...but they're so cute

[suburbanhomesteader]

Gads! I went out to make sure my girls were all tucked in (their pop hole door is on a timer) and saw a baby possum sitting up on the top of the chunnel, drooling on the one girl who didn't go into the coop but decided to stay outside for the night.

Dang if they aren't cute when they're little. And dang if I shouldn't start keeping a paint ball gun or some other weapon (other than my snake tongs) out by the coop/chunnel.

Chunnel 1, Possum 0

 

[WillieBoy]

Cute, but deadly...don't be fooled...the little cutie will grow into a fll grown chicken terror..!
Paintballs won't stop it from killing..Protect your birds, you know what you to do...Good Luck

 

[Mattemma]

My friend lives in the city and feeds the baby possums in her yard.She was horrified that I would kill any animal let alone *cuties* like the pos and coon.All I could say is we live different lives and need to respect the choices the other makes.Yea,all babies are cute.

 

[lauralou]

Possums are cute?

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder....

 

[oesdog]

Sad but you have to do what needs done to protect your flock!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah little critters are cute - like the lovely little mouse that used to run under my coop - until one day I went outside and about 20 of them were stealing the food and looked at me like I had three heads. - So I bought traps and killed them all. -

You have to protect your flock and that sometimes means killing the cute preditors! Not that mice were much of that just pests and disease spreaders!!!! It makes you feel bad but you need to be that person for you girls!!!! Imagine how you would have felt if the thing had killed your hen that didn;t go inside! I would check them everynight and make sure the chickens are all safe inside!!!!!!!!

Oesdog

 

[jmc]

so whaddya gonna do to get rid of him.

seriously.

live trap then a nice bath, or..........a shovel............

keep posted on what you do..........

 

[Lunachick]

Yikes. Before I go to bed at night I snap the outside light on to check the yard and coop. I usually see this one old scraggly opossum munching away on stuff the chickens didn't eat. He never bothered my hens. I never see him sniffing around the run or coop and I don't think they as as clever as a coon, so this opossum just eats what it finds and leaves.

My neighbor next door lost their house and a crew of some sort came by to dismantle their ugly rusty shed, and there was an opossom in there, he must be the guy I see at night. I know they are omniverous, but do they really eat your chickens?

Mine are safe at night but.................now I'm worrying.

 

[Nostalchic]

Possums are nocturnal and if you shut your chickens into a secure coop at nightfall they will be safe from them. If you don't, they won't. So do. Possums will most certainly kill and eat chickens at night when they're roosting/sleeping and sitting "ducks" more or less, and then the possum sometimes curls up in a nest and takes a little nap. I know this because I have inadvertently shut them INTO the coop before (we used to live in Indiana- we don't have them here) when I closed the pop-door very late at night for whatever reason (out partying) and would have a big (bad) surprise in the morning. But just shut your chickens in at night. They'll be fine. You don't have to kill him, and there's no reason to.

 

[Tala]

I also thinks possums are cute. Heck I think young raccons have cute mannerisms, but I still shoot them because I know that they become savvy killers faster than you can blink.
Anyways, on possums I think they are more opportunist than hunters, they are scavengers that will eat just about anything, but will also kill your birds if given the chance. My coop is strong enough to keep them out, so I do let the possums go. I've heard if you get rid of the possums then your rat problem will explode....
Basically you do what you gotta do to keep your birds safe. If the possums start tearing my coop apart I'll do what needs to be done.

 

[billfields]

Quote:
Absolutely right!!!

Protecting chickens (or any other domestic critter we happen to have) is a people job and killing some other critter that comes along and does what they do is not the only answer. Bottom line, you leave your chickens where some possum (or coon or dog or coyote or hawk or fox or owl or.....)can get them it's not the possum-coon-dog-owl-fox's fault nor is it the chicken's.