This is a REALLY GROSS question, but need an honest answer!!

[The Tinman]

2 words OPOSUM PIE! How did you think a bunch of farmers could win a war for freedow against the worlds #1 super power. Diet.
The Brits dined on tea and crumpet. The Americans whiskey and squirel meat.

 

[TanithT]

Quote:
Chances are actually pretty good that what you killed wasn't a cottonmouth; most people honestly cannot identify them but sincerely believe they can.

If a snake is not venomous and not endangering your family, then it is actually protecting them from disease and germs spread by rodents. Worth thinking about before deciding to kill the animal.

It is generally safer to contain a snake or call an expert to do so than it is to kill it. I know of two cases where a child was killed by a bullet rebound from someone shooting a snake. One of them was definitely a harmless snake that the man was shooting. Had he taken the time to learn about the wildlife in his area and know the difference between a harmless and venomous snake, the neighbor's child would still be alive.

 

[cfdf]

That's why I keep a long handled hoe handy...hate guns....I'd shoot my eye out.

 

[MMPoultryFarms]

Quote:
Chances are actually pretty good that what you killed wasn't a cottonmouth; most people honestly cannot identify them but sincerely believe they can.

If a snake is not venomous and not endangering your family, then it is actually protecting them from disease and germs spread by rodents. Worth thinking about before deciding to kill the animal.

It is generally safer to contain a snake or call an expert to do so than it is to kill it. I know of two cases where a child was killed by a bullet rebound from someone shooting a snake. One of them was definitely a harmless snake that the man was shooting. Had he taken the time to learn about the wildlife in his area and know the difference between a harmless and venomous snake, the neighbor's child would still be alive.

TanithT you truly amaze me YOU DOUBT IT WAS A COTTON MOUTH? I Behead every snake I kill I have been an outdoorsman since i was 6 years old you my friend are to quick to judge. you said "Chances are actually pretty good that what you killed wasn't a cottonmouth; most people honestly cannot identify them but sincerely believe they can" Water snakes are difficult to discriminate from cottonmouth snakes, and often water snakes are killed on suspicion alone of being cottonmouth snakes. Three tips will help you see whether a snake is a cottonmouth or a water snake.

Water snakes have broad flat heads, whereas water snakes have round heads.
Water snakes have round pupils, whereas cottonmouths have cat like pupils.
Water snakes have eyes on the rounded part of their head, whereas the cottonmouths eyes are on the side of their flattened heads.
The explanation for the name cottonmouth is the bright white lining of the mouth that it displays as a warning to anyone who gets to close.
If you care so much about these pest then drive down to mid west oklahoma and save them I am finished with this Post thats heading no where fast.

 

[TanithT]

Quote:
Except that the vast majority of people I have ever encountered on a professional snake call *can't do it* and there are always going to be more dead Nerodia than Agkistrodon. Cold hard fact. Make of that what you will. Every single professional snake wrangler will tell you the same thing, most people misidentify them even when they are otherwise experienced outdoorsmen and absolutely sure of their ID.

Water snakes have broad flat heads, whereas water snakes have round heads.

Not true. Older male Nerodia have extremely broad, flat heads. Most younger and female Nerodia do have rounder heads, but it's the big dark colored ones you are more likely to mistake for cottonmouths.

The rest of the determinations are rather difficult to make at hoe's length. Nerodia mouths can be quite pale also depending on locality.

Your reaction is pretty universal. Every single person tells me that yes, they are SURE they can tell the difference, and they are quite insulted when I don't believe them. And when I get there to pick up their "cottonmouth" whether dead or alive, it's a Nerodia far more often than not. Maybe you're the exception to the rule, but I've seen too many rules and not very many exceptions over the years. Pardon my cynicism, but it was born over a decade of professional experience.​

 

[speakup4kids]

delete

 

[elijahboy]

Years ago chicken owners would get fresh roadkill and feed it to the chickens.....after boiling of course.


The best advise I can give you is this...............



Its your chickens, your life so DO WHAT YOU WANNA DO. Let the righteous people run their mouth all day. Opinions are like.you know the rest.

 

[BeccaB00]

bleh

I say don't do it. Just think about this..if the opossums got worms..and your chickens eat it. then they'll get worms. Then You have a problem. I wouldn't do it.

 

[stanglover2001]

Quote:
First of all, if you shoot a dear out in the wild how do you eat it without getting worms? think about that for a minute... my chickens are fine and aren't going to get worms by eating an opossum. If people for years have eaten squirrel, opossum, dear, boar, turtle, fish and didn't end up sick with worms then I think its fine... Besides if they got worms when I butcher them and eat them I'm not eating the stomach or intestines.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

I don't think they will eat it...

Now, a hog WILL eat dead critters. I've seen it myself. I had a friend in high school that lived with her grandparents and they had a pen of hogs. Her grandpa would scoop up roadkill and give it to them and they would eat it like candy.