Possums are Chicken Killers

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote: It's illegal to trap and relocate.
If you aren't going to kill them, don't bother to trap them.
Relocating just make them someone else's problem

You can get a good live trap for abour $50

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

So did you use the possums as bait for the Gator?

 

[Cheryls]

Gator was kinda hanging out. We thought he was smelling my girls! So we call Wildlife Dept. and they sent gator man out. He set trap, using chicken wings! four days later he was caught! We thought he was about 6 feet, well we were wrong. He was alittle over 10. He gator man sells the hide and he keeps the meat. He gave my hubby a leg and part of the tail meat. He said if he sold whole thing he could get 500.00!

 

[PrimroseMom1]

Gator was kinda hanging out. We thought he was smelling my girls! So we call Wildlife Dept. and they sent gator man out. He set trap, using chicken wings! four days later he was caught! We thought he was about 6 feet, well we were wrong. He was alittle over 10. He gator man sells the hide and he keeps the meat. He gave my hubby a leg and part of the tail meat. He said if he sold whole thing he could get 500.00!

Very cool story.

 

[Chicken Itza]

It's illegal to trap and relocate.
If you aren't going to kill them, don't bother to trap them.
Relocating just make them someone else's problem

You can get a good live trap for abour $50

OK. Fair enough. I have heard differently around here over the years, ie: local DNR policy, etc. (And I wouldn't stupidly drop them off somewhere without permish anyway; I'm not a complete fool!).

 

[jmandawn]

Just as a heads up, opossums will eat ANYthing left outside including dogfood and catfood. So do not tempt them. Also they can get into anything, chicken wire ALONE does not stop them. S Georgia opossums get HUGE, over 30 lbs for some older ones, our 85lb dog just looks at them and says no-way am i gonna mess wid dat!!

Hahaha...funny you mentioned catfood. A friend of ours boss noticed the cat bowl on his back deck was empty every morning and he thought he was feeding a stray cat. He kept putting out extra food for the next three weeks. Got up one night in the middle of the night and saw the possum feasting away. That was the end of the "extra" cat food.

 

[jmandawn]

We have a Pit Bull that adored the chickens and would let them crawl on him and they would run inside his doghouse and hang out different times during the day. He has killed a few possum that came close to the chicken coop while we were in Tennessee. He hates coons/possums but loves chickens!

 

[neophyte17]

I only have two roosters and they sleep inside the house. During the day they free range only while I am home then they go into their coop with a run but my dobie is outside with them. My other dogs and my dobie kill about a possum every week

 

[PrimroseMom1]

We have a Pit Bull that adored the chickens and would let them crawl on him and they would run inside his doghouse and hang out different times during the day.  He has killed a few possum that came close to the chicken coop while we were in Tennessee.  He hates coons/possums but loves chickens! 

My kind of dog.

 

[Zoeyheart]

I caught my first possum last night, I have lost at least 8 hens in the past year. it is about the size of a cat. I still suspect most of the damage is racoon, though I have never seen one here. I live on a penninsula/island area with lots of mangroves and I think they live around there. Trying to decide how to deal with this critter now.

Jackie