potential for attacks with local wildlife

[Caincando1]

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Hunting is down and PETA and anti-hunting is very PC right now. There are also many city raised people moving to the country and see things a little differently than the old timers. Plus you have people fighting to protect the predators by lobbying for government protection. All this adds up to higher predator populations and far more human/predator encounters. Here in SE Minnesota the Coyote populations are very high just like they are across the entire country. Coyotes are continually becoming a bigger and bigger problem throughout the US. It’s just part of the PC movement.

 

[MagsC]

I am in SE Minnesota too. I know what you are saying about the coyote population here!!!

 

[gsim]

Coyotes have been really bad here too. One man in next county lost 32 hens ( his entire flock) in one night in his barn. A man was attacked by a pack of them within 12 miles of me. We have not seen one for over a year. They are eating cats and small dogs like mad around here. When the rabbit population exploded this spring, I figured they were out of this area for now. Year before, we never saw a rabbit.

Between them and the coons, I decided to do a 6 ft welded wire fence set in cement. It has a 5-mile charger, 4 KV. There are four strands of hot wire around the whole pen and gate. I lock the chooks into their coop as well, at dusk. I do sleep pretty well.

 

[Caincando1]

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Did you see this?

http://www.dcinews.com/News Storys/mantorvilledogat.html

This happens quite often in rural area, but doesn't usually make the news.

 

[StupidBird]

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Could you please post a photo (or two, five...) of your set up?

 

[HLAC]

When fur prices were up, trappers and hunters kept the populations much lower. The predators didn't need to constantly come into our backyards to find food because there was a lot more wild food sources to go around.

Of course, the furbearing critters still die, but it's at the hands of livestock owners, animal damage control, disease and starvation. Unfortunately, disease and starvation wait until the population becomes unsustainably high.

My advice is to buy a fur coat.

 

[firedove]

Here in NH it's open season on Coyotes all the time, there is even a night hunting part of the year for coyotes. We still have a lot of coyotes but they are very respectful in the rural areas because they know if they show themselves they have a good chance at catching a bullet. The areas that are seeing major problems with coyotes are the more suburb and city areas where discharging a firearm is illegal. The coyotes have actually learned it's safer to live in areas like that on peoples pets and garbage than to live in less populated areas. In my town, the only people who complain about the coyotes are people who have posted their land and don't hunt themselves. I have a friend who lost a bunch of sheep before he started giving hunters permission to hunt his field at night. Problem solved, no more coyote attacks. He still hears them in the woods but they are smart enough to stay there. Coyotes are lazy predators which makes them more likely to go after pets and domestic animals. Domestic free range chickens are a favorite because they are so easy to take out and are usually well fed. Makes a good meal. I confidently free range my chickens even though a pack of 30 coyotes has been counted in my immediate area. My gun is always handy and so far the predators have been smart enough to stick to the deeper woods. Unfortunate though since I would love a few coyote pelts

Guess we will just have to go hunt someone else's fields some day (or night January through March I think it is).

A wet year is almost always good for prey animals. We've seen a rise in squirrels though next year we will probably see a dramatic drop, I've been gathering some mighty tasty sounding recipes

The mouse population is up too, much to the delight of my chickens who have decided the garage is a snack bar. You should have seen how excited they were when we left a plastic trash barrel out overnight and found 7 lethargic mice the next evening. Now that's a welcome treat for my guys! DH was even nice enough to kill the mice so they couldn't even begin to run away. It's amazing how fast 25 chickens can put away 7 mice! With the chickens around, who needs cats! Which is good since we don't let our cats out of the house and something needs to take care of the mice in the garage and barn. Speaking of which, the girls just wandered into the garage. They will spend at least an hour in there looking under, over, and in anything accessible, spiders, bugs, and mice beware. My girls are going to be so disappointed when the chicks start brooding in there later this week and the doors are closed, lol. It will give the mice a chance to establish some new nests full of tasty young bits for when the girls get to go back in. Oh and there's both of my roos making a garage visit too, much less common. I'll bet anything they are out of grain in the coop.

Anyways, I'm kind of rambling, but my point is that the only way to really prevent attacks from predators is to be proactive. I'm told squirrel, raccoon, and possum are very tasty and coyotes have such nice soft fur. Rabbit is especially tasty, healthy, and you get a nice pelt Sounds like you have a strong coop. My recommendation, complete your defenses with a good gun. Check the laws, but you may be able to reduce both the predator and prey numbers!

 

[babyblue]

There is virtually no hunting and food is readily available. There are more deer, bunnies, squirrels, raccoons, skunks, possums, hawks, owls, coyotes, foxes and even bears then 20 years ago. Dh can only take out so many legally. If we where legally allowed to I could hunt down enough deer in one morning to feed my whole family for a year. And the next morning there would be just as many deer in the yard. We had a hawk family raise a baby in the big tree not 50 feet from our chicken pen. The only reason we have live chickens instead of dead ones is a big safe coop with a big tall run that’s pred proof.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Well it is rabbit season here and I'm a pretty good shot.....although I keep forgetting how to load the darn guns ( we have a nice little collection ). I could figure it out if I needed to though, but that is one of the reasons I have DH...that and changing the oil and a few other things. But then I stopped seeing the rabbits free-ranging my yard at night like they used to. DH killed a coyote about 8 years ago and it was like a vendetta he had going. The coyote was getting a very early breakfast of whatever chicken was first to fly down from the trees, every other day. He kept getting up earlier and earlier until he got the coyotes schedule down good and got his satisfaction.
What I would really like to do is make our whole yard almost as impenetrateable as our coop.

 

[MagsC]

Wow, I didnt see that about the dog being attacked! I can well believe it though. I usually take our dogs out when its light (either here or at my parents house). There have been a few times when I HAD to take them out way after dark, its surreal, you are standing with coyotes howling all around....it does make me kind of nervous and I always have the dogs on a lead, stay close to the house.
My parents house is worse than here though. Several times family members have come home late, walked across the yard to go get the mail and have seen several coyotes in the driveway just looking.
I dont know if they would attack or not, but I have heard they are braver toward people when they are in a group.