What kind of snake is this?

The few times I've found snakes in the hay they were flattened and dried out. Flat, mummy snakes. I always hate to see them dead because I'll take snakes over rodents any day! If you have hay, you probably have grain and for sure have mice and rats. We don't kill snakes here, although it took a little convincing on my part for my husband to just walk away.

Umm, guess I'm missing your point, but I kinda was already aware that it was hay when I read the following from the OP:

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I dream of a better world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.

I've been able to change the attitudes of people that hated or feared snakes...

I used to keep quite a few of them, and was a member of the Herp society in St. Louis.. I've had king snakes, rat snakes, ball pythons, Burmese pythons, Boas, bull snakes and a few others... I've even handled quite a few rattlers and a couple copperheads.. .

I've had people that were deathly ill afraid of them eventually hold them, and a couple that even wanted to get their own snakes after seeing them up close and handling them...

They are not slimy like most people that are afraid of them think. They become amazed at the colors in them once you get up close, and they become mesmerized feeling their muscles and how strong they are once they do bite the bullet and start feeling and holding them...

It's usually the lack of education and all the myths they hear that make them fear snakes..

I let anyone and everyone that wanted to touch and feel one of my snakes do it, because the risk of them getting hurt is so low.. I won't let anyone reach out and touch my Macaw.... Funny... people think the snake will hurt them, and the bird won't... Reality is completely opposite.. .

Knowledge is everything...

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

Actually, it's quite a tiny snake for one of its kind, not years old.

Ohhhh, I get it now...How clever!

Well if it was just a baby snake, then that makes it ok. Glad we cleared that one up!! Baby snakes are the worst! The way they go around terrorizing poor people is awful! But it hadn't lived long, so it deserved to die.

Bamboo logs! Too funny! I'll have to remember that one!

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I dream of a better world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.

Thanks for the compliment - you crack me up too!

Is it still not clear that Red Rider did not murder this snake?

Not to add to the snark here but, I have found snakes in the hay that were real fresh. Just depends on how long the hay has been put up and if the snake was dead when in went in the mow. Sometimes they need to be dispatched to end the suffering. I found a fawn in a bale this past winter, that was gross!
There is another poisonous snake in the east. Timber rattlers are known to be in the Adirondack area. Also, iirc, protected as they are rare, suposed to be rather shy.

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tab

That looks like my very favorite kinda snake... A dead one.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

He (she?) WAS a very handsome snake. Around here we call ones with those markings bull snakes.

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I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it. Attributed to Voltaire

When I was a kid we were hiking to our swimming hole and stopped to rest. As I was squatting to sit I looked between my legs and spotted a puff adder coiled and threatening. I did most of a back-flip over the snake. I landed on my head and nearly broke my neck.

Who says non-poisonous snakes can't hurt you?

My cousin reached into a hen's nest in hay where copperheads had been seen. A hidden chicken pecked the back of his hand. The only reason he didn't kill a snake was because he didn't have one handy.

Interesting, Belfry Bat - found this site that talked about bull snakes impersonating rattlesnakes: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/bull-snake-facts.html

Genebo, that henhouse story is just too funny! I won't laugh at you going head over heels at the swimming hole - waahh! I'm guilty of insane shrieks even when lizards pop up in the pansies. My dad's way of dealing with a rattlesnake in the yard (besides the obvious) was to pull up everything that wasn't a tree until the mood passed and he was strong enough to reach the whiskey.