Possum Wrangling.

Tonight, we went possum wrangling.  Something has gotten 5 of my chickens.  I could not figure out what is was, but was pretty sure it was either a racoon or a possum.  We have a large poultry pen, fully fenced with a 7 foot fence all the way around it, and covered in poultry netting.  So, I knew it wasn't a hawk or owl.  And, snakes are hibernating this time of year (are at least are supposed to be, but with the luck we have around here, who knows......)

Tonight, we found out what the predator is.

I have a hook I was needing the husband to hang for me in the chicken coop, so I could hang their feeder.  They kept spilling it where it was, or the ducks would come into the chicken coop and get into it.  As he was hanging the hook, I decided to count the chickens before I locked them in for the night.  I started counting, "1, 2, 3, 4"  then my counting changed to screaming, "that's not a chicken, that's not a chicken".  Husband looks over and gives a nice slow "nope".  Curled up in a nesting box, acting like he belonged there, between 2 hens, was a fat possum.

I went and got a pitch fork, and  got him out of the nesting box and he ran behind a bale of straw.  From there he ran out the people door of the coop and outside and under the duck house.  So, basically he got away.

But tomorrow, I will set traps and catch him.  I will win this battle.

I am sure there are most likely more than one.  And, I will need to figure out how to catch possums in the traps and not cats, chickens and ducks.  Most likely cat will have to sleep in the garage, and I will have to lock up the chickens first.  The ducks rarely use their house-they prefer to sleep in the pen, so hopefully no ducks will get trapped. If I can find where he got into the pen, I can set the trap on the outside and try there.