes and Fake Eggs 🤦♂️ Snake Health Question
I have chicken tractors, and it's now snake season. Occasionally, I'll find a rat snake in one of the tractors, usually in a nesting box, with an egg-shaped bulge in its body. In the picture, the snake ate a real egg. But I have also had them eat ceramic fake eggs (those are there to both serve as a guide for the hens and also to provide eggs that aren't fun to peck; I occasionally find a cracked egg that someone has pecked on). I would've thought the rat snakes could tell the real thing from the fake, but apparently not.
I assume eating a fake egg is fatal to them, and I don't want that. Is there any way to prevent this? It has happened twice in the last week. There's apparently a Darwin Award competition going among the snake population here. Excluding the snakes altogether isn't very feasible, since the ground always has small irregularities and there are little gaps in various places around the outer perimeter of the tractor.
