Opossum in my chicken house

[roosterhavoc]

Anyone who lets an opossum in the coop with their chickens is asking for trouble. They are full of disease and worms. One little scratch or bite from a possum can kill a chicken especially when most would use magic fairy dust to treat them.

 

[Ayuki]

A giant opossum shawshank redemptioned his way into the roost box and chicken-napped one of my ladies last night. I initially suspected the ferral cat that I inherited when we bought this house, however there was no blood nor were there any feathers so it seemed a little odd. Certainty fell upon the darned Opossom when I opened the door this morning only to be greeted by his whole entire Opossom family sitting right next to the roost box--likely wondering what happened to all of the other chickens.

Anyway, I vote kill them.

 

[boskelli1571]

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.

Sorry for your losses, possums will take small chicks if they can. What sort of wire do you have around your run? is it hardware cloth - if so how big are the holes? They are very crafty and can squeeze through the smallest of holes. Get into your run on your hands and knees - look at it from the predators point of view...you may spot something.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

... the camp is divided... kill it...[or]... don't kill it.... [possums]... will take eggs, feed and chicks if available... If it was me, I would live and let live, it's eating the chicken food so is unlikely to kill a bird imho...

Animal populations grow and shrink in response to their food source. If you keep feeding your possums you will only have more possums tomorrow than you have today.

This means that sooner or latter your possum population will hit the wall of available food. When this happens the opossum population will have no choice but to kill chickens to fill their bellies.

In the senaro I just laid out the guilty party is not the poor possum but the chicken keepers.