hard to kill a possum in the coop

[cmom]

True story!!!! Roommate killed 3 with a shovel before I got my varmint Hunter BB gun.
it got to the point where it made me sick to my stomach. The thing wouldn’t die fast enough. Didn’t want to prolong the suffering just killed on my dog ran out of the coop. 3 shots and it finally fell off the fence
Buzzard breakfast

 

[Charlestonchicken]

And all I have is a one-shot pellet rifle, ugh. Think I need a shotgun.

Mine also is.. it has a scope. It shoots at 1250fps.
had my roommate hold the flashlight... had to reload twice. Never missed. It wasn’t h til the 3rd shot it gel of the fence into my neighbors yard lol

 

[KristinJ8307]

I learned this lesson myself last night. I always keep a big spotlight on at night and never had a problem. It shines right on the coo and lights up the whole yard. Yesterday my 4yr old turned it off during the day. I realized in the middle of the night and turned it on but not long after my precious Speckled Sussex Buttercup was right up at my sliding glass door squwaking her head off. It was 4:30, my husband just got home from a late job. We went out to investigate and I didn't see anything but it's extremely out of the ordinary for my girl to come out at night and I didn't think I'd left the door to the run open. I am making a upgrade to their coop and there is a big hole in the side that opens into the run and the kids distracted me so maybe I did? Well I walk in the coop and another hen was up on a plank just under the roof. Our coop and run are made from repurposed pallets. The top of the run has wood all around and the only place there isn't chicken wire so she was up there. Very, very strange - never seen them up there but I had just turned on the light not long before and maybe it spooked them? That's what I was thinking because I didn't see anything and the third chicken was still up in the coop on their regular perch. I tried to put Buttercup in and she freaked out and wasn't having it. They were acting kinda weird in hindsight but I was tired and not thinking straight. I was trying to clamp the door I'm making to the hole to cover it and make it dark in the coop box, maybe that's why they were being funny? Too bright in there from the spotlight?

I was standing on there ramp and here something fall, there are odds and ends and piece of pallets n such right out side the door. Ok...that weird I'm thinking. Next thing I know a huge possum comes barreling thru the door so hard that he literally came thru the center of the closed wooden door, like something you would see in a cartoon. HOLY SH*T!!!!! All hell broke loose, the chickens started going nuts!!! Squwaking and flapping and that huge sucker was going straight for buttercup I'm screaming and freaking out, all I had was a flashlight at the moment. Buttercup jumped up high to a pallet and now I have a small garden ho that is my daughter's and made of thin metal and blocking the doorway so instead of running out the possum ran into a compartment under the coop, I have a big open space and then under the coop there is a pallet that separates the 2 sections, one pallet deep and one pallet wide. The other section is 2 pallets deep n one wide. I was shining the flashlight on the possum (which I learned on here so thanks a million BYC bc I didn't know that would make him freeze!!). It stood there staring at me, I think it got into the water or something during the melee trying to attack Buttercup bc she jump on the waterer to jump up high bc it had water dripping from it's nasty mouth. My husband came out to see what the commotion was. I told him get something to kill it. There was a big, heavy rake with sharp metal teeth just out of my reach, I was wishing I had it closer so bad. Finally my husband came back with the shovel and a machete. I grabbed the rake. My husband to the rake to try to smash the possum and it ran thru the pallet separater. Now it was in an even more inaccessible area bc the ramp is in the way and it's the back corner. Then it tried to climb the pallet wall, from the inside. Thank God I knew the floor of the coop with completely seal from down below bc 2 chickens were in there, still squwaking their heads off. My husband went around the side to try to kill it with the machete from the outside, he stabbed between the wooden planks time and again but the machete just wasn't cutting it. So then the thing tried running to a closer to the front section and back into the pallet wall again. This time my husband rammed it with the shovel in the head a bunch of times and stunned it and then pinned it by the neck against the wall. Then he said, they are your chickens, kill it!!

Me?!?! What?!? Me, kill it,?!?! Why? No, you kill it!! And he's like I don't wanna kill it, you do it. OMG OMG OMG, HOW??? Take the machete he says. So I grabbed the machete and tried to chop it's head off but it's inside the pallet wall so I just can't get a good angle or swing and I'm chopping wood more than hitting possum. I'm looking at this gnarly mouth and start think about some of the stories I read on here and how sad I would be if that sucker had gotten my chickens and how sad my kids would be and I say screw this!! I'm getting a knife. I run in the house and grab the longest 2 carving knives we have, one serated and one not, put on some leather welding gloves to protect my hand just in case things get squirrelly and go back out. The possum was looking pretty dead at this point but my husband said it ain't dead it's playing possum you gotta make sure its dead. So I tried to slit its throat with the knife and couldnt, tried cutting with the serated knife and still was getting anywhere, those suckers have some serious thick skin. So my husband says stab it thru the ear, you'll get in there. So that's what's I finally did, stabbed it thru the ear with the knife that wasn't serrated. And stabbed and stabbed and then I got the serated knife and rammed it in there and twisted it all around for good measure. Then it was finally good and dead.

I never thought I would do such a thing. I watched my brother killed a rabbit with a shovel when I was a little girl and felt so bad and swore I'd never harm a willd creature and at first I did have a really tough time but when I started thinking about the massacre I could've woken up to, it made my blood boil!!!

We got it out with the rake and shovel and buried it in the yard. Chickens were chilled out immediately. Like the minute that thing was dead they stoped squwaking like they somehow knew it was dead. I put them in my garage for the rest of the night just bc I was so shook up.

So do possums live as family units or are they solitary? Should I expect more attacks? I will be upgrading my coop in the coming days that is for sure!! Armored door and I'm gonna make the thing impenetrable!!!

God, why did I ever get chickens???

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yes, make your coop like Ft Knox, then you will never have to do anything like that again!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yes, make your coop like Ft Knox, then you will never have to do anything like that again!

Your husband must fear you now!