Opossum in my chicken house

[Slimp Farm]

So tonight I go put my chickens up and as I'm walking out there I notice my 2 ducks who live with the chickens are up eating. I notice something else in there eating to and as I get close its a big oppossum. Of course I scare it so it leaves. I'm really shocker it didn't kill my girls is it because there was food out? I have had them kill little chicks before. I have noticed some of my eggs have been eaten during the day and I thought it was a chicken but now I'm not sure. What do you guys think?

 

[boskelli1571]

Well, the camp is divided into two sides....kill it/don't kill it. I have had possums in the henhouse and they haven't harmed the hens at all. They will take eggs, feed and chicks if available, but it seems to me that they are quite non-aggressive unless cornered.
If it was me, I would live and let live, it's eating the chicken food so is unlikely to kill a bird imho.

 

[shortgrass]

Well, the camp is divided into two sides....kill it/don't kill it. I have had possums in the henhouse and they haven't harmed the hens at all. They will take eggs, feed and chicks if available, but it seems to me that they are quite non-aggressive unless cornered.
   If it was me, I would live and let live, it's eating the chicken food so is unlikely to kill a bird imho.

X2

I actually agree here

I encourage opossums to loiter, and I feed them when I see them out and about at night. I've noticed my other predators don't really stick around as long as the opossums are here. Yeah, they've swiped eggs that I left outside, and the dog goes nuts lol, but they really aren't bothering anything here. I've got a young one that will actually let me pet it, although I don't recommend trying that at home lol

I would, however, try to keep it out of the actual henhouse; it IS a wild predators, after all. Unpredictable, and if something happened I would shoulder the blame. But better than a pet coon or fox, any day

 

[Isaac 0]

You could trap it and relocate it somewhere else far away

 

[cassie]

I wouldn't be so much worried about the opossum as the fact that if an opossum can get in a raccoon certainly can. A raccoon can wipe out your whole flock of chickens in a night or two. My neighbor can tell you all about that.

 

[Howard E]

Do a BYC search for all the threads on possums and chickens. Possums will kill adult birds. Just saying.

If you don't want to kill it, better find a way to keep it at arm's length. First and foremost, do the "tighten up" so it can't get to the feed or birds.

After that, you can try to feed it elsewhere if you want to keep it around. My guess is if you prevent it from getting to the feed and birds, it will go elsewhere on it's own.

 

[aart]

You could trap it and relocate it somewhere else far away

My view on relocation of chicken predators and/or nuisance animals.

It's really better to kill them...for many reasons.

-You've just introduced trap savvy pest/predator animals into someone else's 'backyard'.

-The spread of disease is a very real aspect and why it's illegal in many states to relocate trapped predator animals.

-Releasing an animal into another animals territory could well sign it's death warrant anyway, in case you were thinking of 'saving' the 'poor little creature'. Probably a worse death than a quick shot to the head or even a 'trashcan drowning'.

Since we've displaced their habitat (and more importantly their natural predators habitat) and fed them to overpopulation with our garbage...IMO, it is our duty to become the 'apex predator' and kill them when they become a problem to the extent that we need to trap them.

 

[Slimp Farm]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. The opossum came back several times last night but every time i went out there it ran off. I have lost alot of chickens to these predators as well as a fox and raccoons. Im not interested in keeping it because it is fairly large and it is illegal in my state to relocate animals. I live next to a creek and have a pond on my property so the predators are abundant. I will have to try and trap him and i hate to say it but he will have to be killed. I dont like to kill animals but my chickens and ducks are my babies and i work hard to take care of them. I use my chickens for their eggs and nothing else they will never die at my hands. I also have a pond full of ducks that have slowly gone missing one at a time. My husband is building them a house currently i just have to train them to go in it, they have never been inside a coop before. Although my chickens and their 2 ducks in the coop dont mind the opossum being there i prefer to have my eggs not eaten every morning and my girls not to be harmed. Hopefully this weekend i will have this issue resolved.

 

[Folly's place]

I have a very secure coop and covered run (except for bears!) and so night time is good here. When I stopped spreading any food of scraps outside of the coop, visitors ceased to be a problem. Keep all the food in the coop and run! And fix any issues so no predator can get into your coop. I have lost chickens to possums, and have had a horse with EPM, twice. She lived, but is disabled, and no possum is welcome in my barn!!! Mary

 

[Sprayone]

Ok, this is bad. I extended my chicken run in June and thought it was secure. There are four hens in a very secure coop inside my run. I added four chicks into the run who were 10 weeks old. They have their own smaller coop. That is to keep the old and new separate until they are older. Didn't think about it again until 7 days later going up to the run, something was wrong. It was too quiet. I found the four chicks dead. Thought it was those Argentine ants. Then realized a week later, something else was likely the culprit. So, I decided to leave some cat food out in the run to test a theory. Well, the food was gone the next day, and it had to be something big. I bought a trail camera and kept baiting a trap, not an actual trap, but, one that could attract a predator so I can tell whether there was a break in the run fencing. Believe me, this run is tight, so I am not sure how the predator t is getting in. Last night, I caught it in the camera. It is a opossum. Question now is how is it getting in. Climbing over top, a wire fence completely over the top is already there? I have no know entrance underground. There is hardware cloth all the way around and there is no underground breach. The ground is too hard and really full of roots anyway so, I would be able to see any place it would even try to dig. And there is no signs of that. Every connection from the end of a fence to the next fence is tight! So, tonight, the camera angle is changing until the breach is found.