HELP!!!! COYOTE EMERGENCY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Trux]

If you are just preparing for chance encounters with a yote and are not Mathew Quigley i suggest a 12 or 20 gauge with #4buck. If you are all set up in a blind with a rest and are calling them in then most anything will do it if you can do your part. If im not pelt hunting ill use the biggest thing i can hit em with. If worried about pelts ill take a 17 mag rimfire 22 magnum with fast expanding bullet or222 with light bullet. When they are eating my babies ill take tje 12 gauge

17 center fires work great...flat and fast, used them for Fox in MN

 

[woodmort]

Some people think they're in the old West and are dead-eyes. Quigley Down Under one of my favorite all-time movies BTW.

 

[cmom]

As mentioned containing your birds is likely the first step and as also mentioned electric fence might be your next logical step unless you or someone you know have experience trapping... particularly coyotes.

As for trying to catch the coyote in a cage...in can be done, but most people with experience will tell you that it is not worth the effort or the money. Firstly, you'd need a very large trap and they go for over $150 for the cheaply built ones found at the farm stores.

Now it depends what part of the US you are in, as coyotes can very in size, with them being larger in the midwest and eastern part of the country, but I think it's fair to say that a coyote of any size is very likely going to ruin the cage trap after one catch.... and if it's in the cage for any length of time overnight ... there's a pretty good chance it'll bend the bars on the door and work it's way out... unless the trap is extremely well built ... which again the $150 plus farm store versions are not.

Now in the fairness of disclosure, while I have trapped a number of coyotes using other methods, I have never attempted to catch a coyote in a cage trap...so what I've related above about not being worth the time and effort comes from others who have actually tried using cage traps for coyotes.

For a BYC member that as recently been setting cage style traps for coyote, I'll tag
@cmom ...maybe they have something more specific to offer, based on actual experience.

My very special bird Gladys was recently taken by a fox and I'm sure another bird won't replace her. Prior to loosing Gladys I lost a couple of a birds to either a fox or a coyote. I saw a fox on the game camera that night at that coop and have also seen a coyote. Her coop has been empty now since she has been gone ( a month), but a couple of days ago I put a couple of females that need a little TLC in her coop. I cleaned out Gladys's coop and put them in it. Now I don't have to go out and look at an empty coop. I still think about her every day. I have seen the coyote but haven't caught it yet.

Somehow a gate was unlatched and 2 birds were killed. The next night something had messed with the gate again but this time I had it wired shut so nothing was going to open it. I didn't get the gate on video because it was kind of foggy. I have been seeing the coyote.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Looked like your chickens were very interested in that coyote. That is so scary in day light they are brave.

 

[cmom]

The night/early morning that the fox or coyote got the gate open to the grow-out coop, it was foggy so the camera didn't catch the action. This is what it's like here some nights as it was the night the predator got my first 2 birds, foggy. I wanted so badly to see what and how the gate got opened and how part of the electric wire next to the gate was pushed over and broke the top insulator off of the post. It had to have gotten a shock, but it was foggy that morning.

 

[woodmort]

One reason I don't name my chickens. Seems the ones I do always disappear.

 

[NanaKat]

Sorry to hear about your losses. Having chickens means dealing with predators..we have had coyote, bobcats, hawks, raccoon, possum, skunks and snakes. Each requires different measures. In our state, we can defend our livestock/flock from predators...eliminating the attacker. We free range during the day and coop at night. Often night cameras and live traps are supplemented by snap traps.
Sure hope you find a solution soon

Livestock guardian dog. Contact rescues in the area for LGDs, Great Pyrenees, Maremmas, working dogs only, etc. Sometimes there is a more senior dog safe w birds that needs a retirement home. They are serious about their jobs in keeping their charges safe. If you want to continue free ranging w no coop or locked up dusk to early morning. Even then the solitary young males that are no longer part of the pack will be desperate enough to hunt at 2 p.m. in the afternoon and unfortunately you have a known chicken buffet line at the moment.

This winter I actually had a coyote come in to the barn while I was in there putting out feed for my free ranging chickens. This was at 2 pm. I shut the barn door, secured the chickens in their coop in the corner of the barn and ran to the house for a loaded gun....it jammed and the coyote scrambled over a seven foot tall solid stall door to escape. So far it hasn't been back.

I think you have really gotten all the appropriate advice here. Bravo to the BYC community!

Contact DOW or Animal Control. They will let you know legally what you can do about killing, trapping, and/or relocation of wildlife. They may even be able to help you with one or more of these options. This may go on their record as a nuisance animal with a strike against it. Different areas have different rules.

Flock containment. Either a secure coop/run works or electric poultry netting or a chicken tractor would provide your flock more freedom to range with some protection.

A LGD may or may not be a realistic option. I have seen brazen coyotes attack large dogs in desperate times.

This is the time of year when food is most scarce, small game populations have been depleted and spring offspring and other food sources have yet to arrive. Water sources may be frozen as well, and vegetation is often dead and thinning and coyotes are feeling desperate and threatened and most likely to make bold moves. Hang in there. Hopefully he will move on soon.

Great advice. And proof on guard dog attacks. Our Catahoula/Lab Red was running to protect a calving cow when he was ambushed by three coyotes. Hubby chased them off with the Ranger. We took Red to the vet for 15 stitches and he spent weeks in a wheel chair.

 

[woodmort]

I lost a springer spaniel to a coyote the same day my next door neighbor lost his doberman. It was spring and, I assume, the coyote was especially territorial. Both dogs were female BTW,

 

[cmom]

My neighbor lost her little schnauzer dog to a coyote. I don't name my birds usually unless a special one comes along like my Gladys. My coops and runs/pens are well protected and until recently. I hadn't lost a bird in many years. I have electric wire around my coops and pens, concrete under the gates and heavy duty netting that covers all of the pens. We have many predators here, coons, bobcat, fox, coyote, possum, skunks, hawks and owls. Until I can get new latches for the gates, I have the gates wired shut. Luckily I don't have to go into the pens but I have the wire so I can easily undo the gates but a predator unless it's a two legged one, can't get it undone.

 

[Eggscaping]

I had the same thought, but was going to let it pass.. but before this becomes a side quarrel, let's clarify:
A .22 long can kill a coyote, I'm pretty confident that woodmort was not suggesting otherwise...
But it is probably more likely to wound and cripple a coyote.... so let's understand that a crippled coyote is often more dependent on easy meals such as livestock and particularly chickens...So with this in mind, we want to understand that the .22 might actually exacerbate the issue.

Alright. So...I'm an animal lover, big time. My sympathy is always with the predators (except raccoons unless they stay out in the wilderness). That being said, a predator that comes after my chickens, once we start our flock, will have to be dealt with lethally (except birds of prey, which netting will hopefully thwart). So, if a .22 is not what I want in a small game rifle that doesn't have the velocity to travel six city blocks through ten houses of innocent people - then what do those who are familiar with firearms suggest? And yes, I know all the cautions that come with this question. I wouldn't shoot without considering my surroundings and any possible background trajectory that might endanger anything I wasn't intending to shoot. I have a concealed carry permit, I've gone through all the classes, and I'm a good shot. But I don't have much knowledge of rifles. I'd intended to get a .22 for things like raccoons, which can be very difficult to discourage. So - if not a .22 - what?