I think we have solved the mystery of the murdered chicken in the loft of the big barn. Boo found a possum in there yesterday evening. And grabbed it!
Fast as a flying whip he was. I told him to drop it straight away as I was not sure what he had – he was very fast – overturning the bucket it was behind with a clatter and grabbing it and shaking it. Bam Bam. I thought he might have a peahen. He dropped it immediately and came straight to my side to watch. I thought it might be dead, it lay so still but it was playing possum of course and when I was distracted by Poppy then looked back it had disappeared.
Later Boo brought it out to the drive and left it there for me to admire. I was sure it was dead this time. It was all splayed out – eyes open. I took the dog and went inside to get a bag to dispose of the body and when I went out it had disappeared again.
The dogs were out most of the night. It is their job to protect the farm from predators and I have seen what this animal can do but I hope it got away – far away preferably.
If you are from New Zealand or Australia, and I know and am delighted that many of you are, have a look at this. American possums are small and silver and mean looking with long sharp noses and naked rat like tails. American ‘possums are nothing like the New Zealand ones. New Zealand opossums are bigger and browner and have long bushy tails and when I lived in New Zealand I never heard of them killing chickens. I even had a pet opossum once who used to love to ride on top of my bushy head and caused a scene once by running up my mother’s pale stockinged legs to get to the top of her bushy head. Though, as they are introduced to New Zealand, they are considered pests, terrible pests – destroying the bush (forest) and eating native bird eggs. Mixed with sheeps wool their fur make lovely warm hats and mittens. But I never heard of them killing chooks – chicks probably and maybe eggs but they are not known as a threat to big chooks. American possums, which are natives seem much more dangerous and nasty looking too.
The calves have quietened down.
That sequence above was of Inky coming in slowly to lick my hands as I held the camera to my eye. She is still the sweetest of the little cows.
When the chickens are let out in the evening for a supervised run in the late afternoon sun they dive for that tiny bit of emerging leafy greenery in the field. Once they have had their time outdoors they are locked securely back into their big chook house.
Boo and I are still bothering the mink holes down by the creek a couple of times a day.
I was having a talk with my hay man last evening (as he delivered another six bales ) and with this long spring, and after a dry summer for much of the midwest, hay is getting much more expensive this month. In fact, his supplier has sold out at those higher prices to the feed lots so there may be no more hay to be had.
I need my fields to start growing.
Now I am seriously contemplating fencing in the hay fields and strip grazing the cows over them. So they get a mix of hay in the morning and green field in the afternoon. There is a bit of alfalfa out there but it is half grass so with care, and daily moving the electric fence across the field so they eat both, and giving them hay in the morning (if I still have any), we should be fine. They ust need to be trained to alfalfa. I have done it before. Bloat is always a consideration but I am going to run out of feed and the other fields must be allowed to grow. I have to hold firm and maintain the herd I have gathered and grown. And my animals never eat grain so their bellies work naturally.
I don’t want to sell too many of the beasties if I can avoid it, they are too small for the chefs yet. I need them to grow so I can get 1000 pounds hanging weight. Which means I need to get them to about 1500 pounds (about 700kg) at least. If we can get through to the end of the summer I can sell two of the cattle to the chefs and make enough to buy hay for the winter for the whole farm. No need to make any hay then. Which I can’t if I have grazed the hay fields. Do you see my dilemma?
My other plan is to bring in two more acres from the corn and beans and get John to sow it in oats for fast fodder – it makes good hay and works in a pinch. Then we will sow it in pasture. (We were going to do this next year but maybe I can convince the family to bring it up a year).
We just have to last until Monday. Monday is going to begin the warm-up. Monday the fields will start to grow. Though there is the small problem of the nasty winter storm coming in tomorrow night! With 5-8 inches of snow. But I don’t believe it.
OK. All good stuff to work out!
WEATHER: Cool and clear for the most part.
The Kitchen's Garden 
76 responses to “PLAYING ‘POSSUM”
Possum or Opossum? To-mato or to-matto? Po-tato or Pa-tato? Oh the English language! I have never known possum to kill larger birds either. They do eat grubs, mosquitoes and other bugs, but grow chickens? Very interesting. Possum has always been a part of our lives in North Texas…. Dad would catch them and then take the north to the grasslands. My uncle would actually cook them! I never got a taste for possum or raccoon…. too gamy. Now his squirrel stew I loved, but it was more vegetable than meat…
I saw a truck with those huge 1000 lb bales on it yesterday. Semi with 12 bales on it. They were HUGE! and the load was shifting crazily when the truck took a turn. I stayed WAY back from it as one of those bales would swallow my little car.
hmm – I will put the trap up the top and see if i can get him/her – what did your dad use as bait?
