half grown coyote stalking my chickens

[bj taylor]

he was just on the outside of their run a few minutes ago in broad daylight. this is the second time i've seen him. first time close to my chickens. he doesn't seem sick or lame, just young. not in a pack, so i figure it's an immature male that the dominant male in the pack has ousted & he's hungry & looking for a meal.

i let my two german shepherds out (they didn't see him) hoping they would pick up his scent & run him & make him feel unwelcome. they were mildly interested that's all.

this evening hubby & i will be stringing the electric fence around the run. hope this works. he's going to get my chickens if i can't seriously discourage him or kill him - which ever comes first.

 

[cubalaya]

if he is out like that in the daytime, he might have rabies. i would shoot him and not give him the chance to bite my dog or kill a chicken.

 

[wvfoxhunter]

Go with the kill him option. Any live coyote is a bad thing to have around, if you dont kill him now and he gets bigger that electric fence might not discourage him enough. And then your only option would be to eliminate him.

 

[Buxton Ducks]

I don't like killing wild animals unless I truly need to so here is what I do: Coyotes are terrified by large dogs due to a deeply imbedded instinct to stay away from wolves. Train the dogs to bark ferociously or excited on command. I have done this with my german shepherd and my golden retriever. When I let them out, I encourage them to bark for a few seconds and then I take them right over to my coops and let them mark the area and play around for a bit. If you make this a habit for a while, the coyotes will move on very quickly. Killing the coyote will only work for that coyote, then another will come by and the cycle continues. Wild animals need to conserve energy to survive and they will not waste their time after a while. I live with over 50 birds on 5 acres in the woods of Maine and have only lost 1 bird so far. I see foxes, bobcats, coyotes, and I hear the occasional fisher at night. If you don't mind murdering all the woodland creatures, than go for it. But I enjoy my pets and my wildlife. Good luck! (Oh by the way, if you have only small dogs please don't try this!)

 

[littleoak]

I agree with the post about killing the coyote. In the middle of the day means something is wrong. Vey possibly rabies. I would not let my dogs near it even after it's dead. Also don't touch it.

 

[JorjaRhayne]

I am an avid animal acticist of all types but I also agree with the elimination option. I do alot of wildlife rehab and have only ever seen one coyote in the broad daytime investingating a human establishment (next to socks in dances with wolves ) and that was a very young pup about 3 months old I had caught in a raccoon trap. This animal may have something wrong with it and it could be devastating to your flock and pups.

 

[Hamstery]

I don't think that seeing them mid day ALWAYS means rabies. More likely they are feeding their young and just very gutsy. JMO.

Killing the coyote will only work for that coyote, then another will come by and the cycle continues. Wild animals need to conserve energy to survive and they will not waste their time after a while.

I agree with the above post. My brother lost 4 hens while free ranging to a coyote in the middle of the day. One that his doberman had run off many times before. Now that he isn't free ranging anymore, the coyote hasn't been back.

 

[Oregon Blues]

It's normal to see coyotes out and about at any time of day or night.

In many areas, they have absolutely no fear of people and will be walking down the middle of the street in broad daylight, right in the middle of busy towns.

Coyotes have very little fear of dogs. They can outrun most any dog without even kicking it into high gear and they eat small dogs. About the only dogs they fear are sight hounds, and even then, only after they learn they can't outrun them and sight hounds bite.

They can lure away and kill some pretty big dogs, so if you expect a dog to keep the coyotes away, you;d better be planning on a really big tough dog and much better to have at least 3 big tough dogs.

 

[countrybuffs]

It's normal to see coyotes out and about at any time of day or night.

In many areas, they have absolutely no fear of people and will be walking down the middle of the street in broad daylight, right in the middle of busy towns.

Coyotes have very little fear of dogs. They can outrun most any dog without even kicking it into high gear and they eat small dogs. About the only dogs they fear are sight hounds, and even then, only after they learn they can't outrun them and sight hounds bite.

They can lure away and kill some pretty big dogs, so if you expect a dog to keep the coyotes away, you;d better be planning on a really big tough dog and much better to have at least 3 big tough dogs.

This is all true. They eat cats, too. I once saw a large German Shepherd chase a coyote over a hill and then he came running back with the whole group of coyotes chasing him!! ( That was actually kind of amusing) We have a big group of coyotes but they do have a large territory, they won't be around here for several weeks, and then they are back screaming half the night! I don't know how to get them gone permanently.

 

[centrarchid]

I have interacted with coyotes all my life. In that time we have never lost a dog to coyotes and most parties I recall that indicated they had also tended to catch impossibly big fish. Fights involving coyotes had our dog tracking something else and effectively ignoring the much smaller coyotes that slipped up and bit out hunting dog from behind. A single dog would then stay between our legs and be useless on trail. So to fix a another dog, usually one that tended to be a dog fighter and not good on trail anyway, would be added to hunting party and it would deal with coyotes. You might have had four or five coyotes but two at most were actually being combative. Our coyotes are of the 35 lb variety, not the wolf-hybrids of the northeastern US.

I have also seen a single female coyote drive a German Shepard away from her den site. Dog was more than twice her size. Coyote had more to fight for and was thus more motivated. If dog was equally motivated and fight actually involved dog acting, pups in den would have be toast and coyote mother mauled.

A dog of similar size up to about 70 lbs and normal build can sprint as fast as a coyote but dogs have been so thoroughly selected for being home bodies that they will not sustain a chase. My little 65 lb pointer thoroughly dominates coyotes in his little domain of about 40 acres. Where large livestock guarding dogs are being attacked, I suggest that a group of domestic dogs not be ruled out. This does not apply with "coyotes" of the northeastern US.