COYOTES

[Yander]

I was on the everything backyard chickens FB Group a while back and saw a post where a guy was deer hunting and saw a coyote walking past his deer stand and shot it. It had a chicken in it's mouth and when he got to the coyote he saw that the chicken was still alive.

He took the chicken and returned it to the owner. Talk about that chicken's lucky day.

 

[lman]

I have chickens and I let them free range for a couple hours or more each day. I've yet to lose one to a coyote even though I know we have them on both sides of us because we hear them and see them.

Once I lose the first chicken it will be all hell breaking loose for them, I will buy a night vision scope, call them, trap them and it will be my new hobby. I will track them to their den first snow. I haven't bothered them because they haven't bothered my chickens. I come from a family that foxed hunted and/or coyote hunted every weekend as a kid.

I believe we haven't had issue with them because we also have hog farms behind us and in front of us and generally there are dead hogs for them to eat. That was the case where we hunted when I was a kid also. They seemed to hang out close to hog farms.

How will you know that a coyote got the chicken if you lose one. Around here there are more predators than coyotes. I remember when I was a kid, a mink got in the chicken house and killed about 20 chickens. My grandfather shot it. We concluded the mink actually had escaped from a mink farm about a mile away.

 

[oosik]

AND it is with a winged aircraft - not a helicopter. I totally agree - Rockbadchild. He is supposedly going to be using a shotgun. But even then - it sounds very ify. I STILL forgot to ask what gov program this is. Must be something pretty special - my search of the internet for a program such as this - zero.

 

[Yander]

How will you know that a coyote got the chicken if you lose one. Around here there are more predators than coyotes. I remember when I was a kid, a mink got in the chicken house and killed about 20 chickens. My grandfather shot it. We concluded the mink actually had escaped from a mink farm about a mile away.

It won't matter. I've been preparing to start hunting coyote. I have everything I need. I just need a little more time and motivation. Coyote have no natural enemies so we help keep them thinned.

BTW, thanks for all the animal freaks trying to make everyone feel guilty for killing a coyote, gives me a good chuckle. I respect your views on the matter as much as you respect mine.

 

[Jstpssng]

AND it is with a winged aircraft - not a helicopter. I totally agree - Rockbadchild. He is supposedly going to be using a shotgun. But even then - it sounds very ify. I STILL forgot to ask what gov program this is. Must be something pretty special - my search of the internet for a program such as this - zero.

I posted a link to it earlier in the thread.

 

[GeneV]

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

It will be interesting to see how successful he is ... I would think not very, being limited in territory and in a moving airplane sound pretty difficult even if you see some.

The kill rate is actually pretty high from the airplane, when the coyotes start to run it gives the plane the advantage. The plane gets into better manuvering capability at the coyote gait.
Best time to hunt them from a plane is when there is snow on the ground. Easier to spot and if the snow conditions are just right the coyotes can't change direction as fast.

 

[Torvy]

Coyote have no natural enemies so we help keep them thinned.

I have no problem with you or anyone keeping them thinned. They do have natural enemies. Eagles have been known to take coyotes. Bears will kill them, too. Alligators in their habitat as well. Wolves are the biggest killer of coyotes other than people. They don't typically feed on them, but wolves will drive coyotes from their territories and from their kills. If a wolf catches a coyote, the wolf is going to win. Part of the reason coyotes have flourished is we thinned the wolves too much.
There are coyotes on my property and I've seen them here in the city, too. As long as they don't harm my family or critters, I'll leave them alone. They primarily eat mice and such. Like most animals, they don't pick fights with animals that can hurt them. They will avoid big dogs. On the other hand, if they mess with me or mine I have no problem ending them.

 

[Cougsfan]

From what I have seen, weasels tend to be worse for killing chickens than coyotes. I coyote will generally just take one and go eat it. A single weasel might kill the entire chicken flock just for the fun of it.

 

[Jstpssng]

From what I have seen, weasels tend to be worse for killing chickens than coyotes. I coyote will generally just take one and go eat it. A single weasel might kill the entire chicken flock just for the fun of it.

I've had both scenarios although with a fox, not a coyote. My birds used to free range and I usually don't have a problem. Yet 3 times in the last 11 years I've lost multiple birds in the middle of the day, and have had to send my dog out to find the carcasses. The first time I was sitting in my kitchen eating lunch when I heard a commotion from the coop out front which held my meat birds. Pickin up my pistol I saw a fox running off, so I trained on her and tracked as she ran along the tree line in back of the house. I didn't pull the trigger as I was sure she had babies nearby... two hours later we went up to the garden where my laying hens live and my dog immediately started going apers. I let him out and he found several dead carcasses scattered over about an acre, as well as my rooster, which was paralyzed. I probably should have pulled the trigger.
Last year I was gone an hour at noon time and came home to 9 dead birds. I found half of them and kill zones for the others, scattered over about 3 acres.

I did lose an adult turkey to a pack of coyotes; based on the tracks it wasn't long after I'd let her out. Unbeknowst to me, the 'yotes were across the road hunting rabbits. I saw the tracks converge in the snow, and a pile of feathers a couple of hundred yards away. Had she been smart enough to land in a tree they never would have gotten her.