This is the part I like least about chicken keeping......

[awesomefowl]

I have this opossum that lives in our yard, and eats my chicken feed!!!!!!!!!! He doesn't eat the girls, I have found him right next to him actually, but I HATE the durned varmint! But at least he doesn't eat the girls.

 

[woodmort]

Possums will go after eggs and take a hen or chicks in the process. I caught one in the act of killing a sitting duck a number of years ago. Of course the dumb bird had decided to set a clutch outside the coop and the possum got her after dark.

 

[buggie]

Sorry about hijacking the thread but what is the best bait for them possums?

 

[Tropical Chook]

I know this sounds strange, but I would love to have so many creatures paying our place a visit All I get are darn rats. Just put two glue traps down outside the coop last night and woke up to find four rats caught on them. All were quite small, so I suspect mom and dad must still be lurking close by. Will put out another couple of traps tonight again. Quite strange because I haven't managed to trap any with regular traps, but the glue traps just never seem to let me down. The only problem with the glue traps though is you are left with having to kill the rats, but oh well, you gotta do it or else you end up with hundreds of them.

 

[darkmatter]

Quote:
Got this one on eggs, have caught them on both dry catfood and canned catfood. Any kind of kitchen scraps seem to work. I have also used canned sardines with just a hole or two poked in the can and the can wired to prevent removal----------I once caught a possum in a trap baited with a small can of catfood and the can was missing, did it eat the bait, can and all?

 

[Cats Critters]

Quote:
He/she (with another one) eats food out of the feeder and also will climb into the feeder and eat and use the "restroom" in it, but so far as long as there is food there has been no chicken killing from them.

Sorry about hijacking the thread but what is the best bait for them possums?

I use peanut butter and I've caught both an opossum and a raccoon, without catching my cats in the process.

It beats bagging up a whole coop full of dead birds. That's the part I least like.

I agree but this guys have not been killing (yet) and just messing up the coop and stealing food.​

 

[Amigatec]

Quote:
Been there, done that.