Tuna Fish or my mothers sardines since he hated both…. 😉 Smelly stuff.
Drat! I was hoping this was the OTHER way around: “the possum is nothing but a big rat to the mink the mink can easily kill any possum it wants to”
Those possums are scary, nasty little critters. You tell Boo to be careful hunting them!
And some very sweet and soft pictures of that Inky’s nose!
she is a very sweet little calf that one..
i’ve encountered a few possums in my time back East. The dogs were always confused that they “died”so suddenly. but that’s better than skunks. Hope the hay situation gets better as April comes…
OH YES!! Better than skunks for sure – and THEY will be out wandering about soon – you know, I would love one of those wildlife cameras that take pictures at night – there must be all kinds of things going on at night out there. c
A possum waddles through our backyard every few days as it makes the rounds under bird feeders. I am surprised how they have survived over the eons. They don’t appear smart, agile, or cunning. I suppose pretending to be dead must have an evolutionary advantage.
they are nocturnal too so I am always wary when I see one in the daytime – dad would always mutter about ‘rabies’ when we saw one in the sunshine. They are marsupials too which is kind of cool. c
I suspect that Boo will get the possum sooner rather than later, although you might need to break its bugged-eyed neck to be sure it’s dead. I have a dread of possums. When I was a kid, one launched itself off the rafters in the garage at my head, and since I have a tendency to freeze when I’m frightened, the possum found its target. I hate the suckers….
Merciful heavens – and they have such sharp claws – that must have been terrifying..
As luck has it, it didn’t aim for my face.
When I taught science, my fellow science teacher and I had a possum that was brought in by another teacher. It must have fallen off its mother as it was tiny. The babies cling to the mother as she moves about. We named it Worf, a Star Trek reference, because it would cling to the top of our heads and Klingon. Worf went to live along a creek when he got too big. Very cool that you had a Klingon too!
Worf! What an excellent name – bet he/she was a hit in the classroom.. c
We have a pet possum. An American possum. She’s really not nasty at all, very sweet actually. We’ve never had one kill a chicken, only take the eggs, though I suppose if one was really desperate it might, but in our experience, they are usually harmless. Raccoons, now they are killers.
That is great! Did you look at the pictures of the NZ opposum? Does yours live in the house? or outside? how interesting.
She actually does live inside. We can’t really turn her loose because she was so little when we found her, she wouldn’t be able to survive on her own, after so long in captivity. Actually our dog found her, and was about to eat her, before I rescued her. At first the only thing she would eat was apple butter. Fortunately she has branched out a bit in her tastes. She mostly just sleeps all day, inside of her wicker cabinet, and comes out to eat and snuffle around the laundry room and be cute in general. Oh, and she is litter box trained. 😊
That is quite the sweetest thing I have read in ages – and yes – to release her now would be cruel- especially as she sleeps inside a wicker cabinet. Just wonderful .
I wonder if the possum will survive two bites from Boo. They will surely become infected and he shouldn’t be a problem in the future.
I hope the mink moved on.
Poor thing – no sign of it this morning – I bet it just scurried back out of reach. I might set a cat trap and relocate it – you never know.
That possum had some serious playing dead skills but hope he “acts” far away from you. Morning miss c….
Yes I would be very grateful if he moves off the property. They may hate minks though?
Banish all things that try to eat the egg makers!
Ha! Possums! Whenever I think of possums it reminds me of The Beverley Hillbillies and Grannie who was known for her possum stew. In Toronto here, I had never seen one and thought they were strictly to be found in the U.S. south but about ten years ago a neighbour had one in her backyard. They are cute but too rat-like for my liking. Toronto is known as the raccoon capital of the world, apparently more raccoons per square kilometer here than anywhere else in the whole world! Could be they keep the possum population down. I was surprised to read in your article that they are marsupials — very interesting. Hope you have a great day and scare off the snow storm. ~ Mame 🙂
Yes. The only native marsupial they have here in the States I think. And I am hoping the snow storm will be scared off – i will instruct John to put the snow plough on the big truck – that usually does it!
