Coyote in broad daylight!

[lefttowrite]

I live on 4 acres in a rural area and we’ve always had coyotes. But we only hear them at night, and far off.

Today, however, my husband spotted one sneaking toward the coop at 10 in the morning! Broad daylight! He was scoping out our house, too. Just one, so I wonder if he is scouting for a larger group.

We’ve added more hardware cloth to our already aproned, locked, and covered coop/run and I’m going to dump some human urine around the perimeter of the area tonight. Any other ideas for deterrent? We have a rifle, but I’d really rather scare him off than unalive him if possible.

*Editing to say I’ve seen on other threads that LGDs are pretty effective against coyotes and other predators, but we are not in a position to get a dog right now. We also don’t have power run to the coop, so a hot wire might be out of the question too.

This is the first instance of predation I’ve encountered in the year or so I’ve had these girls, and so far I’ve mostly been worried about/aware of hawks. My flock has had a lot of unsupervised free range time in the evenings lately, and it gives me chills to think of how close a call that’s been.

 

[Evadig]

I live on 4 acres in a rural area and we’ve always had coyotes. But we only hear them at night, and far off.

Today, however, my husband spotted one sneaking toward the coop at 10 in the morning! Broad daylight! He was scoping out our house, too. Just one, so I wonder if he is scouting for a larger group.

We’ve added more hardware cloth to our already aproned, locked, and covered coop/run and I’m going to dump some human urine around the perimeter of the area tonight. Any other ideas for deterrent? We have a rifle, but I’d really rather scare him off than unalive him if possible.

This is the first instance of predation I’ve encountered in the year or so I’ve had these girls, and I’ve mostly been worried about hawks. My flock has had a lot of unsupervised free range time in the evenings lately, and it gives me chills to think of how close a call that’s been.

I'm of no help, but I totally understand your fright! I see you live in northern MI. My grandparents lived there too. One afternoon we were visiting and sitting around in the yard, with my cocker spaniel off leash just nosing around, when we realized a coy-wolf was watching us not fifty feet away. Eva was never outside without a leash after that!

 

[Mrs. K]

If I lose one during the day, it is mostly coyotes. Two years ago, a family nearly wiped me out.

 

[123RedBeard]

In the daytime it's easier to get a good shot into them ... They won't be back, and any of their buddies that may be watching from a distance may decide to go hunting somewhere else!

 

[Awaytome]

You can get a solar energizer for electric fencing.