When we go out in the evening I normally try to get home before dark or not too long after dark so I can get the chickens closed up in their house. We live pretty far out in the country, in the middle of many, many, many acres of woods. Despite all the warnings about predators we got prior to buying our chickens, we haven't seen many so far - it's been almost a year since we got our first birds. Though in the past month we saw a fox, and have seen possums in the trees a few times. None of them have ever bothered the chickens, the possums just seem to be interested in the chicken feed. We have a covered area beside the chicken coop inside the pen where we feed the chickens - with all the rain we had last fall and this winter it seemed to be the best way to keep the food dry. I also brought up several leftover Christmas trees from the tree lot at my work that I've set up around the covered area to make a wind block/tree house where the girls can hide out from the weather or hawks/eagles.
Anyway, back to trying to get home close to dark. Last night we were out a little later than I would have liked, around 10:45...well after dark. I immediately went out to the chicken pen. All the girls were in the house, sitting on their roosts, everything was completely normal. I said good night to them, closed their door and went around to the side of the house to hang their feeder. For the past month or so I've been hanging the feeder from a center rafter in the covered area so nothing can get into it at night. I picked up the feeder and turned to hang it up, and for some reason thought to shine my flashlight around in the "tree house" area. As I straightened up and turned, I found myself face to butt with the biggest dang possum I've ever seen up close. I was literally about 2 feet from this beast's butt! Scared the bajeebers out of me! There were two more smaller possums much higher up in the trees.
This is probably about the 6th time we've found possums in the trees in the chicken pen. They've never bothered the birds. Even when we had our guineas and the guineas roosted on the roof of the coop at night, the possums never bothered anyone. My husband wanted to shoot this big possum last night, but I wouldn't let him. He was standing out in the pen with me pointing my 9mm at this big guy all ready to pull the trigger. I said no. First, it was after 11:00 by the time he got out there with me and I think it would have freaked the neighbors out a little if they heard us shooting that late at night. Second, I'm sure it would have freaked the chickens out more than the possum did (which would have been a lot since they weren't phased at all about the possum being there). Third, so far we've been really lucky and the possums haven't bothered the chickens at all. I know, I know! The key word there is "lucky". I am a little afraid that it's only a matter of time before the possums go after the chickens. But as long as I get home early enough to close them up before the possums come out, we shouldn't have a problem. I hate the idea of killing a creature that hasn't done anything wrong, but it seems like it would be a waste of time to attempt to trap them and move them somewhere else. We literally live in the middle of probably a few hundred acres of woods. We can't get rid of all the possible predators.
Is it possible to lure them to another area? Maybe put a compost pile somewhere farther away from the chicken pen? I would guess that possums aren't all that different than any other creature...who really wants to work for their food when they can get it prepared for them?
Anyway, back to trying to get home close to dark. Last night we were out a little later than I would have liked, around 10:45...well after dark. I immediately went out to the chicken pen. All the girls were in the house, sitting on their roosts, everything was completely normal. I said good night to them, closed their door and went around to the side of the house to hang their feeder. For the past month or so I've been hanging the feeder from a center rafter in the covered area so nothing can get into it at night. I picked up the feeder and turned to hang it up, and for some reason thought to shine my flashlight around in the "tree house" area. As I straightened up and turned, I found myself face to butt with the biggest dang possum I've ever seen up close. I was literally about 2 feet from this beast's butt! Scared the bajeebers out of me! There were two more smaller possums much higher up in the trees.
This is probably about the 6th time we've found possums in the trees in the chicken pen. They've never bothered the birds. Even when we had our guineas and the guineas roosted on the roof of the coop at night, the possums never bothered anyone. My husband wanted to shoot this big possum last night, but I wouldn't let him. He was standing out in the pen with me pointing my 9mm at this big guy all ready to pull the trigger. I said no. First, it was after 11:00 by the time he got out there with me and I think it would have freaked the neighbors out a little if they heard us shooting that late at night. Second, I'm sure it would have freaked the chickens out more than the possum did (which would have been a lot since they weren't phased at all about the possum being there). Third, so far we've been really lucky and the possums haven't bothered the chickens at all. I know, I know! The key word there is "lucky". I am a little afraid that it's only a matter of time before the possums go after the chickens. But as long as I get home early enough to close them up before the possums come out, we shouldn't have a problem. I hate the idea of killing a creature that hasn't done anything wrong, but it seems like it would be a waste of time to attempt to trap them and move them somewhere else. We literally live in the middle of probably a few hundred acres of woods. We can't get rid of all the possible predators.
Is it possible to lure them to another area? Maybe put a compost pile somewhere farther away from the chicken pen? I would guess that possums aren't all that different than any other creature...who really wants to work for their food when they can get it prepared for them?
