Tonight I was tending to my small flock of chickens and was in the chicken yard and found a ringneck snake under a waterer. I watched it a bit and then went back to cleaning and filling the waterers up. A minute or two later, a little red hen came running up and jumped on the ringneck snake and pecked it and slung it around until it was limp, and then she ran off with it, carrying it around and having a good time. It took a lot of doing for her to kill it (assuming it was dead.) There are a couple of black rat snakes that hang around looking for eggs every few days, one 4 or 5 feet long and the other 6+ feet long, and the hens cluck and scold them and sometimes even run up at them. It occurred to me that killing the little snake might have felt a bit like revenge to the hen. Of course, I don’t know how a hen feels or thinks. I often have a difficult time deciphering my own thoughts and feelings.