Possums are Chicken Killers

[Robert M]

Don't sell a raccoon short. They can operate latches. They can also un-bungee garbage can lids.

 

[gifters]

You could get a plastic storage container and put the trap in with a block of dry ice, faster if it's in a coffee can with water. Large grocery stores will sell dry ice. Take your own Styrofoam cooler and throw that in you large freezer to store the dry ice for a couple of days

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[gifters]

One could also rig a #330 conibear at door of a live trap and then open the door

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[allycat83]

I just found a possum attacking one of my hens tonight. There was a hole in the ceiling and that is how it got in the coop. I feel terrible. I'm not sure how badly hurt my chicken is. What can I do to deter the possum while I get my defenses up? I wasn't able to trap or kill it. It ran away, climbed the wall over to the neighbors yard.

 

[PrimroseMom1]

I just found a possum attacking one of my hens tonight. There was a hole in the ceiling and that is how it got in the coop. I feel terrible. I'm not sure how badly hurt my chicken is. What can I do to deter the possum while I get my defenses up? I wasn't able to trap or kill it. It ran away, climbed the wall over to the neighbors yard.

Put out a trap with sardines in it. You'll catch it very fast.

 

[jamesnoel]

Beware of the loose deer dogs. They will pack up at night, and they WILL kill cows. I know for an absolute fact.

 

[Bonster]

I'm pretty sure I have read, several times, that possums are one of the very few mammals who don't get rabies (One of the reasons they are studied.) Raccoons, foxes and skunks are another story.
A neighbor's child found a "dead" opossum and put it in her doll carriage and pushed it home to show her parents. She went inside to get them and they came out just in time to see it run away.

They don't. Their body temperature is too cool to incubate the virus, so it's not possible for them to carry it.

 

[Robert M]

They don't. Their body temperature is too cool to incubate the virus, so it's not possible for them to carry it.

Sorry, but they DO. It's not impossible, only "difficult". We killed one here that had rabies.

Answer: Any mammal can get rabies. However, the chance of rabies in an opossum is EXTREMELY RARE. This may have something to do with the opossum's low body temperature (94-97º F) making it difficult for the virus to survive in an opossum's body.

 

[averagetallguy]

I just killed a opossum tonight. I've had chickens for nearly 3 years and have slowly lost my flock (12 more in the brooder right now). Just as a lesson, go with your gut and listen to your flock. I went outside around 11:00 to change the chicks water and heard three of my hens outside of the coop in their run. Sure enough, an opossum was helping himself to the afternoon eggs. 5 arrows from a 90lb bow and an axe to the head later, he is gone. I hate killing anything but I have an obligation to my birds. Makes my heart hurt none the less.

 

[Robert M]

A .22 rifle and a bullet to the head works well.
Why waste all your expensive arrows?
I don't hunt/kill, anymore, but destructive "rodents" are a different story, including squirrel-rats. I kills 'em, my neighbor makes "squirrel gravy". =)
Works for me.