Midway through every night either my bladder or Mister's snoring wakes me up. Last night while I was up I heard a noise from the chicken coops & went out to investigate. All the chickens in one coop were huddled out in the corner of their pen, and when I went in I saw the reason why-- in a corner nest box, where a bantam hen had been setting a clutch of 6 standard eggs, was a HUGE opossum! He was just curled up in there with his pointy teeth shining in the lantern-light. He hadn't even eaten all the eggs, but was sitting amongst them -- I imagined him like the cats in the cartoons, getting out his cookbook and looking at all the recipes for chick-filled eggs (balut anyone?)
On the floor next to the nest box was the poor Mama hen, still warm, but dead with her neck broken. She didn't have any other marks on her, no bites, cuts, blood or missing feathers. The opossum seemed more interested in eating the eggs than the hen.
I was able to contain him in the nest box, which is a plastic plant pot. I slipped a larger horse water bucket over it, and then dumped the opossum with the remaining eggs into a wire cage. I briefly considered grabbing the intact eggs to incubate, but knew it would be a stupid risk with all those sharp snarling opossum teeth right next to them. I have an old plastic truck tool box just larger than the wire cage, I filled it with water & dropped the cage in to drown the opossum. As a precaution, I had zip-tied all the edges of the wire cage door, but I don't think it could have gotten out of the truck box even if it had gotten out of the cage. But you never know when you're dealing with a 4-legged Houdini.
Does anyone here know about opossum anatomy? Before I buried the carcass I checked to see if it was male or female. I really didn't want to pry too closely, but it seemed to have a pale 2-pronged penis? And 2 fuzzy round bumps in front of it? Definately weird. He had long fangs sticking out over his lower lip.
This opossum passed by 3 Hav-a-Hart traps baited with old eggs. Now I have them baited with smelly canned cat food. Do you know of anything better to use to catch opossums? Fire ants are a problem here, they swarm over most baits, that's why I had been using old eggs. When I use cat food I have to set the cans in a bowl of soapy water to make a moat.
Here's hoping for quiet, safe nights for all of our hens & chicks!
On the floor next to the nest box was the poor Mama hen, still warm, but dead with her neck broken. She didn't have any other marks on her, no bites, cuts, blood or missing feathers. The opossum seemed more interested in eating the eggs than the hen.
I was able to contain him in the nest box, which is a plastic plant pot. I slipped a larger horse water bucket over it, and then dumped the opossum with the remaining eggs into a wire cage. I briefly considered grabbing the intact eggs to incubate, but knew it would be a stupid risk with all those sharp snarling opossum teeth right next to them. I have an old plastic truck tool box just larger than the wire cage, I filled it with water & dropped the cage in to drown the opossum. As a precaution, I had zip-tied all the edges of the wire cage door, but I don't think it could have gotten out of the truck box even if it had gotten out of the cage. But you never know when you're dealing with a 4-legged Houdini.
Does anyone here know about opossum anatomy? Before I buried the carcass I checked to see if it was male or female. I really didn't want to pry too closely, but it seemed to have a pale 2-pronged penis? And 2 fuzzy round bumps in front of it? Definately weird. He had long fangs sticking out over his lower lip.
This opossum passed by 3 Hav-a-Hart traps baited with old eggs. Now I have them baited with smelly canned cat food. Do you know of anything better to use to catch opossums? Fire ants are a problem here, they swarm over most baits, that's why I had been using old eggs. When I use cat food I have to set the cans in a bowl of soapy water to make a moat.
Here's hoping for quiet, safe nights for all of our hens & chicks!
