Last night I was getting the cows some feed out of the barn as we keep the grain in 55 gallon barrels with lids. Just happened to look in one of the spare barrels that didn't have a lid to see if there was a partial bag of mineral supplement left over and there was 2 live opossums in there :o and unfortunately one that had passed. Glad I looked before I reached down in there with bare hands.
I have no clue how long they had been in there but it had probably been a few days since I had looked in that barrel.
I went and got the live trap and was able to get the 2 live ones out of the barrel and into the trap so I could relocate them. Since I don't know how long they had been in there and they seemed a bit weak, before I brought them out to let them go I put a bowl of water and some dog food with them to make sure they were capable to surviving if I were to release them and they both drank just fine so brought them way out in the woods and released them.
Tell you what, I'm keeping a lid on that barrel from now on ;)
I can't remember how many times I'd get home late and go out to feed the stock and find a possum or coon looking up at me. Will always startle you. Sorry about the one that died and hope he others go on somewhere they won't bother anyone else.
Yea luckily I don't have chickens anymore and I don't believe any close neighbors do so I don't figure they will hurt anything. (Atleast I hope they dont anyway :))
We used to keep the feed in an old deep freezer. Me and my brother was getting feed out and heard something under the freezer so I kicked the cover panel near the compressor and when the panel fell open we found ourselves face to face with the tail end of a skunk. I'll say finding an opossum is startling for sure but at least they cant get you from 5 ft away :D
I think that if the two live ones had been in the barrel too long, they would have turned to cannibalism!
Around this area, the few people that would occasionally see a 'possum would treat them like a big rat and shoot them, now people are learning that 'possums eat ticks, so they let them live!
I wouldn't doubt that is what had happened to the dead one in the barrel.
I've read that they are beneficial animals to have around providing they aren't causing problems so I like to leave them alone if they aren't bothering anything. Just about any critter that helps get rid of ticks fine with me! :)
Must be gettin close to spring.
Saw my first possum road kill yesterday.
Maybe not too close to spring tho, snowing now about 10 11 inches so far and more expected
Over the past few days, I've seen a few roadkill 'coons!
Lots of road-killed skunks the last few weeks.
gspren,
Are you sure they are fresh kills? I drove a truck OTR for a while and decided skunks were the most common road kill in USA then I realized a rk skunk stayed there till he turned to dust. People would pick up and remove other rk but not skunks.
I drove up to Rochester NY one time and saw lots of dead deer in PA and decided they must have more deer than we did then in WV I realized their economy was just better and they left them where they lay while we'd take them home to eat.
Last year I had read that 1:44 people in WV will hit a deer while 1:72 in PA will hit a dear, but there are more people in PA. I've had my share of possums in my trash cans unlike raccoons and cats the prehistoric looking rats just can't jump out of the cans. I just hit the can with a stick for 5 minutes, they learn there lesson and never come back.
Since the slight warm up I've seen a few possums trying to become part of the pavement .They aren't noted for speed .
My deceased wife was a city girl .The first possum she saw she thought it was a huge rat . :D Poor girl probably thought we were going to have to import a mountain lion to catch them .
DJ,
Yes but 1:43 in WV will probably take it home to eat while one 1:73 will take it home in PA. :D
My son has hit 5-6 here in the last 28 years we have been here. A month after getting his car out of the repair shop from one collision another jumped off a bank and scratched up his paint. He passed the spot showed it to his then 4 y/o daughter and said "That's where the deer jumped off and hit my car." Josie calmly replied "Daddy, you've got a gun." It was obvious to her this was due to his carelessness and neglect in putting up with such miscreants.
i am in middle tennessee. and i see a lot of armadillos road kill. they must have followed the mexicans up from texas. they was never here until a few years ago.
Last weekend we were driving up rte 22 just north of Whitehall, NY. Counted 6 dead porcupines on the road over about a 2 mile stretch.