'Possums are not ALL bad...

[Ted Brown]

I post this knowing it will change nothing for those of you who have to protect your flock again these critters.

I do not have opossums in my area but I do have ticks and their invasion into Canada is increasing every year. Lethal no but they do disturb our peace. My interest in chickens was started by learning that guinea hens were a natural predator of ticks, do not yet have guineas but now have a small flock of chickens that give me smiles and chores each day. This morning I learned that opossums are also natural predators of ticks (4000 in a week!! PS I did some research and found most studies say 5000 in a season") plus are very beneficial in cleaning our environments of all sorts of yucky stuff. Made me think that the best approach is "Fort Knox" your coops and runs and let these special creatures go about their business!

Have a great day!

https://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/features/opossums-misunderstood-marsupials

 

[2 many chickens]

I have no problem with possums.
Its raccoons that annoy me! Stay outta my trash you little free loaders!!

 

[Ted Brown]

...
Its raccoons that annoy me! Stay outta my trash you little free loaders!!

We have lots of those up here and I agree.

Fort Knox still the best way to go, as humans we are eliminating far too many species without a clear understanding of the end result.

 

[aart]

IMO, the 5k tick thing is one of the latest 'fad' speculations,
repeated ad nauseam all over the internet.
They probably keep themselves clean of ticks,
and I wonder if that's where the speculation was projected from.

There's no doubt they are 'cleaners' of the environment.
That wouldn't keep from killing one if I found it in my chicken coop.

Ditto......

I post this knowing it will change nothing for those of you who...

...believe otherwise.

 

[Bcpayne]

We have this big, beautiful boy that has made friends with our chickens. He doesn't bother them because we let him have free access to our compost pile

 

[IamRainey]

I have no problem with possums.
Its raccoons that annoy me! Stay outta my trash you little free loaders!!

I lived in a house in West Van,BC for a while. It was heaven: on the water, in the woods. Great view of the islands, passing ocean liners and ferries and migrating whales. Only prob was there was a carport instead of a garage and, therefore, no place to lock up the trash.

We did daily battle with the raccoons and the bears! I had multiple bungees on the "animal proof" latching trash and the recycling to no avail. I moved it to the second story terrace outside our living area. ... which meant rolling it through our living area every week to get it out to the street for collection. Not the best for the human ambiance but we hoped it would slow the marauding down. It worked for the bears but the raccoons could climb. And they could squeeze through the 3" gap between the upright posts and the glass wall of the terrace.

Next we got an emergency light that could burn out your retinas. When we trained that on them it slowed them down a bit. Then they'd just stare into it and go back to their efforts working on the bungees.

Good thing we didn't have chickens then...

One interesting thing about their technique: when the trash was still in the carport we could always tell whether we'd had a raccoon attack or a bear attack. The raccoons worked obsessively on the bungees in place and strewed what they didn't want to eat around the car and the carport. The bears simply picked up a can and threw it as far as they could so that the lid burst off all over the driveway before helping themselves to the buffet.

 

[Folly's place]

I'll just add that when you have horses, opossums in the barn or on the hay are BAD! Having a horse die or become permanently disabled because of the EPM that they carry isn't a good thing. I shoot any opossums who move to my barn. They are NOT welcome!
They can eat all the ticks they want, just not in my yard, coop, or barn.
Mary

 

[Ted Brown]

IMO, the 5k tick thing is one of the latest 'fad' speculations,
repeated ad nauseam all over the internet...

There's no doubt they are 'cleaners' of the environment.
That wouldn't keep from killing one if I found it in my chicken coop.

All over the 'net for sure.

One reference to a study is the Carey Institute for Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y.

"They tested six species -- white-footed mice, chipmunks, squirrels, opossums and veerys and catbirds -- by capturing and caging them, and then exposing each test subject to 100 ticks.

What they found, is that of the six, the opossums were remarkably good at getting rid of the ticks -- much more so that any of the others."

"Extrapolating from their findings, Ostfeld said, the team estimated that in one season, an opossum can kill about 5,000 ticks. "

[my emphasis]

Not categorical but much better than the "4000 in a week" in the article I included.

aart I am betting that possums will not penetrate your coop!

Ditto......
...believe otherwise.

You mean I should believe in the powers of persuasion?

 

[imnukensc]

They're quite common around here, but they've never bothered the chickens nor even tried to get into the coop from what I can tell of the trail cam pics I've had of them. They just seem to amble on past the coop/run. This little guy was on the back porch a while back. Pretty sure the cat brought him in. No clue how he managed to get up on that saw, but he was released unharmed. Hope it made it to adulthood.

 

[twendt]

Sorry, but I despise the beady-eyed creatures. They are common road kill in my parts.