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.

 

[LouNY]

Low level shooting from a slow fixed wing plane can be very effective, the old Piper Cub's and Tri-Pacer were very good.
Usually using a 12 gauge shotgun at low speed and low altitude, as low as 50 feet it is exciting flying that close to the ground.

 

[westcliffe01]

The problem with coyotes and any other wild critter is that so long as there is some form of food available, their population will expand and as the pups are weened and they are forced out of the pack on their own, they will expand the territorial area they live in. With deer, the population will expand during the summer and then with winter and snow pack covering their grazing, the smaller and less experienced animals will basically starve to death with the number of deaths proportional to the severity of the winter and extent to which their grazing is inhibited. The less animals hunted during the season, the more will then die off by starvation in the winter. Of course the DNR and thus local governments dont earn a penny from the winter die off.

Coyotes benefit dramatically from the massive increase in road kill in winter, any wounded animals from hunters which they are unable to track down, not to mention buck that get injured in dominance battles. But ultimately expansion of their population means harder and harder competition for food which finally leads to migration of some of the animals into suburban area where there is no predation and no lack of 4 legged critters (cats, dogs etc) to feed on. When repeated exposure to suburban people show the coyotes that there is no danger, they loose their fear of humans and become quite dangerous as the increasing attacks on people and children continues. The primary reason for this is the ban on firearm discharge and people either not carrying to begin with or being reluctant to have to defend their actions in front of a DA who wants to make an example of them. California and more recently Colorado being prime examples of this sort of persecution of self defense actions, whether against criminal elements or critters. Just as murder rates continue to rise in the country's metro areas, one can expect to see a similar thing happening with any of the larger predators, whether it be coyotes, wolves, bear or cougar, given the fact that none of the animals associate danger with the human species in these locations.

 

[Yander]

When I go into our woods around here, especially if I have my grandkids (4&6), I go armed. I also advise my kids to arm themselves. One thing I know about animals, they are not always predictable.

Yes, I believe your chances of a Coyote attacking a human are very, very slim, but it has happened.

In Ohio, we are their only natural predator, there are no others to keep the coyote population in check. They are too smart to get them all so no danger of them being irradicated.

 

[MossRoad]

I'm pretty sure the main predator of Coyotes is General Motors.

 

[Jstpssng]

I'm pretty sure the main predator of Coyotes is General Motors.

Or Kubotas... why do you think that they share the same color?

 

[westcliffe01]

I have never needed to take evasive action for a coyote, but for deer it can be 2-4x a day on my commute into town...

 

[Jstpssng]

I don't run over animals, but one night on my way out of the woods a coyote ran out in front of me. He ran down the road in front of me for a ways before I got tired of it and stepped on the gas. I was right on top of him when he turned, then stepped on the brakes to let him get out of the road. I know people who would have run him over, but a truck is not a weapon.

 

[Torvy]

I don't run over animals, but one night on my way out of the woods a coyote ran out in front of me. He ran down the road in front of me for a ways before I got tired of it and stepped on the gas. I was right on top of him when he turned, then stepped on the brakes to let him get out of the road. I know people who would have run him over, but a truck is not a weapon.

Animals must be smarter in your neck of the woods. I think some whitetails get sick of being hunted, or nagging does and fawns and just commit suicide by car. I don't think many people intend to hit a deer with their car.

Small critters? Not going to risk damage to avoid them or to hit them. I remember one time we were driving along a gravel road between Rapid and Sturgis. I think in a 20 mile stretch dad must have clipped 6-8 birds that had had enough of this life. There is no avoiding them. You just hope they don't break your windshield (or anything else expensive).

 

[Rockbadchild]

I never swerve for animals even a moose or a bear, I will brake but not swerve much ratter hitting it and damaging my vehicle then rolling over or hit the rock cap in the ditch or having a head on collision with the oncoming traffic. Plus, if you swerve and go in the ditch, the insurance doesn't pay compare if you hit wildlife they will.

 

[Yander]

I worked with a guy who's wife swerved to miss a squirrel and hit another car head on. I think it killed the other driver and messed his wife up really bad. I've never forgotten that and told my kids about it and told them never swerve to miss an animal.