Help! Opossum in Nesting Box!

[OhZark Biddies]

Or replace the opossums with guinea fowl of your own.

My dad tried to have guineas for tick control and they just wouldn't work out... leaving the area around the house for nearby pastures.

Interestingly, there was a study a while back by some state's DNR (Maryland maybe) that was trying to see if guineas could help with Lyme disease, and they found that guineas did not eat any more ticks than chickens or other fowl.... so I guess maybe granny was wrong about that when she told us that!

Also possums are WAYYYY more quite than guineas!

 

[imnukensc]

I was just reading about coyotes. Did you know that if it's a male and you kill it, the females automatically go into heat(attracting another male) and end up having a whole litter each? So killing one male can potentially cause up to 20 more being born(if there are 3-4 females left behind). I found it amazing and makes sense that in my area pups are born and heard all year round.

Can you provide a reference to this info. I certainly can't seem to find any to corroborate this. All the info I find says they breed once a year in early spring. Mentions nothing about alpha male or female.

 

[Zeke the Hen]

I went out to collect the eggs and I found a GIANT opossum in on of our nesting boxes. He ate all of our eggs too. It was almost dark and the chickens were panicking and they wouldn't go into their coop. We called our neighbor who took care of him, but what should I do if this happens in the future? We have a batam and we are getting 5 more in a couple of weeks, and that opossum easily could've eaten her. Any tips on how to keep these pests out? Also, I have seen it wandering around their coop for a couple of weeks, and something seems to be attracting it, does anyone have any tips??

Look for the entry point in the coop. They will normally leave a trail of some sort. Get yourself a cage trap and put the entrance of trap in front of whatever hole the opossum got through. It will go through the trap if it is the only way to your chickens. Then neutralize the demon. Continue to do this until they don't show up any longer. An Opossum and it's friend killed 3 of my chickens and only ate their stomach areas. After this I killed 21 Opossums between the months of October and November with this method. No joke. They don't come around there anymore. Opossums will always remember where they scored an easy meal, and others will follow in the raider's footsteps. In the 15 years I have spent raising chickens, Opossums have always been the biggest threat to my chickens. The only way I have found to deter them is to capture and eradicate them.

 

[Trux]

That doesn't sound credible at all.

It is, there has been research done and papers written
http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2011...or-why-killing-coyotescoywolves-doesn’t-work/
just one example

 

[llombardo]

I love opossums, have had them around and love so because they take care of mice better and safer than any bait, they also get rid of snakes, roaches and other pests.
Opossums DON'T carry rabies as some people think, they don't attack you or your pets, they are solitary yes, and territorial, so you will never see more than 1 or 2 around your property unless it's breeding season.
My humble opinion: secure your coop just because if an opossum made it inside so will a cat or other animals that will actually harm your chickens. But let the opossums be, they are a blessing to have around.
We have never called pest control of any kind, never had roaches or mice or snakes.
If opossums are stealing eggs and even rat bait it is probably because there is not much food around. Whenever this happens I just leave some cat food outside for them.

I'm with you. I came home recently to one checking out a box that was delivered to my front door. I do everything I can to make sure all creatures are safe--I don't want opposums or raccoons eating my chickens and I don't want my dogs eating raccoons and oppossums. I have a huge tree line and last summer I had both a family of raccoons and oppossums. Used to see skunks everywhere but not as much now. I was against electric fencing until inrealized they were trying to get in. Even with the electric fencing I stay on guard, even though there is really no logical way for them to get in the run to get to the coop.

 

[imnukensc]

It is, there has been research done and papers written
http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2011/10/07/biological-mechanisms-for-why-killing-coyotescoywolves-doesn’t-work/
just one example

If I am reading those papers correctly, neither documents a single female having more than one litter per year. Someone please correct me if I am mistaken.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

So the indiscriminant killing of coyotes probably explains why they have survived mankind’s encroachments better than other forms of wildlife. They fight back by making tons of little coyotes and those hungry little coyotes go out and eat whatever they can find.

A more reasonable and credible reason for their growth is suburbanization and governments' re-introduction of coyotes in various areas. People in suburbs, and city slickers who retire to the country, don't shoot coyotes, so they spread.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

If I am reading those papers correctly neither documents a single female having more than one litter per year. Someone please correct me if I am mistaken.

those papers also offer up observations from one study, but if you pay attention to the website/blog site article that mentions them, what is written heavily suggests that removing alphas has this impact every time, all the time... which is not the case...

all of this is mostly just a case of folks repeating a condensed version of what is a complex set of biological mechanisms and not taking the time to look into the nuisance of it .

 

[OhZark Biddies]

... governments' re-introduction of coyotes in various areas.

I doubt this has ever actually happened... as coyotes have been spreading on their own quite well for 50+ years, and it's been well documented all along... but maybe?

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

If I am reading those papers correctly, neither documents a single female having more than one litter per year. Someone please correct me if I am mistaken.

That study was done on Cape Cod. What a ridiculous place to do a study on coyotes. No one shoots them there.

A lot of science these days is cr@p. It really doesn't take much real-world intelligence to get through college these days. I bet the guy who wrote those pieces has a history of activism. Activism and science do not go together because the former virtually always biases and skews the latter.