friendly farm opossum makes rounds around coop

[Bonniebooboo]

opossum, are scavengers as well as hunters. They do have their place in the ecosystem. they are part of the clean up crew on dead things. However they will kill your chickens, I am very aware of that. personally seen this more than once. They are out at dark or just before, have caught them in the chicken pen as early as 3:30 pm and right at lock up time at dusk. I don't go out hunting opossum, but they don't live long when in my yard, either by me or my dogs. I have never seen a opossum afraid of any of my cats, have never seen a cat mess with one, maybe a wild bobcat will, but have never observed that. They look for the easiest way to get in or reach through the wire if a chicken is setting to close to it, have seen them pull on that cheap chicken wire, but never dig to get in. Coons are much more apt to try many routes to get in, checking and testing everything.
Wish you the best.

 

[JurassicBawk]

I live inside a neighborhood but half my 2 acres is in the woods with a larger wooded area behind me. Occasionally the possums get in a fight, or get hurt if attacked by an owl or hawk, and you can hear them from about half a mile away. Occasionally the neighbors call the cops, because it sounds like a child is getting murdered in the woods with all the high pitched screaming. They can hiss like a cat, but they can also scream very loudly and also growl like a mountain lion when fighting amongst themselves. I don't have access to look right now, but when we were initially trying to figure out the noise after moving there we discovered a few videos on YouTube that had the same screams, all from possums.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Go get the cheapest canned fish flavor cat food,bait your trap and enjoy your possum. Bacon might be a little highbrow to catch a possum.

The best possum bait going is a month old dead cow. My coon dogs treed numerous possums hiding in the bloated body cavity of dead livestock. When my family ran a one horse chicken processing plant back in the 50s & 60s a 55 gallon steel drum half full of chicken guts and some 1x6 boards for the possum to walk to the top of the drum before jumping in would supply a trapped possum or two almost every day.

 

[Kusanar]

it appears Mr. snaggles has eluded us for another day, i appreciate all the feedback! the coop is 99.9% secure against most creature types and even the cats have attempted to enter but to no avail. my girls are locked into a roosting cage every night and that acts like the second line of defense. it being completely enclosed( besides vent openings ) is probably the most secure area on the premises besides the cat house in which nothing, i repeat NOTHING goes near without feline consent. i'll keep updates on snaggles situation so wish him luck

What are you baiting the trap with? I would suggest wet cat food or tuna, something stinky.

 

[Kusanar]

I used to walk quite a bit and once found a dead opossum mama by the side of the road. Then saw several scattered tiny babies - dead. Just gruesome but, they looked so raw and tiny, I thought maybe being hit by a car - they were flung out of her by the impact.

I've seen several opossum around here- they squeeze through openings in the old chain link fence, and leave poo around (ugh). I have seen them during daylight hours in summer and wondered if that meant they had rabies. They make my skin crawl

Being marsupials, the babies are carried in a pouch on mama's belly, so finding babies with dead mama's is actually kind of common.. In fact, babies have been rescued from their mothers pouch and rehabbed after their mother was hit by a car.

We had a large dead possum show up at the barn, no sign of what killed it... I checked to make sure it didn't have babies with it before leaving it to rot, turns out it was a male.

 

[GemmaA]

First reason the opossum should be destroyed is because they are not a native species of North America.

I know I'm late to the party but this caught my eye. Opossums were not brought over from europe and are endemic. Opossums came to North America from South America during the Geat American Interchange, which happened millions of years ago. Opossums have been in the Americas long before humans!

 

[ShiftyShickens]

he's hissed a few times but otherwise he's rather the quiet type. very very small though about half the size of a cat. bloodcurdling? no i don't believe I've had the pleasure of hearing that yet thankfully. well I've already put out the live traps and hopefully judgement comes at dawn. thanks for the response!

 

[RollTideChicken]

The small ones are worse mainly because they can fit through even smaller holes. If an opossum gets in your coop you will have dead chickens. Even at his small size he can easily kill adult chickens. Chickens don't see well, if at all, in the dark. Opossum on the other can see quite well in pitch black and this gives them a huge advantage. I eliminate them on contact. But if you are inclined to a more peaceful resolution...totally your call. But if you trap him, better make sure you are allowed to relocate without breaking any laws.

 

[Cryss]

Remember, chicken wire is meant to keep chickens in, not keep predators out. Raccoons and probably possums can rip chicken wire like tissue. Use 1/2 inch hardware cloth wherever a critter can reach through with a paw and grab a chicken. I use it up to 4 feet high on my run. The rest is 1inch by 2 inch wire or smaller. Critters climb and squeeze through anything smaller.
*(EDIT: Oops! I meant anything bigger!)*

 

[Zoomie]

I sympathize. Possums can be very cute, and yes, they are native to North America. I kept a young female as a pet for a while and she did not smell bad at all, she was super easy to train to a litter box and was generally a very pleasant animal. Not very bright, mind you, but quiet and easily cared for and quite clean.

But you know what, they DO kill chickens. That's how they are.

My suggestion is, better the devil you know than the one you don't. If your coop is in the range of this particular possum and so far it's been OK, simply make sure your coop and run are super, duper tight. If you kill this one, another one will move in to the territory, although possums don't seem to mind sharing at least a little... still, there are way more out there. Sounds like this one is young; full grown possums are fairly big animals. You at least have the parents out there too as well as any siblings. Maybe the presence of this one will keep down the competition.