We just had an invader at 1am! A possum in the coop. Paul and I were laying in bed reading when I heard loud squawking outside our window. I thought it might be the chickens (even though they are around on the other side of the house about 100 feet away), although it did sound potentially like a crow or something else, so Paul went outside to check. He came back in after a few minutes explaining that there was a possum in our coop and he wasn't sure what to do. I bundled up and went outside. The first thing I noticed were the three girls all huddled in the corner outside the coop near the door (but still inside the coop enclosure). Their water had been completely overturned and they seemed scared. Paul was standing outside the nest box door and told me to take a look. I peeked in the nest box and a small to medium size possum was curled up inside. Luckily (as far as we could tell in the dark) s/he hadn't hurt the hens; maybe it was just looking for some warmth? Maybe it was just too small to do any damage yet. In any case, we were a little unsure as to how we should get this fellow out. I suggested grabbing it by the tail and flinging it away, but neither of us were brave enough to attempt it. Instead, we opened the back cleaning-access door, first trying to pick the possum up with a set of racquetball raquets, but that didn't work. Then we just completely opened the coop and kinda shoved it out. It seemed lazy and wasn't really scared, it just walked off and hid in the yard about 10 feet away. We inspected the coop and found a potential opening with a board where the screws had come loose.....the next 20 minutes were spent attempting to fix the coop using powertools and probably waking up our neighbors; I think we were successful on both accounts. I hope nothing else tries to bother the girls! I comforted them, refilled their water, and placed them back in the coop (they were too scared to go in on their own). Now they're quietly roosting again and hopefully asleep like they should be. I wonder if this will affect egg production tomorrow?