They will kill chickens... if you have essentially zero defense. Seriously, if your chicken defense is so pathetic that an opossum is your predator of concern, you've got bigger problems. Coons, raptors, and weasels are all the greater concern. An opossum and its buds will kill one chicken. Given, they will probably kill the chicken by eating it asshole first, but it's still just one chicken.
Meanwhile coons will kill one per coon. Weasels/mustelids will go blood frenzy and might wreck your entire flock. Raptors too will kill about one per raptor.
To prevent opossum attacks basically all you need is a wall of chicken wire. Yea they're ok climbers, but too high and they'll get lazy and leave it alone. Meanwhile without a poultry net ceiling raptors will get in, and unless you've hardened every square inch of your confinement coons will find a way in because they're smart. They'll even reach through the poultry netting and pull the chickens out bit-by-bit if they need to. And of course your canid predators can dig... none of these things opossums will do.
If your chickens are getting eaten by opossums, it's not a failing of the opossum, it's a failing on your part. Because that means they're open to literally every other predator, and pretty much every other predator will do more damage than an opossum. Take losing a chicken to an opossum as a sign that you need to harden your fucking operation rather than an excuse to kill a mostly-beneficial marsupial.
My chickens and guineas have the same job of eating ticks. They are nearly free range. I don't allow raptors to hang around, I chase them off. Dogs help me take care of the foxes and such. But I allow every possum I can to go freely on my property. It means I do pay a possum tax. Some chickens die. Which is okay, if they don't make a habit of it. If I catch them in the act, they get chased off. If the same possum shows up again, they get chased off with extreme prejudice (most recent went after the same mother hen twice; he got snatched up by the tail and thrown through the woods; he got the hint that time and left). A third time and they feed the other scavengers.
You're more lenient than I ever was. Blood for blood was my MO back when I had problems. I now allow daily free ranging (generally), then I shut them up in coops I built for the night. The coops have fenced-in runs with hardware cloth buried ~1' deep around the perimeter. Some coons found a gap in my defense where the poultry net met the roof/rafters, and I've since patched that (we were able to chase them off before they killed any birds, but they took our silkie's left eye... his name is now "Harvey").
Anyway apart from that one coon attack, I haven't had a problem in at least 4 years. Lost a duck to a red-shouldered hawk once during free range time, but it would take a bear to get in to the coop/run. Personally I like not having concern; sure it was effort to build all the stuff, but buy once cry once. I've lost more birds to old age than predators at this point. The opossums can have them then :)
Really, it wasn't a matter of leniency. It was more along the lines of "I need chickens that are smart enough to deal with this crap." First year of that was tough on my flock, but the ones who were left got pretty good at avoiding predators.
Actually, I just realized you were probably speaking specifically about the possums. Yeah, very lenient. I nearly died of Lyme's disease several years ago. Anything that helps kill ticks gets all possible reasonable consideration from me.
good analysis. foxes, raccoons, raptors are one and done. shame on you, lesson hopefully learned. weasels will take down the whole coop in a night, though. if you are sloppy enough to be losing chickens to passive possums, its a matter of time before chupecabera weasels take out your whole coop.
You're so full of yourself it's not worth my time to bother to tell you about it. I'm so glad you know everything about how opossums operate, you can continue being their white knight. Enjoy yourself, faggot.
kill all da bird, dey eat da grain where all dese bug come from? dey eat all da crops! kill all da opossum, dey eat a single chicken where all dese tick come from? dey give me all da lyme disease!
Different continent, different race, different ideology, different century - same dumbass ideas.
I didn't say I killed all the opossum. Only the ones that are smart enough to get in the yard.
And as far as ticks go, opossum barely make a dent. If you want to do something about ticks, you get guineas.
You so smart, you speak like grug, must know everything.
Sounds like somebody has lost multiple chickens to opossums
Only two, we realized what did it and took care of the issue. We have six foot chain link fencing, three great Pyrenees, then additional fencing inside of that fencing. Opossum are really stupid but they are still motivated when it comes to food. I was fairly upset as both chickens were hens sitting on eggs that were nearly finished, and the first one was a favorite.
Night before last I watched one b line for the road as I approached like it was a muzzie eager for virgins. They're terribly dumb. But apparently they pattern predators.
what if the chicks and possum were raised together? check and mate "nature hater".
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