Possums are Chicken Killers

[gotthefever]

I share this with, "Peace and Love, Peace and Love" (Ringo Starr)

Wild animals belong. Simple.

Killing... why? More of what you kill will come back immediately or eventually to fill the gap, where vermin (mice, rats, moles, voles, bugs) live.

Just protect the coop, protect the run. Nature can be in harmony I need my foxes, coons to keep the freakin mice down.

EPM may not be the critical concern as we have been misinformed about. Opossums help kill deer ticks (helping with lyme), basically never carry rabies, never attack people (in fact, rarely "attack" anything. They are just too slow.) They don't dig in the yard, don't dig into your house...they will follow something else that does though, and try to snuggle someplace warm...with a coon or in a ahem, chicken coop?

Get some questions answered here...

http://opossumsocietyus.org/faq-opossum/#I heard horses could get EPM from opossums

 

[PrimroseMom1]

I share this with,  "Peace and Love, Peace and Love" (Ringo Starr)

Wild animals belong.  Simple.  

Killing... why?  More of what you kill will come back immediately or eventually to fill the gap, where vermin (mice, rats, moles, voles, bugs) live.  

Just protect the coop, protect the run.  Nature can be in harmony  I need my foxes, coons to keep the freakin mice down.  

EPM may not be the critical concern as we have been misinformed about.  Opossums help kill deer ticks (helping with lyme), basically never carry rabies, never attack people (in fact, rarely "attack" anything. They are just too slow.) They don't dig in the yard, don't dig into your house...they will follow something else that does though, and try to snuggle someplace warm...with a coon or in a ahem, chicken coop?

Get some questions answered here...

http://opossumsocietyus.org/faq-opossum/#I heard horses could get EPM from opossums

I honor your right to live by that. I will kill Possums that are in my chicken yard. I killed two about a year ago and have had no further problems with them. If more come, I will kill those also. I will do everything I can to kill or ride my chicken yard from predators. There is room for two opinions. JS

 

[chkn]

You gotta do what you gotta do. One thing I've found positive about possums though is they hunt rats and mice. I found one hunting a rat that had been hanging around my front porch steps. I feel kinda sorry for them unless they get into the coop. But then everything's locked down and electrified these days.

 

[myhenhouse]

I laughed when I saw this even tho it's years old... same thing happened to us last night, went to put our last gurl to bed and husband saw in the corner of the coop a possum... He pulled out his gun and shot him... wow if we didn't have to put our last gurl who by the way stayed out too late to bed then we would have never known that possum was in the coop with all our other gurls. I wasn't sure we did the right thing as I didn't know if he was looking for eggs or a chicken and now I know!

 

[gotthefever]

Primrosemom1.

I absolutely give the benefit of the doubt. My coop and run is protected from foxes, coons and hawks, the baddest of the bad where I live. If they can't get in, a possum can't. Note again, the soft hands and nails like a human. If they get in, I will see, just what killed the chicken, not just where it ate...possums are around all the time and I'm positive are lured by the smell of death. They can eat the most rotting garbage with no ill effects. Hmmm, should be a possum station at the landfill.

There is room for discourse. I have yet to see a post or video of eyewitness to possum "attacking" and killing a chicken, but there are many such about weasels, foxes and Raccoons.

I saw the prints in the snow...the possum, lets call him Pete, came under the back gate (40 yards from the house) walked the garden line (didn't even walk over to sniff the coop and run) and up to the porch where I leave food for the birds, and now the "possum friend".

I won't be sorry I feed the possum, because it can't get into the coop. It can't get into the coop, because a fox or raccoon can't get in to the coop.

At the moment, the only thing that can get in is a weasel, but it won't until I get the 1 inch gaps in the fence plugged, because they are afraid of new things and it takes them a few months to approach something new.

-A

 

[gotthefever]

How did it get in your coop and run? Shame.

 

[ttigresa]

My chickens are lost to ALL kinds of predators. I have had a neighbor report that she saw a hawk come swoop down and grab the matriarch of my flock, a very large Brahma hen. The bird was too heavy, so it killed her and dragged her to an obscure place to eat her there. I have also had coyote or fox come and get my birds when I have forgotten to close the door at night. Even with a light on and a radio at night.

I have 5 acres that I am not really able to fence in yet and my coop is completely made of chicken wire except the back wall at the north end. It is over 6' high and has a wood frame and a metal roof. The chicken wire is weighted down by 18 " rebar threaded through the holes every 12-18 inches. If a hen gets under the building the coop is built against to lay her eggs an opossum WILL get them eventually. I haven't seen a raccoon for over 2 years and there are no feral cats around.

We've done this chicken thing for about 3 years now and have lost ALL of our original flock of 18 birds as well as a second flock of 12 (well, all but 2). I welcome suggestions as to how to keep the wildlife from preying on our birds, but you must know this is a food thing for us. WE eat chickens and of course eggs. I would like to keep the cost down by being able to keep our birds for ourselves.

 

[ttigresa]

With all due respect, gotthefever, opossum DO dig into your house if there is a wet place where the wood is soft. THAT is how I found out there was a soft spot in my flooring in a modular home! They have burrowed under my flooring and made a home there for I don't know how long before I found THEM keeping warm there next to my heat shafts. I did NOT have to kill them, however. All I did was put up a board that was solid and they couldn't get in there anymore. Incidentally, the hole they made was under my sliding glass doors on my back deck where it does not attach to the wall. They must have smelled a bantam chicken who regularly nested in that spot before they created the opening.

 

[ConPollos]

Won't hanging wolf pee or bear pee around the coop keep possums away?

 

[mechey]

pick up a iron pipe or ax and hit him in the head. works every time. i have found them in my hen house and have eradicated a few with this method. I hate possoms who sneek up on these poor helpless chickens while they are asleep.