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”
So glad you found the opossum! But too bad it got away. Somehow it feels more benign than the mink. To hay or not to hay – that is a complex decision. I always appreciate when you share your thinking process. Hope the snow is in and out, or blows elsewhere.
I agree – the possum is so much more manageable than the mink – if only for the size difference.
We have the Australian variety living in our garage/under our floorboards (strange house layout…). It’s not terribly bright, it’s very clumsy, rather noisy (a little Night Music, anyone?) and I put up with these attributes because it helps to keep our giant monster grasshoppers under control. I just wish it would stop knocking things over in the middle of the night so we think we have burglars… cute and fluffy, but a serious pain in the behind.
Thank you for a very good description, Kate! I am glad for the ‘teachings’ here and sorry so many problems are caused by the North American variety . . . . I am rather fond of the cuddly, silly, almost blind ‘beasties’ we meet here . . . try to drive on a few country roads late at night (especially near Thredbo) and unless you want to commit multiple murder you drive at about 10 km until past maybe hundreds clumsily wandering about . . .
As long as it is no bother I guess. He must come in and out to eat?
The garage has one wall which is all those decorative pierced concrete blocks, and the gaps are definitely ‘access all areas’ for a possum… He’s a bit of a pain from the noise point of view, but not otherwise.
No possums this side of the world, or equivalent. I love to read your musings on expansion of the farmy. Laura
I need to stay ahead of the market if I am to keep this afloat once John pulls out his financial support. It will be sink or swim next year!
Your NZ possums are so cute and cuddly looking! Had no idea they were such destructive pests! A bit reminiscent of Star Trek’s :”The Trouble With Tribbles” episode! Mom used to come into our bedroom and say sternly, ” Quit playing possum and get out of that bed!” Ahhh – memories!
What a sweet memory! c
Happy Spring, Miss C! If you can wheedle the new acres to use for hay, that plus buying big round bales seems best in terms of cost and work involved in haying in addition to your always increasing daily chores. Grazing is definitely best for the herd- i envision your moving the hot fence wire as similar to those huge moving irrigation/sprinkler systems? To the possums: ugly cute, soft fur, bare pink feet, good parents, more opportunist eater than active killer. I tend to think the mink killed the chook & possum found a free meal — but Boo found possum. Their open mouths showing off those sharp teeth, along with menacing hisses, warn off many who would attack. They do more good for the environment in the wild than harm. Naturally resistant to rabies. They compete with guineas as voracious tick eaters. BUT– ask your vet the next time about possum urine in cattle hay or pig bedding.– as that is bad to fatal ingested by horses. Also, raccoons, though so smart and cute, carry and spread parasites and rabies. Fighters and killers. Fingers crossed for a miss on the s- word!
Yes, I would much rather have the cows on pasture – good pasture – pity we need to feed hay for 6 months of the year. reading through the comments today I am less and less likely ever to have a horse. They are allergic to so much. How people keep the wildlife out of their hay sheds I do not know – especially in the cold months. It must be terrifying.
Haha I’ve only seen the American possum as I’m from new york. Thanks for the link, I learned the difference today 🙂
HI Jess and welcome to the lounge!!
Oh Inky is adorable! Hopefully the possum has moved on. I thought they just went after ticks and insects but I guess they have a bigger appetite.
God knows how they eat a big as small as a tick – but there you are..
Nature is fascinating and weird. 🙂
In love with the photos of the calves. Glad they quieted for you. Must have known you were talking about them!
They are over the fright of losing their mother/notmother thank goodness.. c
We have possums here. When I had the house, I had a part of the back yard fenced for the dogs. There was the daily “pooh patrol” picking up the pooh with a scooper, but there was always less than there should have been. I was watching out the kitchen window one night because the moonlight was so pretty and saw something moving. I got my binoculars and watched a possum eating the dog pooh. YUCK! I wouldn’t be surprised to find the possum was up in the barn eating the bird pooh. My dog, Sunny, got a possum once and he did kill it, he wasn’t interested in the playing dead, he knew it wasn’t. The possums here are into garbage cans, people feed them and they clean up dog pooh. The raccoons are more dangerous. There is a really huge one that parades up and down the hill and gets into the dumpsters, it’s very bold and annoying.
YUUUUUUCK!!!!
I was looking at Wagu in the market today in comparison to Galician “beef” and the Old cow Galician looked more attractive with beautiful marbling and soft yellow fat.
Interesting – I am tempted to invest in a few old milking cows and let them roam the fields for a few years. I wonder if it works the same for old beef cows who have calved a number of times, reared all their babies but are too old to breed again – what do you think? c
I would imagine so. I was in a beautiful old market yesterday admiring the Galician beef. It was sitting next to some Wagu and the marbling was identical.
A chicken-eating possum! Not in New Zealand, I’m glad to say.
Me too – glad to say. Morning Juliet!
I just lost a horse a week and a half ago to EPM which is a disease they get from opossums in America. He was my daughters horse and was her world. His death has crushed my whole family. Needles to say, I’m not too fond of opossums right now. I’m not sure if NZ opossums carry the disease or if cows can get it, but it might be something to look into if you have one in your barn near any hay you feed the cows.
Oh no, you poor thing that is just terrible. My sympathies. This is so recent for you – I hope time helps you and your daughter. So sad.
Thank you. 🙂
Poor ‘possoms. They’re so homely. And slow. And stupid. But they can do very bad things.
I did not know that opossums killed chickens until about ten years ago. It took us several days to figure out what was going on – my mother-in-law came to us saying she was missing about ten hens and had no idea what was going on! Finally I discovered a opossum eating a hen in the chicken pen early in the morning (just at daylight). By the time I went after Forrest (the ranch gun man), it had vanished. The next day I was ready. Sure enough, she was just going IN the barn through a broken window, so I went inside and she backed out, running off as I exited the barn. I boarded up the window and as I turned to head back out, I caught a whiff of something dead. There in another corner were the carcasses of I don’t know how many hens. The opossum been feasting for weeks probably! The next morning I was up early, and in the dim morning light, there she was again headed from the woods to the chicken barn. She looked odd I thought… striped almost. Forrest and I do not like to kill anything, but most any animal, once it knows it can get a free kill on the farm, it will return again and again. Well, Forrest did the deed and went off to work while I offered to dispose of the body. I was horrified to discover the “stripes” were six babies hanging on mama. The little ones scrammed as soon as I approached so maybe they were old enough to be on their own. I hope so. I can tell you that has bothered me all of these years.
Oh no. I can see how that would wear on you. But that mama would have taught those babies where dinner was.
There are many opportunities to see our actions from various perspectives. We do not kill anything in the spring months. I never considered babies back then. I only thought of a chicken killer. Ah, nothing is easy being a steward of the land and animals.
True that
Gosh is that really a possum 😉 I’m thankful that our possums aren’t remotely interested in the chickens .. be a real problem if they were!