With just a few more days left in our season and a possum carcass in a cooler, I thought I'd make a bait station with the remains of the carcass (just body and head, legs were cut up for bait a couple weeks ago). At first it was just a way to give the carcass back to nature and I set up a trail camera to see if I'd get any interesting footage to show the kids. Nothing touched it for a few days, not even buzzards. But now it appears coons and a fox have discovered it.

Then I got to wondering, I have some dirt hole sets over 100 yards away on the same property. Will providing the critters with a belly full of free meal cause them to be less interested in my sets?

I doubt it.
Whatever a canine cant eat anymore,it will try to make off with surplus and stash somewhere else for later.
Thats why big baits are used at jackpots.

Good luck getting them to eat possums. Those things lie on the road here dead and even the crows won't touch them. Everything else dead on road gets eaten but not possums.they were always the last to go in my carcass piles in winter too. Even the hawks and other birds seemed to avoid them. Get road killed deer and you are better off with your time and effort. I am surprised you got foxes visiting the possum carcasses.

Good point about the possum being not desirable. We’ve had snow cover here for a while and I think it’s getting harder for the critters to find good. I have started seeing canine tracks in places I haven’t seen them in weeks.

I have some old deer meet and skunk and raccoon carcasses. As long as this whole thing isn’t a bad idea I might put some of that out.

Old deer meat and skunk will go quick with really cold weather and snow.

With bait stations one of the huge attractors is the bird activity, doesnt matter what you got on it, if the birds are there chowing down the critters will come into investigate. Having sets near it as you describe is a plus and should produce.

Thanks. I guess I need to get some meat that even the buzzards want to eat.

Probably not. I have opened stomachs on Fox & Coyote that were FULL. Then wondered why did I catch them with full bellies. Over the years I came to same conclusion as Boco.

Bait stations takes time to be worked that’s the beauty of them let them get hammered then the free food time is over, if you catch right away your not getting the full potential out of the work your putting into it. IMO

Only thing I’ve ever seen eat a dead possum was a bald Eagle. Crows and hawks here pass em up.

Buzzards, hawks, and other critters will eat a possum down here, but big critters will not touch a coon or hog.

Just remember that in PA the "bait" can not be visible from the air (avoiding raptors).

Around here we dump bait by the truck load, a barrel here and a barrel there and set every trail coming and going to it.
Processors who do three to five hundred deer a season will have more than most )single) trappers can handle, along with hogs and (some) beef in the off season.
It depends on how long and also 'remote' your line is and ease of access to get the bait out to your trap line areas.
Yet, if you do it and discover how well it works, you end up doing it again the following year.
Remember to cover your bait as most 'state laws' require, however in truth, the first fox or coyote that finds it, will uncover it.

Remember this : If you build it, they will come. . .

Here's my thoughts. . . If you cover it, the first fox and / or coyote that find it and drag it all " over H and half of Georgia", so there goes your 'covered bait' theory.
And why would it matter if matter , when you're not setting the trap or snare up close to the bait anyway. . .
You always should set on a trail off in a distance, catching the animal as it approaches , not at the bait.
Do that and you run the risk of spooking the next one .
My experience , anyway.

Ask yourself how many laws really make since..

I like just using 1 carcass and you set it in thicker cover and set on the trails leading to it not at the bait, I like to let them hit on it a while before setting the trails.

To avoid raptors when using either exposed or buried baits place them in an opening large enough for “large birds of prey” to land directly into, thus no walking in on trails with snares. Place your coyote snares well back from the baits.

I've caught vultures in the middle of a wide open field, 20 yards from the closest bone and 50 from anything resembling bait. At least around here where we have large numbers of wintering vultures, there's no sure way to avoid them if you're anywhere near bait. If you have one, you may have 50. And most of them wander around looking for scraps. Regardless, it's the law here. I think it was specifically written in regards to footholds and sets like dirtholes, though I guess I don't know for sure. If setting snares along trails for example, I'm not sure at what point it would no longer be considered bait.

Aren't vultures able to 'smell' ?
Maybe they are smelling lure

Yes they can smell. I have caught more then a few vultures In both dirt holes and flat sets. No exposed bait.