This morning there's a possum in my coop - Am I running a B&B?!

[juliechick]

I found a huge possum in my coop this Spring. He had eaten an entire Silkie hen, all except the feet, wings and beak. I mean bones and all! The Cochin roo in with her was dead as well, but I guess he was too full to eat him.
I banged the possum with a shovel and still didn't manage to kill it. It ran away.

(Caught it later in a trap and took care of it then.)

 

[Miltonchix]

I'm trying my darndest to figure out WHY???!!! you would want to catch it? Relocating it is useless. IF it doesn't come back someone else now has YOUR problem.

Just shoot it, bury it, and move on. Get your coop ready for the next one.

 

[codybird]

Don't run a B & B.

Run a K & B.

Kill and bury.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Quote:
Where's the smiley line that says THIS POST IS WORTHLESS WITHOUT PICS!!! ???

I don't know how to scan the pic and put it in here- my DH is the tech person. I have to learn how to do this stuff.
he?she was curled up in a ball sleeping right beside the dish rack.

 

[chseeads]

Quote:
Possums are EXTREMELY tough! lol You can't hardly beat one to death. You have to pretty much shoot em or run over em with a car. lol

 

[SallyF]

Possums will also eat eggs. I chased one away from a clutch of guinea eggs that were on the ground in a pile of brush. The guinea woke me up squawking like Armageddon was approaching. She just stood in the yard and made noise while I beat the possum away from the nest! I was also told by a Game/Wildlife officer that possums have very primitive nervous systems and die from rabies before they have a chance to bite and pass it on, so you never hear about rabid possums. Probably explains why they pass out when frightened. Maybe they pass out when cars approach and that's why we see so many dead on the road.

 

[cgmccary]

MiltonchixI'm trying my darndest to figure out WHY???!!! you would want to catch it? Relocating it is useless. IF it doesn't come back someone else now has YOUR problem.

I am so sorry you are "trying [your] darndest (sic) to figure out why???!!!" It isn't that difficult to "figure."

WHY? First, it is a living creature that has as much right to exist and live as anything else. Second, who am I to have the right to kill it when it isn't bothering my chickens and hasn't shown any tendency to bother my chickens? Third, Opossums serve a very useful function in the natural ecosystem. They eat carrion and opossums voraciously prey on mice. For the third reason, I might be doing someone a favor by giving them natural rodent control without the use of poisons. However, where I relocate, there are no homes & no chickens, so actually, no person has MY problem. There is room on this planet for all the living creatures. If there were chickens where I relocated it, as I indicated: I shoot those that attack my chickens and relocate the ones who do not so I ask you, Miltonchix, IF the place I relocated was near other people (which it is not, but IF), how does someone "now have [my] problem?" BTW, it is impossible for it to come back where I take the occasional opossum.

I do not see relocating a opossum up the road around the mountain as "useless." It lives. Opossums are highly adaptable creatures and where I put them, there is a need for rodent control so I would have to venture to say that such relocation is particularly "useful."

SallyF:Possums will also eat eggs.

Yes true. I always try and remove all the eggs before nightfall. Occasionally, there will be one that decides to attack my birds. I just dispatch those-- they tend to be younger opossums. Young (juvenile) birds are most vulnerable to those with that tendency. I must say, though, that most of the time, opossums are rather shy animals and do not bother my grown hens, some living around me that are trap shy & anyway, only, a large grown opossum could take down one of my grown hens that average about 6-7 lbs and roost 5 feet up (I have found my set-up is awkward for the attacking opossum) . . . and by the time the opossum is grown, it has already shown this tendency.

Roaming dogs are my problem.​