As usual my mom and I drove out to our ranch to feed and let out the chickens and to check on Dancer.  We went to check on the chickens first so we drove to the right side of our ranch through the gate.  Something was off: the gate was wide open!  We drove up to the house and saw that an ATV was out.  We left the ATV alone. My mom opened the house while I got our dog Sallie out of the car.  My Uncle Jud’s dog Mac was right there! He bolted out of the house and mom and I had to call him 10 times to come in because he was so excited to see Sallie.  In the house, we saw that there had to be someone there because there were things out of place.  My mom contacted my uncle and we found out that he was in Athens too.  

We went to feed the chickens and let them out of the coop.  When we got there all of the chickens were there plus two baby chicks!  There was one black chick and one yellow chick. Our brooding hen, Debbie, was off her nest.  Debbie and her two hatched chicks were inside to coop rolling in the dirt and looking for bugs.  It made me smile to see them playing around in the dirt but again something was off. There were supposed to be 20 eggs left in the nest but there were only nine. We looked around the coop and everything seemed fine.  So we left the chickens outside of their coop and went to check on Dancer.  When we got there Dancer was laying down on the grass in the sun sunbathing and resting her sore feet.  When she saw us she stood up and I carried the food to her out of the ATV.  The next door neighbor’s horses were there next to her so I gave them a treat and I gave Dancer four.  

When we came back to put the chickens up into the coop, my uncle was back from town so I gave him a hug and said “hi”. My mom went back to the coop without me because I was talking to my uncle. A few moments later…. my mom came running from the coop and said there was a snake! Quickly I pulled on some boots and my uncle grabbed his gun and we ran out to the coop.  My mom lifted the wooden pallet where the snake was hiding. My uncle said that the snake was a rat snake because of its brownish gray color. My uncle took care of the snake then moved the dead snake with a shovel.  He picked it up and held it in front him and I couldn’t believe my eyes!  The snake was longer than Uncle Jud! 

The snake was about 6 ft long when my uncle held it up to him.  My uncle set the snake down and flipped it over so we could see its belly.  I could see large lumps in the snake’s belly and we decided to cut it open.  Sure enough, there were eggs and baby chicks inside its belly.  Most of the eggs were crushed but one egg was whole!  This made me sad but I was glad we solved the mystery of the missing eggs.