Hello Mr. Opossum

[mikeksfarmer]

Tuesday home from work want my girls out ASAP catching bugs and scratching my food costs lower, so I rush out to let them out and discover feathers in the cage. Oh no! Let the girls out counting to see there all there. lots of loose feathers but no visible injury. I go to collect the eggs and find Delphus marsupialis in the nest box smiling at me. Ok, so I go grab a broom handle, and my fruit tree loppers. I have to wade through chicken ramps, water cans and food dishes to get to the nest box. I cant reach in with loppers to get at him so I take the next box out. I club him once with the broom handle to stun him. I use the loppers to disconect the hard drive with a very audable crunch. I am still in my cube farm clothes with a possum hanging off the buisness end of my loppers and my broom handle in the other hand. I trip face down in chicken pooh! and face to face with Mr. possum! Hello buddy you want a kiss? Well should have been there. I know I would have laughed if it wasnt me in chicken pooh and face to face with Mr. Possum!

 

[eggchel]

OMG what a mental picture that story produced. I laughed and gagged at the same time. I hope that your cube farm job is one in which you put your writing talent to work.

"removed the hard drive....."

I wish I had the strength and fortitude to dispatch a predator in that fashion.

Chel

 

[bluey]

I tell ya, between you and Miss Jayne, you sure got interesting methods for dispatching oppossums.

I'm boring...I shoot 'em from my bedroom window...good job!

 

[miss_jayne]

it must be opossum week. i whacked one too! they are psychotic little creatures!

 

[jprinc44]

OMG< I had to kill one this week, too. In a similar fashion as well, he was on my back doorstep when I took the dog out to do his business, and I whacked mine over the head with a shovel!

 

[miss_jayne]

Quote:
me too! the shovel and the loppers are the new anti-varmint tools!

 

[sammy]

so um u use the loppers to snap it's head off???

 

[Stonerowfarm]

I ventured onto the site this morning looking for possum info. Yesterday, for the first time in the five years I've been here, I saw a possum wandering around near the chicken run.

The hens were very interested in him, crowding to the fence to 'get a better look'.

Since I'm very new to hens/predators etc. I shooed him away, tried to lock up the hens (which didn't work) and locked up the goats (just in case).

From what I could research on possums in general it sounds like they are opportunistic and would rather eat grain than kill a hen. But from the sound of it here, they are chicken-killers.

I would appreciate any clarification on this. While I could never dispatch anything I definitely could relocate this little guy before he become a problem.

Thanks

 

[briana1975]

Wow. I would be more of a shovle person. I don't think I could use the loppers. I could run him through with a pitch fork though.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
Don't know about possum but for a squirrel you need to take him at least 7 miles away before release so he doesn't find his way back home.