Mr. Possum decided to dig a foot under my chicken coop at the one spot that did not have wire laid flat on the ground. The palmetto bushes are too close to the coop and there is not enough room to lay wire flat…but apparently there is enough room to burrow in. I barricaded the area but he then chewed through the barricade. After finding some blood on a hens’ leg that had previously been trying to go broody , I decided to break out the trap.
I bait the trap with eggs for both racoons and opossum captures as that’s usually what they start going after. I caught 4 racoons in six months repeatedly trying to get into the duck pen, and now this guy breaking into the chicken coop.
I released him on my property on the other side of a creek from the chicken coop thinking he’d get the hint and stay there. This picture is actually the second trapping because he didn’t get the memo. When I moved the trap he rolled over on his side and I noticed the genital area was severely swollen and had yellow puss coming out. I called the local wildlife place and they were too full to accept healthy ones much less a sick one. Given the circumstances, they told me either I could take care of it or they would if I brought it in. Sorry buddy… hopefully you’re in a better place. The illness may explain why he was stubbornly returning, as in the past I’ve had success with them avoiding the area after being trapped once.