I just panicked and kicked a possum in the face.

[bingrancher]

My coop sits a few inches off the ground and I had a family of opossums living under it. I cornered the mother in the run and had to go get my 17 hmr and caught up with her in a tree and then I almost stepped on a young one and followed it around for abit and ended up getting 3 that night and another 2 young ones in the live trap. I caught the father in the trap a few days later. The father was a visitor to my moms house for the cat food. It would walk on her deck and eat beside the cats and stare at us through the sliding glass door. I know it was the same one because my step dad peppered its tail with a 410 and only had a couple inches left, so yeah id say its coming back.

 

[Bush Chickens]

OMG, I can't believe you did that!

Those things are creepy, scary, nasty! You are very brave!!!!

Definitely put out a trap, and keep putting it out. We've caught possums as often as 3 nights in a row sometimes at our place. I hate them with a passion. They're like big disgusting rats, IMO. Blech! One night I heard my husband's shop dog barking, and it just sounded like a bark that meant something was wrong, so we went out there, and a possum was in the dog pen, blocking the dog door that goes into the shop, so the dog couldn't get in. It was baring its teeth at the dog, hissing - yuk!! Hubby took care of that possum speedy quick. Between what he kills, and what I see dead on the road, we have lots of them here. I always say "It don't pay to be a possum on this road." LOL

they arent icky or nasty! they're cute! & if you built your coop well enough then they arent an issue!!!!so there!

rant over >:[

 

[Bush Chickens]

i cannot BELIEVE you ppl have the heart to SHOOT &/or kill BABY possums!!!

 

[Sparrow]

I have hand caught and removed multiple opossums from my old coops..and they do come back. Evenafter I spent an hour dragging one out of the wild rose bush(ouch!!!) by the tail one morning...he was back in the duck coop raiding eggs by nightfall. I have also kept one as a pet, and they have a VERY bad bite if you don't know how to handle them properly. He bit me on accident, but it certainly confirmed my suspicions. lol They are very strong, too.

.....I never killed an oppossum(would gladly have killed the raccoon that decimated my flock though), but they are persistent in returning to a food source. They will not attack you on their own, but if you must deal with them, know what you are doing or it will hurt! lol

 

[Brenasun]

You must have machismo possums in Tennessee. Anytime someone here kicks a possum in the face as hard as they can we expect the possum to sull up like he was dead, we call it "playing possum."

The last interaction of the unexpected kind that I had with a possum or that a possum had with me, I hit it on the back with a rolled up news paper and the possum fainted dead away for at least 5 minutes. I used the interlude to fetch an empty feed sack to imprison the Pogo impersonator in it until I could take him to a friend of mine who enjoys baked possum on a bed of sweet potatoes. If your possum comes back let me know if you need the recipe.

I can't tell if this is a joke... do people really eat possum?

 

[bwahk]

i cannot BELIEVE you ppl have the heart to SHOOT &/or kill BABY possums!!!

 

I'm sorry but I have to agree. I saw a baby possum orphaned when the mother was taken away by animal control, the poor thing was so tiny. It hid under my porch and I was keeping an eye on it. Few days later my neighbor comes running and screaming with a shovel and bludgeons it to death. I was heartbroken.

I completely understand keeping your coop and hens safe, but I can never imagine killing one unless it was rabid.

 

[Sparrow]

I'm sorry but I have to agree. I saw a baby possum orphaned when the mother was taken away by animal control, the poor thing was so tiny. It hid under my porch and I was keeping an eye on it. Few days later my neighbor comes running and screaming with a shovel and bludgeons it to death. I was heartbroken.

I completely understand keeping your coop and hens safe, but I can never imagine killing one unless it was rabid.

I personally don't think I could be compelled to kill something like an opossum that is so easy to keep out of a well-reinforced coop, I am personally kind of partial to them anyway. Raccoons are another story.After having one rogue break the doors on several of my coops just to kill some and mutilate many of my birds(geese, turkeys, chickens), and then hide the carcass of my beautiful, tame white chinese goose until the next night when he dragged it around my yard and left it on my porch...I would have killed that creature in a second. He even broke out of the raccoon live trap I had caught him in so that I could dispose of him. Sometimes when faced with that kind of awful scenario because of animal that is actually killing for pleasure, you tend to be able to change your mind on the no-kill policy. :/

 

[animallover505]

I'd never kill a possum. But my dogs kill all the possoms they see. And my dad is scared of them, he kills all the ones he sees too.

 

[bwahk]

Raccoons and rats are a completely different story... they're devious little things. Fortunately for me we don't have many around here.

Possums aren't vicious just for fun, and like you said... if your coop is well built you shouldn't have any issues. I mean... if you do happen to have some crazy possum try to attack you (hard to imagine), then it should be 'taken care of'.

My issue is when people talk about killing babies, I just can't get over that.

 

[Bellatrixed]

i cannot BELIEVE you ppl have the heart to SHOOT &/or kill BABY possums!!!

I don't like killing anything. It makes me squeamish and I think all animals, even possums, are interesting and deserve to live. But not when they're menacing my animals.

A family of possums living under or near a chicken coop should be taken care of, IMO. Also, even a well-built coop can occasionally be broken into. No need to tempt fate by letting chicken killers shack up next door.

As an aside, I have only had to kill one possum ever. The thing kept slinking around the duck houses and I kept seeing it pulling at the wire. They were built well, but no way was I risking that it found a weak spot one night. Would you rather baby possums lived or you woke up one day to find your chickens dead and those cute little baby possums munching on them?