Heads up! I had a coyote in my chicken pen at 8:30 this morning. One of our dogs responded to the noise from the hens (unfortunately the only roo, big guy!, is in the breeding pen right now) and distracted the coyote. I noticed the dog pacing the fence and went to reprimand her. Then I saw the coyote in the run. The coyote saw me, looked at me just like one of my own dogs (whaaaaat???? with the tilted head), jumped up to the top of the 6' wooden perimeter fence, turned around and watched me for a bit. Then he went over the fence and was gone. In broad daylight, very bold. We are only missing one hen, thank goodness. And if that coyote dares to touch one of my wee little dogs I will be hunting it down with a wildlife officer.
In the meanwhile the chickens only get to come out when someone is home to watch them. Good thing we have a fairly large coop and no babies taking up space right now. And the chain link will get reconfigured so that the wooden perimeter fence is no longer part of the run. Talked to neighbors who had a similar experience and the problem went away when the coyote was forced to scale the chain link instead of the wooden fence. Obviously the pop door will be promptly closed at dusk and, for a while, they won't be opened up until mid-morning...hoping to break any trained habit this coyote might have while roaming in the morning. Wee little dogs can only go outside if someone is watching.
If anyone has other suggestions, I'm all ears. My chickens are livestock and I can take an occasional loss. But a mass slaughter would be unacceptable. The dogs are pets, and wee ones at that. But they don't stay outside unless we're home. Now they'll have to be watched every minute.
