How to Stop Snakes

Two questions:
How do wild birds stop snakes from eating their eggs or themselves? and
How do humans effectively keep snakes from eating eggs or domestic birds?

My thoughts and questions:
How do wild birds stop snakes from eating their eggs or themselves?
Will some birds fight them off? Maybe male birds, maybe pissed off mama birds, maybe specific breeds of birds?
Are there places they put nests that are snake resistant?

How do humans effectively keep snakes from eating eggs or domestic birds?
Will snakes cross sharp things like cut metal lathe buried part way in the ground, with the sharp edges sticking up?
Does hardware cloth actually keep a snake out of an enclosure? If so, how high does it need to go?
What exactly CAN a snake climb? How much traction do they need on how steep of a surface?
What do commercial bird places do to keep them out?
I know I wouldn't want to live in a barricaded jail, how do you keep a safe area a bird-happy place?

:D

I have always heard that to get rid of snakes is to get a dog.

Just before we got our cat our neighbors said to get a cat.  Seven +/- rattlesnakes that year.  Zero since then.

What about fencing, or the above-mentioned cut metal lathe, that curves outward? Sort of like this:


Or something that pokes seriously but doesn't move, like this:

Our cats  have zero tolerance for snakes.

My outdoor cats as well.
Unfortunately, or happily depending on your perspective, we have hardly any snakes and zero poisonous snakes here. Too cold and wet.
I find dead garter snakes regularly,

We've no idea how many eggs we've lost to snakes. We've lost at least a few chicks, and probably a couple ducklings to them - I caught a snake with a couple eggs already in its gut and a near-dead chick in its mouth, once. Yesterday, John discovered the nearly-ready-to-hatch muscovy eggs all gone. Only a snake can remove them so cleanly - no shell, no mess - just gone.  When we have a chicken hen sitting on a nest, as soon as I'm sure she's actually sitting on it, I try to isolate them. Last year, I couldn't, and between the other birds & the snakes, we only managed to save 2, that grew to maturity - out of over 30. I have a new plan, including new nest boxes and isolation that is surrounded by hardware cloth - the only deterrent I've found (so far) that works, in case any go broody, this year (so far, nada).

The ducks, on the other hand, don't seem interested in nesting boxes, and make their nests directly on the ground - and are incredibly protective. Considering the class that muscovys sport, and how protective they are, I can't fathom how any snake got near that nest, much less took ALL the eggs, and escaped with its life. John & I wouldn't dare try to get to them, which is why that nest was never moved.

I know we've found black rat snakes overhead, as they climbed the lapped corners of our house, and I've found them a couple feet off the ground, in the henhouse, where they had 2x4s to aid them - but I've never seen them go up a tree. I've never seen the copperheads off the ground. And with the copperhead population here, we're loathe to kill off the black snake population, because they like eating copperhead. Our plan was to get some guineas, to help control both of those types, but so far, that hasn't come to fruition, so we're going to have to find another source. A friend of mine lost her cavalier (same breed as my Charlie) to a copperhead bite, last year...

Two of our three cats are big fans of snake-hunting, one of the two has brought about a dozen garter snakes into the house and lost them under shelves or behind the freezer. The third cat completely ignores them but loves chipmunks. We also don't live where there are any dangerous snakes.

I don't think squirrels like snakes either.
There was a big commotion out back and about 10 young squirrels were ganging up on something under the tin,
where I've seen a garter snake run and hide.

Red Shoulder Hawks will feed on snakes whenever they spot them.

Cats and dogs around the homestead will help.

An old country remedy for black snakes eating eggs in the hen house,  poke a hole in each end of an egg, blow or drain the egg, fill with salt, seal openings, place back in nest area, if the snake returns it will eat the salted egg whole then later coil around some object, post, small tree, etc, egg shell will be crushed, salt will spill out, --- no more black snake.

Another old country thing, don't know if it works, a line of lime placed around the place you want to keep the snakes out off, the lime is said to "burn" their skin and they will not cross.

And the one thing that I know will work -- guinea hens-- they will surround and kill any kind of snake!   If you can put up with the quineas, they are not quiet birds!!!

I once found a small birds nest out on a farm built in a growth of a multi-flora rose and a mock orange bush combined.  Talk about thorns!!!


Peace

I like the little corn snakes and ring neck snakes that live around the place. I think they are cute and for the most part they are too little to eat much of anything except bugs. Black snakes can be an issue with my bird houses and frog pond. I prefer, if possible, to capture them and dump them out on the nearby state wildlife preserve.

Something that I discovered by accident but does work to protect chickens and the like is rolled up balls of bird netting. The snakes go through it, get all tangled up and can't get out. It needs to be rolled or balled up so they go through layers, just one layer and they can go on through.  It's awful to do though, the more they try to get out the more tangled they get. If you don't find them in time they die and if it is badly tanged, you almost can't get them out without killing them and I don't like killing things.

Green garden netting (the stuff landscapers use to hold down straw/seed) will stop them. They get tangled up in it, then you can take them where you want to release them and cut them loose or dispose of them.

Hi Pearl,
It's a little out of the box, but what about a pig? The Livestock Conservancy Website says this about American Guinea Hogs - "Homestead owners can expect them to forage for much of their own food, including eating rodents, snakes, grass, roots, nuts, garden beds after harvest, orchard windfall fruit, and corn stalks." The Mother Earth News website says "Their rooting behavior makes them natural rototillers, and they can help control unwanted species, such as snakes and rodents." Another website that I cannot find right now, had an article talking about how they were often kept in the yard around the house in order to keep the mice and snakes under control. I think they called it a "yard pig" or something like that.

Snake control that turns into bacon?

Rat snakes can climb straight up a pine tree. But smooth vertical  surfaces will stop them. Small gauge hardware cloth will keep them out if it s installed well and doesn’t have gaps. Figure out how big a snake your trying to keep out and make all the gaps smaller than that. But they can climb up hardware cloth so you need to fully enclose the space. It’s sort of like rat proofing but with smaller holes and less worry about digging.