Possums are Chicken Killers

[sred98]

if you are in a city with an animal control office, you can get a live trap from them. I had a feral cat I was trying to trap and kept catching possums in it. They aren't the brightest and they love canned cat food. They are super easy to catch, then you can dispose of it however you want.

Good luck!

Shelly

 

[SusanJoM]

Anyone had any experience with this trap?
http://www.pestproducts.com/cat_trap.htm

Susan

 

[rooster-red]

My purpose in posting this is to let you know that it is possible for chickens and possums to coexist without loss, and in no way do I want to debate the issue, but rather to tell you what has worked for me, just so you know there are options.

Possums are opportunist, they are looking for the easiest meal they can get.
Here they come up and eat cat food we leave out on the porch for the cats, they visit my porch instead of bothering my chickens, they stay happy and healthy, and even keep a cleaner coat.

I will catch them bare handed sometimes just to remind them that they aren't the biggest predator here.
They are wild, and after I catch them it takes a week or two before they get brave enough to come back.

I understand that this won't work for everyone, and I'm not sugguesting that you go out and catch a possum this way, and we all do what we feel we need to do to protect our birds, I have no problem with that and if I were to find a possum trying to get into my coops I'm quite sure it would be dispatched, but if your coops and runs are as secure as they should be then you'll find that you don't have to kill every single predator you see.

We have all kinds of predators here including possums, coons, coyote, hawks, owls and feral cats & dogs.

To date I have never lost a bird to any predator, and have owned chickens for over 2 years now.

 

[gumpsgirl]

I'm so sorry for your chicken losses. Possums are very vicious. Sorry you had to learn the hard way. You also need to worry about weasels, coons (like you already stated), cats, dogs, hawks, etc... Read up on all of the information that you can here on the predators and pests forum. Education on predators is the best prevention possible! Again, so sorry for your losses.

 

[Redfeathers]

We've killed four this week. We set out ham and they come around about every third night and my 20 yr old son sits out in the barn and kills them. It's a litter that was born under the barn so they are jeuvies. I haven't seen the mom or dad yet. My laying hens are safe, my meat birds are vulnerable, but they haven't come near them yet. Knock on wood. I think they are more interested in the easy meal of ham...cheese, peanutbutter, whatever we "bait" them with.

 

[SusanJoM]

Okay, I ordered this trap.

http://tinyurl.com/5ehgfl

More when it arrives.

Susan

 

[SterlingAcres]

Quote:
This made me LOL. Really. Good call.



Sorry about your hens msnelson!!

 

[d.k]

* Yeah, That's Florida for ya-- getting as bad as -- well, other places. Don't tell 'em I used a stout stick to do away with the one that tried to kill Miss Chook, will ya???

 

[Ringo71]

Rooster-red...

The possum in the lower left corner is absolutely the biggest one I've ever seen!!! HORY MORY DATS ONE BIG POSSUM!!!

Possum are actually quite interesting critters. I had one in my backyard giving what looked like a dozen babies a ride. They look pretty scary, but they aren't all that bad.

For some reason I've been seeing lots of coon and possum hanging around. They would probably be out of control if it weren't for my dogs killing them whenever they see one. lol My Austrian Shepard drags coons, rabbits, possum, and SKUNK up to my back deck on a weekly basis. I'm more worried about him than any wild predator. He's absolutely obsessed with killing little fury critters.

I had problems with him killing cats for awhile. I had to get my brother to bring a few of his over and have him on a leash. When he started getting aggressive, which was as soon as he saw the fur balls, I busted out the dog whisperer mojo on him. lol Hopefully it works with chickens too.

I bet if he ran into a possum as big as the one Rooster is holding he might think twice about killing them. If I can just get him to stop killing skunks I would be happy.

 

[Pitchfork]

I grew up on a farm and we kept chickens, (this through the fifties and sixties) and I don't ever remember anything ever bothering the chickens except O'possums. We kept coons as pets for a number of years and lived basically in the woods with foxes, coyotes, skunks, racoons, snakes, you name it, but whenever we lost a chicken it invariably turned out to be a possum. My Dad is gone now so I can't ask him, but I can not recall ever having a mass killing. We would occasionaly find a dead hen in the coop with her intestines eaten and carcass left, and Dad would say, "must have a 'possum getting in here", and he would set up for a few nights and listen for a ruckus in the hen house and then take the 22 down and dispatch the varmit.
I suppose it is a factor of habitat, but it just seems that in those days, even though we lived in the sure nuf country, with wild things all around, the wild things prferred the wild and stayed clear of our place. Put possums are strange critters and will wonder into the oddest places and eat what ever fall into their path.