Possums are Chicken Killers

[centrarchid]

Leave carcass in coop area. Check pen every couple hours concentrating search near carcass. Grab opossum by tail, remove and dispatch. Better yet upgrade your coop so bugger can not get in. Should be easy.

 

[PrimroseMom1]

Leave carcass in coop area. Check pen every couple hours concentrating search near carcass. Grab opossum by tail, remove and dispatch. Better yet upgrade your coop so bugger can not get in. Should be easy.

I prefer to trap and shoot while in the trap. Another BYCer was in her barn when she came upon one. Only thing handy was a pitch fork. You should never let one get away to come back another time so she picked up the pitch fork and pinned it on the barn wall. I saw the foto. Don't know if I could do that. But I can drown and shoot.

 

[centrarchid]

I prefer to trap and shoot while in the trap. Another BYCer was in her barn when she came upon one. Only thing handy was a pitch fork. You should never let one get away to come back another time so she picked up the pitch fork and pinned it on the barn wall. I saw the foto. Don't know if I could do that. But I can drown and shoot.

I walk up to opossum, bend over, and grab it by tail, then pick it up and move to location for easy dispatching. If in a hurry I dispatch by stomping head which for me is as effective as a .22 rifle. These days dogs do it for me but I am still capable. After disposing of carcass, the wash hands properly. I have killed many opossums but spending a modest amount of effort to opossum and raccoon proof a pen is handily the most effective approach. Pitchforks are not a good tool for dispatching.

 

[colleen318]

I got home from work around 11 pm, last night. My dog and I walked out to the chicken coop, to lock the girls up, in their apartment. My dog started going crazy and I shined my flashlight up on the roof of my coop and there was a rather large opossum staring at me. I yelled and hissed and it eventually went away. Chickens are fine. My question, I put my chickens in their coop before I go to work and lock down the coop door. I have doubled all screening on coop. What else can I do to keep them safe?

 

[PrimroseMom1]

I got home from work around 11 pm, last night. My dog and I walked out to the chicken coop, to lock the girls up, in their apartment. My dog started going crazy and I shined my flashlight up on the roof of my coop and there was a rather large opossum staring at me. I yelled and hissed and it eventually went away. Chickens are fine. My question, I put my chickens in their coop before I go to work and lock down the coop door. I have doubled all screening on coop. What else can I do to keep them safe?

What kind of screening do you use? What kind of protection do you use to keep predators from digging under your fence to get into the coop area? How do you lock your coop? Do your chickens free range? If so, when and where. PS always try to kill a possum in your chicken yard. They WILL come back. So far I've only found two. I killed them both. One I found on my back porch. I released that one far away, but I won't do that again. I will kill.

 

[ChickenMatt]

I wacked 12 of them (3 large adults) and 1 female with 9 babies - blut trama over their heads with a spade shovel works great.

No matter how much coop upgrading you do - unless your coup is made of all metal (even then I've seen them pry and bite through mesh. They'll also naw through boards etc. Save your bullets and grab a shovel or pitch fork. They're pretty slow but knarly and smelly.

 

[PrimroseMom1]

I wacked 12 of them (3 large adults) and 1 female with 9 babies - blut trama over their heads with a spade shovel works great.

No matter how much coop upgrading you do - unless your coup is made of all metal (even then I've seen them pry and bite through mesh.  They'll also naw through boards etc.  Save your bullets and grab a shovel or pitch fork.  They're pretty slow but knarly and smelly.

I threw away the carcasses in the woods, but kept the trap I killed them in. I rinsed it with water, but put it in the chicken yard. We had regular possums until then and non now for a year. Someone told me that they stay away from the smell of a killed one. I don't know, but not even my neighbors have seen one since and my dogs would go nuts if one came in the yard. But I am ready with the trap, a can of sardines and my pistol. JS

 

[cafarmgirl]

My coop is wood and 1/4" hardware cloth covers all openings. Nothing has ever gotten in, haven't lost a bird to a predator since the days when I still free ranged, 18 years ago.

 

[PrimroseMom1]

My coop is wood and 1/4" hardware cloth covers all openings.  Nothing has ever gotten in, haven't lost a bird to a predator since the days when I still free ranged, 18 years ago.

Mine is made of the same and haven't list a bird either. But possums are not welcome.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Mine is made of the same and haven't list a bird either. But possums are not welcome.

I agree, they aren't welcome here either. But they are here, along with all the other predators we have around here so we build the pens to keep them all out. I added hot wire around my coops/pens, that combined with my two ranch dogs pretty much discourages critters from coming around or trying to get in. I know they're here, I see their tracks outside our perimeter fence and occasionally see the critters themselves pass by in the night. But there's no food here for them so they keep going.