Possums are Chicken Killers

[buttercup52]

Our 'possum is no longer and we feel good about that We're elderly, and it wasn't so cute, us running around half naked in the middle of the night (morning!) trying to round our chicken and rooster up with a little flashlight, half hysterical...not funny then, anyway. Now we think that we must have been a sight! Thanks everyone! You're all so great. We KNEW that opossums carry disease, much less are murderers and marauders. There are plenty more from whence that dead one came, so that population isn't suffering...Hugs and happy omelets P&J

 

[Phyrst]

Good for you. Hope now your nights and mornings are stress free!

 

[sab]

Our coop has an automatic door. It's timed to close about 15 minutes after dark. Came home this evening to find a young coon in the coop closed in with my 13 hens and 2 ducks. Only 1 duck was on the floor - hens all roosting and other duck likes to hop up on poop board, of all places!! I think the young possum was after feed. Does not appear to have hurt poultry. Scared the jahebees out of me though. Needless to say I have 2 set traps out tonight. I guess the possum just went up the ramp and in cause I have that coop locked down like fort Knox. I usually have feed in the run and bring it in at night. But it rained all day so I kept feed in the coop. I've seen this young possum before. Likely it's been eating the feed just after dark until I show up and it's been shivering away. Ah - just keep your fingers crossed that the traps work. Of course, since it's young, there's probably more of them.... sigh....

 

[Coop Deville]

Our 'possum is no longer and we feel good about that We're elderly, and it wasn't so cute, us running around half naked in the middle of the night (morning!) trying to round our chicken and rooster up with a little flashlight, half hysterical...not funny then, anyway. Now we think that we must have been a sight! Thanks everyone! You're all so great. We KNEW that opossums carry disease, much less are murderers and marauders. There are plenty more from whence that dead one came, so that population isn't suffering...Hugs and happy omelets P&J

It's true. Unfortunately there are plenty of possums to go around, and too many that like to prey on chickens. Happy hunting.

 

[BingDog123]

Trapped a possum last night with raw meat dangling from a treble hook inside a trap. He killed one of my new pullets INSIDE the coop with all the other big girls staring at him. Broke my heart. Left the other baby without her soul mate. Taking him to the edge of town later on today. I hate possums. I really do.

 

[Coop Deville]

You are remarkably compassionate. I would do something completely different with a trapped possum.

 

[johndjones]

Something took one of my buffs a few weeks ago and badly wounded another couple of them. I thought it was probably a fox, because I know there is a den of them within a couple of miles of the house..or was a couple years ago, haven't seen them lately. I didn't think a possum would drag a chicken off somewhere to eat it. There was no sign anywhere just a misssing hen. I have been setting a live trap in the door every night and finally last night caught a big possum. Anyway, took the varmint on a little road trip across the bottom, turned him loose with 50 yards of the trees along the edge of a creek. He headed east (surely not back toward my house) across a huge field which had been cut. I watched him with his nasty little tail up running for awhile then left..guess he made it somewhere.

 

[PrairieChickens]

We lost Tina Eggturner, a gold-laced Polish crested, to an opossum a couple of weeks ago. I never saw it, but I had enough evidence to figure out that's what it was. It broke into the run a couple more times, but never bothered trying to get into the coop to get another chicken. I think the only reason it got Tina was because she liked to sleep outside in the run, and since all the other chickens roost up in the coop, that was just too much work for the critter.

Like others have said, opossums are opportunists--they're after the easiest meal they can get. After a week or two of locking up the coop, it stopped coming around altogether. I'm just glad that my dad did such a good job predator-proofing the run and coop and that we don't have any really tenacious predators around that would test our defenses.

My mom did see a raccoon in their garage last night, though, so I am going to have to keep my guard up.

 

[Garilyn Bardash]

I know folks here have a problem with possums but this video is hilarious.
Eat the apple i just want the egg said the girl LOL funny as heck.

this is one lucky chicken, opossums can do major damage to a chicken! the hen showed that opossum who was boss, she laid an egg! too funny, gotta share!

 

[sassyiniowa]

I opened the chicken windows (where we gather our eggs) yesterday morning to find a possum curled up in the hay!! Imagine my surprise. He must have gotten in there the night before and we didn't see him when we locked up our coop. Can't believe he just went to sleep and didn't kill any of our girls!