Snake in the Farm - Steem-Ghana Writing Contest

Hey Steemians,

I am quite excited right now because I will be talking about agriculture and farming. Though the story is actually a disturbing one because I am quite apprehensive of what could how much worse things could have been.

Poultry pen right behind me at Eket.

I am trying to consider all the possible ways this could have played out. Well, let me drop the full details first.

The snake was brought outside after it was killed. This innocent child is scared on seeing the snake.

A poisonous black snake was caught attempting to enter my poultry farm.
I have mentioned that I am a farmer a few times. It is even in my profile because it is something I have passion for and I am also a trained professional. So, I still operate a poultry farm. Right now, the farm just have a few birds with both layers and broilers in stock.

Some of the beds inside the pen.

The poultry pen is made with some wooded planks with zinc roofing. The floor is concrete with wood shavings spread on it to serve as litter materials.

You can see a collection of the eggs from the farm. Still wondering if the snake was responsible for the disappearance of some eggs and dead of birds much earlier.

As a pen under intensive system of management, everything is being provided for the birds.

I went to pickup some of the eggs that had been and I decided to take some shots.

While constricting the pen, I had noticed one day during the pen construction that a snake crawled past. It was a green snake. I did not think it was a cause for concern then until this recent incident.

See the snake being held up. If you can notice, there is a net holding it. This is the net that got it hooked and stuck as it was attempting to enter the pen. Thank goodness for the precaution and initiative of putting the net round the pen.

See as it it coiling around the the stick. At this point it is not fully dead. It is spiralling round.

There are a whole lot of factors that could possibly be responsible for this. One could be abundance of sewage pits all over the area. Also, the stack of cement blocks on many locations close to the pen. Another likely possibility is the light vegetation that surrounds the areas.
I cannot allow this to repeat because this type of snake is among the most lethal venomous snakes and is very antagonistic naturally.

The snake was caught when it got stuck in a net put around the pen. A carpenter came to make some repairs in the pen. When he needed to pick something at the backyard. Only to go and behold a wonderful sight.

A fresh bitter cola which is to be dropped round the pen.

Accordingly, I have bought a lot of bitter cola to keep around the area. Bitter cola tends to repel snakes. Another measure is keeping a lot of carbide stones. These stones also effectively repel snakes. All the nearby bushes have been cleared and the holes in the sewage pits have been sealed. The whole environment has been cleared of most of the heaps of debris. All these is to avoid creating a habitat for the snakes.
It is not actually unheard of to have these long animals around.

You can see the whole length of the snake.

However, due to the obvious threats they pose to human existence and well as the dangers to the birds ands eggs, they have to exterminated with severity.
So good people, this is my story.

@elyon
@nattybongo

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