For starters, we've had this opossum living underneath our house for at least the past few years. I know it's the same possum too because, a few years ago, for the first time, I saw a baby possum crawling on top of our privacy fence and it had absolutely no fear of humans or dogs. It wouldn't get aggressive, if he was spotted he'd just freeze up(not play dead, he just won't move) and watch you, and he'd only calmly move away if you got within a couple feet of him. Around that time is also when I began noticing something was making scratch marks in the dirt in our yard. We live near the heart of a rural town, but we happen to live next to a very small patch of undisturbed woodland-like area. And when I say small, I really do mean small, it can't be more than a half an acre. In that small area, a flock of game chickens lives there(They've been there long before we have, I assume somebody just let their chickens loose long ago). We've had several types of wildlife pass through, everything from possums to armadillos to rat snakes, but none of them have ever stayed put because the area is so small. Because of this, I never built an actual enclosed chicken coop. There was no need, the only predator we had when I first got chickens were hawks, and the area I chose made it impossible for a hawk to snatch up any chickens. Ever since I started breeding Silkie chickens, though, everything changed. That possom moved in, and about a year after him a raccoon moved in. I lost several eggs, chicks, doves, and even a silkie hen(Thanks to the raccoon). Since then I've enclosed the Silkie breeding area, reinforced the dove cage, and trapped/relocated the raccoon, but the rest of my chickens are still unprotected at night since they're all adults and are not bantams.
I decided to not trap the possum at first because he's never really presented an issue. He ate several chicks and eggs, but never harmed an adult, so I just enclosed the area that the chicks are in and let the possum stay. Well, last night, I caught him mere inches away from two of my adult, unprotected hens. These are big hens, but he's a big possum. I scared him off by hitting him with a piece of wood(Again, no fear of humans, so the usual methods of shouting and such had no effect on him..) and I set up a trap next to where he was at last night for if he came back tonight. And, of course, he showed back up tonight and went into the trap.
What am I suppose to do now? I set up the trap mostly to see if he'd come back, not really to get rid of him. He's been here for a while now, and I know that if I get rid of him then other, more aggressive possums might move in. I don't want to release him back into the yard either because I don't know if he'll hurt my chickens. I would enclose the area that the chickens sleep in, but I'm a full-time college student and final exams are a couple of weeks away, I don't have time to build anything right now. There's also the fact that he's eventually going to be evicted from his home(Aka, living underneath our house), since we're going to repair the damaged siding that he uses to get in and out from under the house. What should I do?
I decided to not trap the possum at first because he's never really presented an issue. He ate several chicks and eggs, but never harmed an adult, so I just enclosed the area that the chicks are in and let the possum stay. Well, last night, I caught him mere inches away from two of my adult, unprotected hens. These are big hens, but he's a big possum. I scared him off by hitting him with a piece of wood(Again, no fear of humans, so the usual methods of shouting and such had no effect on him..) and I set up a trap next to where he was at last night for if he came back tonight. And, of course, he showed back up tonight and went into the trap.
What am I suppose to do now? I set up the trap mostly to see if he'd come back, not really to get rid of him. He's been here for a while now, and I know that if I get rid of him then other, more aggressive possums might move in. I don't want to release him back into the yard either because I don't know if he'll hurt my chickens. I would enclose the area that the chickens sleep in, but I'm a full-time college student and final exams are a couple of weeks away, I don't have time to build anything right now. There's also the fact that he's eventually going to be evicted from his home(Aka, living underneath our house), since we're going to repair the damaged siding that he uses to get in and out from under the house. What should I do?
I don't want to release him far away, because, as I said, others might take his place here. It's also legal in Texas to trap rerelease wildlife, so long as it's not in a town. Texas is way too big with way too much wildlife to be calling animal control every time we wanted to rerelease a wild animal.
