Lol they kill chickens to eat the eggs. Also, some will try to attack you if you happen to interrupt their meal of choice dog food on the back porch. A handy broom handle to send them along is nice to have.
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 :)
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.
Sounds like somebody has lost multiple chickens to opossums
what if the chicks and possum were raised together? check and mate "nature hater".
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