Hello All,
I live in the eastern part of Virginia and have never had to deal with coyotes until now. They have been re-introduced and have apparently spread out my way. Yesterday my DH and I were outside working in the coop about 3:00PM ( bright sunny day). Our doberman had been playing in the field just a few minutes before but had been put in the house. The birds were free-ranging but were within about 25yards of us in the edge of a field. We heard a ruckus from the chickens and turkeys and when we looked up saw what we first thought was a dog with a chicken in it's mouth. The toms were moving aggressively towards it and my husband and I ran toward it yelling. It didn't run away quickly. It looked at my husband eye to eye and then dropped the bird and slunk off into the woods. DH ran to get a gun but of course it was gone by the time he got back. The chicken lost a lot of feathers but seems OK. I had never even seen a coyote before outside of the zoo. I had no idea that they where that big - seemed 35-40lbs. I didn't know that they weren't afraid of people - foxes would never let you see them like that or stare you down like that. And finally, I thought that they were noctournal. Any advice on dealing with this new (to me) predator would be appreciated.
I live in the eastern part of Virginia and have never had to deal with coyotes until now. They have been re-introduced and have apparently spread out my way. Yesterday my DH and I were outside working in the coop about 3:00PM ( bright sunny day). Our doberman had been playing in the field just a few minutes before but had been put in the house. The birds were free-ranging but were within about 25yards of us in the edge of a field. We heard a ruckus from the chickens and turkeys and when we looked up saw what we first thought was a dog with a chicken in it's mouth. The toms were moving aggressively towards it and my husband and I ran toward it yelling. It didn't run away quickly. It looked at my husband eye to eye and then dropped the bird and slunk off into the woods. DH ran to get a gun but of course it was gone by the time he got back. The chicken lost a lot of feathers but seems OK. I had never even seen a coyote before outside of the zoo. I had no idea that they where that big - seemed 35-40lbs. I didn't know that they weren't afraid of people - foxes would never let you see them like that or stare you down like that. And finally, I thought that they were noctournal. Any advice on dealing with this new (to me) predator would be appreciated.