People rather like them around these parts. They eat a lot of stink bugs & ticks. I have been feeding a little one on the back wall all winter, putting out apple cores & peelings, old bananas, leftover dry cat food scattered around their bowls by the cats, & other bits & pieces such as baked potatoes skins after we are finished eating. All gone every morning. Sometimes perhaps a raccoon dines out there but I have seen the little possum often waiting half way up the tree trunk beside the wall. I don’t have any chickens here in town of course. But maybe if I fill Li’l Poss up he won’t steal birds’ eggs coming soon. Here’s a page on making peace with possums. http://www.dfwwildlife.org/opossum.html
I think that is lovely. I trained a squirrel like that when I lived in London – my boss was horrified when he saw it up and begging at the glass kitchen doors.
possums can be irritating pests for sure! Good plan for your fields!
I am looking forward to John beginning in the fields.
A possum? I hope that settles it for you. You certainly don’t need night raiders, no matter the kind. I once saw plenty of possum & raccoon in my yard but their numbers seem to have dropped considerably. I’ll know in the weeks ahead whether momma skunk had a litter. That’s always such an unpleasant surprise. They don’t know about that snow hitting here . Anywhere from a trace to 4 inches has been predicted. No matter. It will all melt within a day or two.
ah – so it must be coming in south – we have 5-8 forecast here 100%. – you are right about the melt though it will be back in the 40’s on Sunday – and going up from there!! YAY
American possums are an interesting conundrum for farmers. They are actually quite affable, eating mostly bugs, especially ticks, and are good for the environment. They’re known to take down a chook or some eggs every once in a while but not very often. They also spread a deadly disease to horses. So they can be both quite good for the environment, not a nuisance at all, or a very big one. We had a similar experience with a possum last year. No chooks were injured but I was locking up the coop one night and my husky (The Killer) was staring intently into the chicken pen under their playhouse so I sent her in. She came back dragging a possum and hitting it on the ground just like Boo did. Whack whack! Then she just kinda got bored because it wasn’t moving or making sounds so I called her off of it and it looked dead but it was still very much alive. When I went for something to finish the job it got up and waddled off and The Killer just didn’t care anymore; she was too busy sniffing about the garage for rats to notice. I haven’t seen the possum since.
They faint when startled, and limp bodies don’t sustain as many injuries. They are so wonderfully weird!
The Killer!! Too funny. They must confuse our dogs!!
Her real name is Nukka, meaning little sister, but The Killer is a nickname she’s earned! She has killed our own rabbits and chickens, groundhogs, stray cats, robins, squirrels and she’s quite the ratter… She even attacked a hawk once. She’s learning at long last that the chooks are not food, but she’ll go after anything that moves if she can. She’s a menace, that one! But a possum can even fool her!
We just have manage dogs like that… Bless them. Such a trial.
Yes, they are an intermediate host for a spirochete like Lyme disease, that gets into the cerebrospinal fluid, and can be irreversible. I had to put a horse down in 2001 because there was no treatment at that time, but there is now if it’s diagnosed early.
The Aussie possums are so much more attractive.
Virginia Opossums are not actually related to the ones in Australia and New Zealand. They are only called that because they are marsupials. They are one of my favorite mammals, and we have them aplenty in my neighborhood. BUT they are one of the reasons that I do NOT have a flock of chickens. I don’t know how we could possibly keep chickens safe.
Opossums are so tough that we have a difficult time getting them as program animals at the zoo (this is Becoming Cliche, BTW). It takes less paperwork to get a serval than to get an opossum. The criteria is that they can’t be releasable, and they are so adaptable that 3-legged animals are deemed releasable. We got a blind, albino one once, but she was terrified because she couldn’t see, and they have more teeth than any other extant mammal, so she was also TERRIFYING.
We had one named Ernest T, and I loved using him for programs. But they have such a fast metabolism that they don’t live past about 3 years, even with the best medical care.
1. You have TWO blogs? I had no idea.
2. Thank you for giving us the piece of the puzzle we were looking for. I have always though the American ‘ possum was so different from ours and it confused me. To find they are different animals is a relief. WHY would they name them with the same name.
3. I need to thank you again for bringing your incredible knowledge to my blog with you. I really do appreciate you sharing your training and research with us. I love learning and you are a great teacher.
4. Still want a turtle! c