Run-In With My First Predator!

calichooks

Chirping
Apr 17, 2020
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150
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my dad went to close up the chooks earlier and as soon as he stepped out the back door, heard scuffling and the 9 week olds were crying. the older birds were out of their coop and seemed to be just as worried as the babies. he picked up the pullets to put them to bed when out the corner of his eye he saw a possum!
he called me out and it took damn near ten minutes trying to get that thing away from our run. scarily enough it fit through the holes in the run, which is never good. it was a young possum but still, we have young birds that it was chasing around before we showed up.
eventually i had to get it off of the top of the run so i grabbed its tail and yanked it down. my mini labradoodle grabbed it soon as it hit the ground and it played dead, so we took the opportunity to pick it up with a rake and bring it out front to the curb. i checked on it a few times and eventually he got up and left, and i think he learned a really valuable lesson and will steer clear of this house now.
i do feel bad about it, i don’t want to ever put any animal in a bad situation but the little bugger could’ve offed one of my 9 week olds, and they’re too precious to me for that. the fact it slipped in through the fencing that would keep adult possums and raccoons out was almost astonishing, we hadn’t accounted for juvenile possums coming in to terrorize them.
if we had a rooster, he probably would’ve taken care of it. it’s a shame they were banned in my city 5 years ago!
i’ve seen massive possums around my area, years ago my smaller dog cornered one as big as her and got a scar on the tip of her nose. we always lock up our gals in the evening. our location means we don’t have to worry about foxes and hawks but at night, raccoons and possums and even rats come out and can harm them. i’m a lot more worried about our wingless chicken and how she’ll be able to protect herself if she’s being chased by a predator like this again.
just a little taste of reality again, i must say that’s the first time i’ve grabbed a possum and i hope it’s the last. we’ll be talking about upgrades to the run tomorrow morning.
 
my dad went to close up the chooks earlier and as soon as he stepped out the back door, heard scuffling and the 9 week olds were crying. the older birds were out of their coop and seemed to be just as worried as the babies. he picked up the pullets to put them to bed when out the corner of his eye he saw a possum!
he called me out and it took damn near ten minutes trying to get that thing away from our run. scarily enough it fit through the holes in the run, which is never good. it was a young possum but still, we have young birds that it was chasing around before we showed up.
eventually i had to get it off of the top of the run so i grabbed its tail and yanked it down. my mini labradoodle grabbed it soon as it hit the ground and it played dead, so we took the opportunity to pick it up with a rake and bring it out front to the curb. i checked on it a few times and eventually he got up and left, and i think he learned a really valuable lesson and will steer clear of this house now.
i do feel bad about it, i don’t want to ever put any animal in a bad situation but the little bugger could’ve offed one of my 9 week olds, and they’re too precious to me for that. the fact it slipped in through the fencing that would keep adult possums and raccoons out was almost astonishing, we hadn’t accounted for juvenile possums coming in to terrorize them.
if we had a rooster, he probably would’ve taken care of it. it’s a shame they were banned in my city 5 years ago!
i’ve seen massive possums around my area, years ago my smaller dog cornered one as big as her and got a scar on the tip of her nose. we always lock up our gals in the evening. our location means we don’t have to worry about foxes and hawks but at night, raccoons and possums and even rats come out and can harm them. i’m a lot more worried about our wingless chicken and how she’ll be able to protect herself if she’s being chased by a predator like this again.
just a little taste of reality again, i must say that’s the first time i’ve grabbed a possum and i hope it’s the last. we’ll be talking about upgrades to the run tomorrow morning.
how big is your fencing? If that happened to me I would freak and probably move my chickens into my house and give the coop to the possum.
 
how big is your fencing? If that happened to me I would freak and probably move my chickens into my house and give the coop to the possum.
the holes definitely aren’t that big because it looked like even it as a juvenile struggled to squeeze through but we’re still discussing upgrading to smaller fencing. i guess we always assumed we’d have to keep possums and raccoons out, but never accounted for small possums haha. the only predator/pest we’ve dealt with so far have been rats so this has been a wake up call 😰
 
the holes definitely aren’t that big because it looked like even it as a juvenile struggled to squeeze through but we’re still discussing upgrading to smaller fencing. i guess we always assumed we’d have to keep possums and raccoons out, but never accounted for small possums haha. the only predator/pest we’ve dealt with so far have been rats so this has been a wake up call 😰
I have 1/4 hardware cloth all around my run and over the ventilation holes in the coop. That seems really scary though.
 
my dad went to close up the chooks earlier and as soon as he stepped out the back door, heard scuffling and the 9 week olds were crying. the older birds were out of their coop and seemed to be just as worried as the babies. he picked up the pullets to put them to bed when out the corner of his eye he saw a possum!
he called me out and it took damn near ten minutes trying to get that thing away from our run. scarily enough it fit through the holes in the run, which is never good. it was a young possum but still, we have young birds that it was chasing around before we showed up.
eventually i had to get it off of the top of the run so i grabbed its tail and yanked it down. my mini labradoodle grabbed it soon as it hit the ground and it played dead, so we took the opportunity to pick it up with a rake and bring it out front to the curb. i checked on it a few times and eventually he got up and left, and i think he learned a really valuable lesson and will steer clear of this house now.
i do feel bad about it, i don’t want to ever put any animal in a bad situation but the little bugger could’ve offed one of my 9 week olds, and they’re too precious to me for that. the fact it slipped in through the fencing that would keep adult possums and raccoons out was almost astonishing, we hadn’t accounted for juvenile possums coming in to terrorize them.
if we had a rooster, he probably would’ve taken care of it. it’s a shame they were banned in my city 5 years ago!
i’ve seen massive possums around my area, years ago my smaller dog cornered one as big as her and got a scar on the tip of her nose. we always lock up our gals in the evening. our location means we don’t have to worry about foxes and hawks but at night, raccoons and possums and even rats come out and can harm them. i’m a lot more worried about our wingless chicken and how she’ll be able to protect herself if she’s being chased by a predator like this again.
just a little taste of reality again, i must say that’s the first time i’ve grabbed a possum and i hope it’s the last. we’ll be talking about upgrades to the run tomorrow morning.

After losing three of my girlies to predators in the last three years. I have only been keeping two at time. The last time, a coon worked through my wire in my coop during the night and killed my favorite hen. I have quit allowing free range, but have a very large area fenced. I only let them out in the morning and put them back in about 5pm, before the dusk predators show up. I have completely covered the coop area with hardware cloth. Next step will be a nice, big run, at least 10' by 20' to start. I will cover it completely. I have a large area and will only let them free range when we are outside. I will keep adding more run area as I can afford to completely cover. In the works is a chicken village for my little flock of four...
 

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