Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Mike CHS]

I hope not greybeard. We are going to close everything up tonight and put some food around outside and see what we or the camera can catch.

 

[Baymule]

Bad Possum! Gonna be a GONE possum!

 

[Mike CHS]

Got the possum (at least hope there is only one). I trapped one last year and only took it a little over a mile away so this may be the same one. This one I took 10 miles away so hopefully if it is the same one it stays gone this time.

 

[Hens and Roos]

Good job on getting this one- it doesn't look to thrilled...hope it stays away!

 

[Mike CHS]

They really seem to like sardines and apple chunks since they were all gone.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Glad ya got the rascal....but, I make sure they won't be dealt with by me or anybody else...they become buzzard food...

 

[greybeard]

Got the possum (at least hope there is only one). I trapped one last year and only took it a little over a mile away so this may be the same one. This one I took 10 miles away so hopefully if it is the same one it stays gone this time.
View attachment 39808

If it returns again, change the distance to .22 next time...

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

I second greybeard. Where we used to live we’d trap a lot of raccoons and a .22 insures that they can’t come back to cause grief. And while we don’t have possums around here aren’t they supposed to breed like bunnies? I know they have a ridiculously short gestation period. A little population control can only help in the long run

 

[farmerjan]

I don't go out of my way to kill wildlife. That said, once they find the chickens, they are trapped and disposed of...like everyone else that has posted a .22 is the only way to go. I would not do my neighbors, no matter how sparsely populated the area is, the injustice of setting loose a potential problem for them to deal with. And of all the different things, opposuum's carry several different diseases. I can't think of the name offhand, but they can transmit one to horses that can be fatal. They will have 6-15 young carried in their pouch, and they are not only scavengers, but will eat eggs, feed, and small chickens/chicks.

Had a "neighbor" several miles away in Ct years ago that just "couldn't kill" the poor raccoon, and took it several miles down the road and set it loose in the woods. It managed to find it's way to our place, and proceeded to open hooks and eyes, and kill more than 30 young birds that we were raising. Finally caught it and killed it after hundreds of dollars loss of purebred young out of our show chickens.
A week or so later just happened to be in the feed store and heard this person talking about the "poor raccoon" that they had caught trying to get into their chickens and that they felt sorry for it and took it down "such and such" road and turned it loose in the woods. It was right over the hill from us. And the coon had a badly torn/scarred ear and they said they felt sorry for it because it had probably been in a fight with a dog or something.... well, I proceeded to ask them if it was the right or left ear and when they said it was the right; I then told them that the "poor raccoon" was now dead along with over 30 of our purebred half grown chickens that it had gotten in and torn apart. I also told them that if I had any problems with any others, I would gladly trap the poor things and bring 'em and turn 'em loose in the woods up behind their property so they could feel sorry for them there.
Don't take a problem animal and turn it out to be someone else's problem.

 

[Baymule]

@farmerjan how in the world did you refrain from slapping the snot out of that idiot?