HnkyDnkyZZFarm
Chirping
Hiya there.
We have a MASSIVE coyote problem.
Thus far we have been able to avoid any casualties, but my nights are getting a little too exciting for my liking. Being ready to leap out of bed when the pack gets too close to go a 'yote chasin isn't really my idea of restful sleep. I woke up this morning at 4am from out cold to shoes on and heading out the door in under a minute. I rolled over and said to my hubbends, "We have to get out there - NOW" and we did. Ran the bunch through with flashlights, but this is getting outrageous. I mean okay, I love the farm life, but come on now. This isn't the frontier. We are twenty minutes from tech-topia. I shouldn't be contemplating whether I need a club with fire.
In our neighborhood, we have two horses, three dogs, six goats, two sheep, twelve chickens, three ducks, two rabbits and three cats.
This is just our farm team of two families. This doesn't include animals or children or elderly persons cared for by the neighborhoods that butt up to our ranches. A jogger unaware could find themselves in a world of scared and possibly hurt if they decided to go check out the country side of town before about 5am. Kind of makes all the stick toting walkers seem kind of silly. Oh yeah, you have that stick, but the real thing that's saving your butt is daylight.
As the cold weather wears in and they start running short on game, we all know exactly where they're going to be. They know we're here, for now we're a tough target, but if something doesn't give, I'll be camping out behind the pens come end of Novemberish.
When I fed horses this morning, there were easily twenty piles of fresh coyote scat in the arena - 50 yards behind the house.
I have called our local "wildlife control" but I say that term really loosely. "Vector" is handling our wildlife control, but I'm VERY skeptical of their understanding of the problem or their ability - or moreso willingness to do anything about it. As far as I've researched, their primary business is mosquito and tick control. I'll be honest, I don't think they're up to the task. I don't think they have any CLUE how bad this has gotten. I left a message but they wont be back till Monday. So I have two more nights at least of this. IF they come out, rather than telling me that "wildlife is pretty and natural" (sure it is. Till you overpack an area with it because you've built over their previous habitat. Some rich yuppie gets a new house and I get a doubled coyote pack... sounds about accurate.)
We're in an unincorporated area where we don't have an animal control proper and parks and wildlife are handled more like a Human Relations department than a game or predator control. Domestic animals are arrested by our local PD till their owners come bail them out.
I'm done trying to handle this with neighborhood organization. We've done the best we can, but due to the building of tract homes a couple miles down the road, we have inherited the coyote population from the fields becoming homes, in addition to our already thriving population.
Previously we had a fairly neighborly relationship with our yotes, there is enough wild game - in the form of gophers, wild turkeys, and orchard fruit to keep them from coming in too close - too close means about an acre out. That's my comfort zone for a pack of thirty plus.
Do you think they'll do anything? Does anyone have any experiences with Vector, any advice? Any other ideas? Who else can I call? Should I start petitioning? Chase down my city council? I don't think they'd get it.
Sadly, yotes aren't a sign of a healthy farming community. If you have as many as we have close in, it means that they are impacted for den space, low on game and that there are only a few farms with livestock in the area and they are working up their nerve to become more aggressive.
Healthy farming communities drive out yotes, just due to the human activity and the population density driving prey away from the farms, and the animal density acts as protection in numbers. I sadly understand that we're trying to hold on to a way of life that is dying, but the feeling that we probably have no support coming for this challenge (could be just my lack of sleep talking, or maybe because in the past they've been very hesitant to even come out when we have a big guy get too familiar with humans) but I'm kind of boggling on what to do about this. I'm down with a handful or so, but this is ridiculous. It sounds like a high speed police chase, sirens and all in my back field every night.
Shooting them is out of the question - at least legally speaking. We're on the edge of a town with a no discharge of firearms law. Even though we are unincorporated, if an unincorporated area butts up against a town, the towns laws take priority. You can have a gun, but you can't use it without going to jail. Just perfect.
