Coyote Advice Sought

[luvzmychickens]

shoot them, poison them, buy a 3rd time wrestling champion

... but u have to kill them not scare them away, i've had 1 chicken already eaten by one, and its come back (luckly they were still locked safe in there coop) we have a brick wall surrounding our yard and its about 5 1/2 feet high... the darn thing can still jump over it!!!!!

 

[ParadiseFoundFarm]

Quote:
Stevo,

What chicken breed(s) do you have being taken by coyotes? Have you seen the yotes take a bird? I am curious as to how your birds respond to coyotes coming after them. Not all my birds equally susceptible to coyotes.

centrarchid:
Which are not susceptible? Does it depend on size? The 2 I lost Saturday were Roos, 19 weeks old, 5-6lbs each.
Stevo:
How close is their cover to your free range area? Is the free range area fenced? I wonder if fencing would deter them at all since luvzmychickens just stated they can jump over a 5 1/2 brick wall they can't even see through.......

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Not always need to kill them. I have coyotes but they have not yet gone after my birds. They do keep other coyotes out that might go after my birds. If my local coyotes become a problem, then and only then I become a problem for them. Over reacting is a waste of time, especially if control cost are greater than value of birds lost.

 

[Stevo]

Stevo,

What chicken breed(s) do you have being taken by coyotes? Have you seen the yotes take a bird? I am curious as to how your birds respond to coyotes coming after them. Not all my birds equally susceptible to coyotes.

I have EE's and bantams. They have taken both and yes I saw them. I know when one is around now the hens make a distinct warning sound and run for cover. I also have a fox that lives right behind my garage. He goes right past my coop at dusk and has never tried to take a bird. I watch him come out of his den sometimes as I am going out to lock up the chickens.​

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
I have EE's and bantams. They have taken both and yes I saw them. I know when one is around now the hens make a distinct warning sound and run for cover. I also have a fox that lives right behind my garage. He goes right past my coop at dusk and has never tried to take a bird. I watch him come out of his den sometimes as I am going out to lock up the chickens.

DO they not attempt to fly into trees?

 

[Stevo]

DO they not attempt to fly into trees?

I have had them fly all the way up to the roof on my barn lol. Amazing how well they fly. I have 7 acres of cleared land they freerange on with no fences. They stay mostly around the house, barn, and geerage tho. They are so happy having the run of the place I will not lock them up cept for at night. The roosters are taken because they are trying to protect the hens. If I was you I would lock them all up and put one out in the yard in a wire cage. Sit and wait for ole chicken breath to come to get her. Then send him to the big coyote woods in the sky. A few days doing that will get rid of the braisin yotes and the others may stay away. It has worked for me so far. I havent seen one around the coop in months. I did see one the other day in my north field while I was deer hunting. So I know they are still around. I have killed the ones that dont fear me. I am happy to share my farm with the rest. Long as they dont see a KFC sign on my coop lol.​

 

[puredelite]

Just forget all the advice about not having to kill them, they won't go away but will be more persistent as winter is coming. They will kill not only your chickens but also your dogs and housecats given the opportunity. I have a constant battle with them as they kill my lambs and goats whenever they can. I only wish the ones 'round here would allow me to walk up on them that close. A 12 ga. shotgun loaded with #4 buckshot would put them out of MY misery! Please do the world a favor and annihilate as many as you can...

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
I have had them fly all the way up to the roof on my barn lol. Amazing how well they fly. I have 7 acres of cleared land they freerange on with no fences. They stay mostly around the house, barn, and geerage tho. They are so happy having the run of the place I will not lock them up cept for at night. The roosters are taken because they are trying to protect the hens. If I was you I would lock them all up and put one out in the yard in a wire cage. Sit and wait for ole chicken breath to come to get her. Then send him to the big coyote woods in the sky. A few days doing that will get rid of the braisin yotes and the others may stay away. It has worked for me so far. I havent seen one around the coop in months. I did see one the other day in my north field while I was deer hunting. So I know they are still around. I have killed the ones that dont fear me. I am happy to share my farm with the rest. Long as they dont see a KFC sign on my coop lol.

We seldom had losses to coyotes, even roosters flew into trees with ease. Coyotes kept fox numbers down. Coyotes for us were more threat to calves and stray dogs were a bigger threat in that catagory. Our dogs would go down and drive coyotes off once alerted by chicken cackling. System worked pretty good. I am trying to re-establish this dynamic. Past weaknesses to system was not enough trees in some areas and some chickens simply lacked adequate escape response in that they could not fly well enough to reach tree before taken by coyote. If you had 50 American games and a hundred dual purpose production birds (RIR,BR and WO), you would loose all production birds before loosing first 5 games. Roosters of production breeds, like your observation were taken first. They spent to much time on ground make alarm calls and simply could not fly well enough.

Chicks were also more vulnerable but brooding hens seemed more effective at using dogs as cover around barn yard, so long as supplemental scratch supplied.

 

[centrarchid]

puredelite,

Get a livestock guarding dog (LGD) or two. At work we have them (4 I think) and to my knowledge no sheep or goats have been lost to coyotes since dogs acquired. We have a couple hundred head spread out over a hundred acres or so. Our coyotes do eat pomeranians and like but they have not touched sheep and goats when competent livestock guarding dogs in place. I am confident if LGD would not go after chickens, chickens would be safe as well.

 

[ParadiseFoundFarm]

Quote:
I have had them fly all the way up to the roof on my barn lol. Amazing how well they fly. I have 7 acres of cleared land they freerange on with no fences. They stay mostly around the house, barn, and geerage tho. They are so happy having the run of the place I will not lock them up cept for at night. The roosters are taken because they are trying to protect the hens. If I was you I would lock them all up and put one out in the yard in a wire cage. Sit and wait for ole chicken breath to come to get her. Then send him to the big coyote woods in the sky. A few days doing that will get rid of the braisin yotes and the others may stay away. It has worked for me so far. I havent seen one around the coop in months. I did see one the other day in my north field while I was deer hunting. So I know they are still around. I have killed the ones that dont fear me. I am happy to share my farm with the rest. Long as they dont see a KFC sign on my coop lol.

Wow! That is a great idea! I belive that there are only 2 coyotes attacking the chickens,,,so far. I've seen others in our 10 acre cleared field mousing and such. I've observed those same coyotes avoiding the coop. I now have a loaned BB gun which I can have w/o a current FOID on which I am still waiting. I will be target practicing with that this week as I have an operation comming up Friday and will be house-bound for 4 days, I don't belive the kick will be bad as it only shoots "plastic pellets". I feel sorry for the Rooster who will be bait but it's for the better good and also better than being taken by a coyote. I will not bait until I have some thing, leathal to coyote, in my hands while I stand guard.
What do you think? Could it just be 2 coyote who have learned chickens are easy prey? I haven't seen our 4 resident wild turkeys in about 4 months.
I've looked into LPDs. The breeder I spoke with who seemed very knowlegable (and patient) with my many questions does not belive it is for us.
The reasons stated are:
1) We cannot fence our property (because of creek & flood plain and woods issues).
2) Our resident Golden Retriever , almost 2 years old, would have to be kept away from the other dog.
3) I and my husband are too soft hearted to treat the LPD the reccomended way ie: leaving it out in all kinds of weather, never playing with it etc.
4) For our size of property and prevalance of preadators we would need 2 and it's out of our budget.