We have an ongoing 'possum issue and here is a little background. We live back in the woods and have various pens set even further back into the woods and there is a drainage ditch that runs thru our property and that seems to be a 'possum super highway. We close the chicken houses at night so that pretty much solves the problem but every now and then a guinea will stay out or a chicken and gets eaten.
So I found one "den" in the side of the drainage ditch and put a leg hold trap just inside and bait it with eggs, or parts of when we process, works great and has caught quite a few 'possums. On one of our pens I noticed that something was going under the pen and into the Marans pen. That one had to go! So I put another trap on the outside of the pen to catch it going in. Yesterday when I was feeding a saw a guinea standing right where I put the trap, sure enough caught in the trap. The trap had the rubber jaw pads not just the solid steel. I took it out and the leg didn't seem to be broken. Well not flopping around broken or moving in the wrong direction but possible cracked? I will check and see today.
The stupid part, is all I had to do was put a cover over the trap so a bird couldn't step in the trap.
Steve in NC
So I found one "den" in the side of the drainage ditch and put a leg hold trap just inside and bait it with eggs, or parts of when we process, works great and has caught quite a few 'possums. On one of our pens I noticed that something was going under the pen and into the Marans pen. That one had to go! So I put another trap on the outside of the pen to catch it going in. Yesterday when I was feeding a saw a guinea standing right where I put the trap, sure enough caught in the trap. The trap had the rubber jaw pads not just the solid steel. I took it out and the leg didn't seem to be broken. Well not flopping around broken or moving in the wrong direction but possible cracked? I will check and see today.
The stupid part, is all I had to do was put a cover over the trap so a bird couldn't step in the trap.
Steve in NC