Who'm I gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!!! No seriously, who should I call besides Vector?
We have a MASSIVE coyote problem.
Thus far we have been able to avoid any casualties, but my nights are getting a little too exciting for my liking. Being ready to leap out of bed when the pack gets too close to go a 'yote chasin isn't really my idea of restful sleep. I woke up this morning at 4am from out cold to shoes on and heading out the door in under a minute. I rolled over and said to my hubbends, "We have to get out there - NOW" and we did. Ran the bunch through with flashlights, but this is getting outrageous. I mean okay, I love the farm life, but come on now. This isn't the frontier. We are twenty minutes from tech-topia. I shouldn't be contemplating whether I need a club with fire.
In our neighborhood, we have two horses, three dogs, six goats, two sheep, twelve chickens, three ducks, two rabbits and three cats.
This is just our farm team of two families. This doesn't include animals or children or elderly persons cared for by the neighborhoods that butt up to our ranches. A jogger unaware could find themselves in a world of scared and possibly hurt if they decided to go check out the country side of town before about 5am. Kind of makes all the stick toting walkers seem kind of silly. Oh yeah, you have that stick, but the real thing that's saving your butt is daylight.
As the cold weather wears in and they start running short on game, we all know exactly where they're going to be. They know we're here, for now we're a tough target, but if something doesn't give, I'll be camping out behind the pens come end of Novemberish.
When I fed horses this morning, there were easily twenty piles of fresh coyote scat in the arena - 50 yards behind the house.
I have called our local "wildlife control" but I say that term really loosely. "Vector" is handling our wildlife control, but I'm VERY skeptical of their understanding of the problem or their ability - or moreso willingness to do anything about it. As far as I've researched, their primary business is mosquito and tick control. I'll be honest, I don't think they're up to the task. I don't think they have any CLUE how bad this has gotten. I left a message but they wont be back till Monday. So I have two more nights at least of this. IF they come out, rather than telling me that "wildlife is pretty and natural" (sure it is. Till you overpack an area with it because you've built over their previous habitat. Some rich yuppie gets a new house and I get a doubled coyote pack... sounds about accurate.)
We're in an unincorporated area where we don't have an animal control proper and parks and wildlife are handled more like a Human Relations department than a game or predator control. Domestic animals are arrested by our local PD till their owners come bail them out.
I'm done trying to handle this with neighborhood organization. We've done the best we can, but due to the building of tract homes a couple miles down the road, we have inherited the coyote population from the fields becoming homes, in addition to our already thriving population.
Previously we had a fairly neighborly relationship with our yotes, there is enough wild game - in the form of gophers, wild turkeys, and orchard fruit to keep them from coming in too close - too close means about an acre out. That's my comfort zone for a pack of thirty plus.
Do you think they'll do anything? Does anyone have any experiences with Vector, any advice? Any other ideas? Who else can I call? Should I start petitioning? Chase down my city council? I don't think they'd get it.
Sadly, yotes aren't a sign of a healthy farming community. If you have as many as we have close in, it means that they are impacted for den space, low on game and that there are only a few farms with livestock in the area and they are working up their nerve to become more aggressive.
Healthy farming communities drive out yotes, just due to the human activity and the population density driving prey away from the farms, and the animal density acts as protection in numbers. I sadly understand that we're trying to hold on to a way of life that is dying, but the feeling that we probably have no support coming for this challenge (could be just my lack of sleep talking, or maybe because in the past they've been very hesitant to even come out when we have a big guy get too familiar with humans) but I'm kind of boggling on what to do about this. I'm down with a handful or so, but this is ridiculous. It sounds like a high speed police chase, sirens and all in my back field every night.
Shooting them is out of the question - at least legally speaking. We're on the edge of a town with a no discharge of firearms law. Even though we are unincorporated, if an unincorporated area butts up against a town, the towns laws take priority. You can have a gun, but you can't use it without going to jail. Just perfect.
Who'm I gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!!! No seriously, who should I call besides Vector?
