Coyote Attack

[TN Chick Mom]

First the damn hawks, now this.
We have had the neverending rains here in east TN. Rear neighbor came by Fri to let us know there was a coyote near our coop at 2:30pm in the rain. Sat, our next door neighbor stopped me to say a coyote was attacking the coop. He heard my girls going nuts, went to get his gun, but it was gone. I was in the house both time... No idea.

Girls are fine and calmed down. Our coop held up against the coyote - no signs of anything. Praise the double hardware cloth!

We've put up some temporary cameras until we replace them with ring cams, and added a Ring floodlight on the corner of the house closest to the coop.

My question is... Will it try again? Bring its friends? Or move on since it had no luck?

 

[Callender Girl]

Thank goodness for your neighbors, hardware cloth and that all the girls are okay.

I guess I would be surprised if it didn't try again. I've read that coyotes often live in family groups, but usually hunt alone. However, at night here, I can certainly hear a lot of them calling to one another about something.

Hope your coop continues to keep your girls safe!

 

[Folly's place]

Consider adding electric fencing! If it's legal where you live, having a fence further from the coop will keep many land predators away from the coop area, a good thing.
Mary

 

[mowin]

It will return..

 

[Eggstaticmom]

We have a coyote problem too - lost a fear neighborhood cat last year- they are boldly strolling down the street - If I weren’t in the city limits I could gladly take care of them - my fear is they can get over a 6 foot fence - we put motion lights and cameras up to help keep them away - good luck and the electric fence is a great idea- coyotes are really smart animals and hard to trick and trap

 

[Folly's place]

I doubt that motion lights are worth the cost. cameras help, at least you know who's visiting. And electric fencing is very useful. Two large guard type dogs are also helpful, as long as they don't eat the chickens, or the neighbors. And dogs are the very most expensive protection, by far.
Mary

 

[Eggstaticmom]

I doubt that motion lights are worth the cost. cameras help, at least you know who's visiting. And electric fencing is very useful. Two large guard type dogs are also helpful, as long as they don't eat the chickens, or the neighbors. And dogs are the very most expensive protection, by far.
Mary

Motion lights have definitely been a deterrent for us and research has gone back and forth as to success. We don’t use expensive ones - probably less than $50

 

[Toothpick]

It knows food is in there so it will come back until it finds a way in or is deterred enough not to come back (or dispatched of course). Electric fence, big dogs, lights with scary sounds, throwing fire crackers at it. IDK….just anything to deter it if outright killing it isn’t an option for you.

As a side note - The Ring cameras tend to be a little pricey and IMO overkill for just watching the chicken coop so I got the Blink outdoor cameras. They were on sale a while back a 3pk was 120 bucks. They run on 2 AA batteries (included) and if you have your settings set to not run allllll day they will last quite a while. For example - I have 1 facing the chicken run, 1 facing the chicken coop, and 1 off the back porch facing the entire backyard (coop and all). Someone is typically home all day, plus dogs are in and out so I have the schedule set to detect motion from dusk till dawn. It something comes around they obviously won’t scare it but at least I’ll know what it is and can plan for it’s return. You can also do a live view and talk through them too. So lets say it alerts you something is lurking around - you can do a live view and yell at it “hey get out of there!” And hearing a human voice might be enough to scare it off. Just a suggestion as they are cheaper and basically the same thing as Ring.

Here’s how I got them set up.

And a screenshot of my dog running past the coop late at night

 

[TN Chick Mom]

Consider adding electric fencing! If it's legal where you live, having a fence further from the coop will keep many land predators away from the coop area, a good thing.
Mary

We may have to do this!

 

[TN Chick Mom]

It will return..

Sure did!

It will return..