This is NOT how I wanted to wake up

[Callender Girl]

I'm also puzzled by the wisdom of many of my girls to molt for the holiday season.

Most of my chickens are on their winter laying break, but the newest girls -- Cochins, a Bielefelder and a Columbian Wyandotte -- are still laying, as is my Midnight Majesty Maran. My Sapphire Gem, who hasn't produced an eggs in MONTHS, suddenly gifted me with a giant egg this week. Merry Christmas from Petra!

And, I also HAD a possum visitor this month, the third visit was its last. I tried running it off, I let my crazy terrier tree it and eventually, while all the ducks were out wandering around, I realized it had taken refuge in the runners' shelter. Using the time-honored family tradition, I donned gloves, grabbed the little one by the tail, popped it into a wire cage and drove it to a nice rural cemetery where there are plenty of trees and lots of farm fields. I wish it well -- but not here.

 

[Ascholten]

Possums are NOT wanted period. They may be fine now but sooner or later they will find the coop and then there is trouble. Will driving them a few miles away get rid of them or will they be right back in a few days? How far will they wander in their normal territorial meanderings?

Aaron

 

[Callender Girl]

I've had several possums over the years, and none was a problem. Of course, I relocated all of them as fast as possible. This is the second time I've had one in a shelter or a coop. I spent weeks a few years back thinking I was feeding one of the feral cats in a hay shed -- until the day I came face to face with a grinning possum.

The cemetery where I relocated this last little one is more than four miles away, and on the other side of a small town. I'm hoping he or she finds better places to hang out and doesn't come back this way. So far, so good.

 

[Ascholten]

possums will do a dandy job stealing fruit out of your trees too. One of my friends is having that issue, his neighbor is feeding neighborhood stray cats, and of course it's bringing in everything on the planet that sees 'free stuff', so the possums are all over and been stealing his apples and such out of his trees and bushes. Problem is, one of them can pump out a bunch of babies, kind of like some other species we know, and next thing you know, you are over run with critters getting into everything.

In florida we have canadian geese who squat down here. God help you if you feed them, you'll have 100 of them on your porch, on your driveway, everywhere, leaving you a huge stinky mess to say thank you.

Aaron

 

[3KillerBs]

I donned gloves, grabbed the little one by the tail, popped it into a wire cage and drove it to a nice rural cemetery where there are plenty of trees and lots of farm fields. I wish it well -- but not here.

It is often illegal and always wrong to relocate a pest animal onto property that you do not own or where you do not have specific permission from the owner.

My chicken coop is down the hill, across a small stream, and back up the other side from the woods bordering "a nice rural cemetery".

No one wants a problem animal and you don't have any right to inflict your problem animal on someone else. Shoot it yourself or live with it. Dumping pest animals is no different than dumping trash.

 

[Poodlemum]

I went out after dark to tuck everyone in and saw a few extra feathers, then a bright orange/yellow bit in the leaves. My heart just dropped and I was so terrified! It was a chunk of pumpkin skin they’d brought from the other side of the run….

 

[Ascholten]

Im surprised that pumkin skin lasted, normally snacks like that are shredded in short order, unless the rest of the pumpkin is already inside them and they are stuffed!

That's one thing that always alarms me with mine is when they half heartedly come for treats, pretty much always the crops are tight and I am left wondering, ok, what did you get into THIS TIME??

Chickens with shallow interest in snacks is almost as terrifying as a cockatoo walking on the ground.. you just KNOW something bad is waiting for you to discover

Aaron

 

[3KillerBs]

Chickens with shallow interest in snacks is almost as terrifying as a cockatoo walking on the ground.

Like when I knew my kids were sick because they weren't crashing around making noise and getting into stuff.

Seriously.

I once took my youngest to the doctor because he was sitting still and cuddling instead of popping on and off my lap, running back and forth in the hall, and dragging every toy he owned out of the closet, etc. Turned out he had the flu so badly that he *almost* had to be hospitalized due to dehydration.