We had a tragedy at the farm the other night; we lost some chickens to what appears to be a coyote or two. Coyotes are part of the natural circle of life and because we as humans basically eradicated their natural enemy the wolf, we’re forced to deal with these predators. Wolves don’t tolerate coyotes. When the wolves are depleted or hunted to near extinction, the more adaptable coyote moves into the niche.
Happier Times, Zoey meets her first chicken.
To be certain, I’m going to spread a bed of fine sand around at night to see what tracks are left or use a game camera. What’s for sure is that, having had a taste of chicken; whatever it is will keep coming back. Here’s a picture of paw prints and sizes to help you figure out what you might have coming to visit your flock.
We’ve had chickens for several years and have never had a problem with any predator, be it; fox, raccoon, hawk, possum, skunk, or what have you. They are fenced in by 5 ½ ’ walls in the run and a pen fully enclosed in the barn except for a small 15” door to the run.
I’m certain it was coyote based on the fur I found on the outer fence and the fact the chickens were carried away with no sign of struggle or mess in the hen house. From now on, we’ll be locking the chickens in the barn at night by closing and locking the small entrance door.
Photo courtesy of linsdomain.com fur on gate I found
List of non-lethal methods to reduce damage done by coyotes:
- Use net-wire or electric fencing to keep coyotes away from livestock.
- Confine livestock in a coyote-proof corral at night when coyotes are most likely to attack livestock.
- Use lights above corrals.
- Remove dead livestock so coyotes won’t be attracted to scavenge.
- Use sirens or strobe lights to scare coyotes away.
- Motion detection lights are also useful.
- Use guard animals, such as dogs, donkeys, and llamas, to protect livestock.
- Harass coyotes with loud noises, clapping hands, yelling, throwing rocks at them and waving our arms to create fear.
- Don’t feed your pets outdoors.
- Don’t ever feed coyotes.
- Don’t let coyotes have access to rubbish or compost heaps
- Don’t feed feral cats / stray dogs / wildlife / anything except your own kids
- If you have sheep / goats / cows etc then collect any placentas in the birthing season as these will attract coyotes
- Call the local Fish & Wildlife or local law enforcement agency if coyotes attack humans, become too aggressive by approaching humans and showing lack of fear of humans, or if they attack small pets.
My favorite is the donkey. Who’d a thought donkeys are the ass-kickers of the animal world? Get it….Ass kicker? If you have the appropriate fencing, a donkey is worth considering. Donkeys have an unrelenting hatred of anything dog-like and are quite capable of dealing with coyotes and probably even a wolf or two donkeys can’t be fooled by coyotes, who have been known to befriend the farm dog and be allowed the run of the place.
Reinforce your fencing
Bury your chicken wire into the ground, go 18″ or so into the ground and then bend the wire to form an L shape so that a persistent digger digs into the “crotch” of the L and gets no where fast. Otherwise, some animals will dig under your wire even if its two or more feet deep.
Also, you can try running a line of barbed wire at the bottom of your chicken wire fence. That will keep burrowing critters out. Works with wild pigs and they are pretty persistent burrowers.
For diagrams and instructions on livestock fences please reference the following PDF document: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/nreos/wild/pdf/wildlife/COYOTES.PDF
Coyotes are not protected animals. Check your state’s Fish and Wildlife laws to see what is required to hunt coyotes. Some states do not require a license. Coyote are considered non-game mammals and can be taken at any time. In Ohio there is No closed season for hunting or trapping of coyote.
You want to let your flock free range but you have to ensure the safety of the birds. You can’t be upset with the coyote, it’s part of nature, part of farm life but what you do about it is up to you. If you shoot it, more will just take it’s place. I read once that a family had a dog to protect the flock but the coyotes were smart enough to lure the dog away and grab the chickens. It wasn’t until they got 2 Pyrenees dogs that the flock was safe.
Coyote Stats:
Weight: 15-45 lbs.
Length with tail: 40-60″
Shoulder Height: 15-20″
Sexual Maturity: 1-2 years
Mating Season: Jan-March
Gestation Period: 58-65 days
No. of Young: 2-12, 6 avg.
Birth Interval: 1 year
Lifespan: 15 years in the wild
Typical diet: Small mammals,
insects, reptiles, fruit & carrion
Coyote Facts:
- Only 5-20% of coyote pups survive their first year.
- The coyote can run at almost 40 mph and can get over a 8′ fence.
- Coyotes can breed with both domestic dogs and wolves. A dog-coyote mix is called a “coydog.”
- The coyote is more likely afraid of you than vice-versa.
- Coyotes maintain their territory by marking it with urine.
- Urban coyotes survive far longer than their rural cousins. A coyote living in urban Chicago has a 60-percent chance of surviving for one year, while a rural coyote has a 30 percent chance of living for another year.
- Coyotes also do some good – they help control rapidly growing populations of Canada geese throughout North America
- Coyotes are found in most of North America, except the cold Arctic tundra. Coyotes can adapt to most climates quite well.
- Coyotes account for 65 percent of all cattle and calf losses to predators and 61 percent of sheep and lamb predation
- The coyote is able to detect hunters coming from a mile away or even more.
Have you ever had any experiences with coyotes or other predators? How did you deal with it?
Here is a great link on how to protect your chickens from coyotes: http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/coyote-chicken-predators-how-to-protect-your-chickens-from-coyotes
Ohh and thank you everyone for putting our blog past 800 followers. We are so very grateful!
Next Post, I’m going to go over the Poll from a few weeks ago, If you haven’t voted yet, Please do so: If you had all the land you wanted, what livestock would you keep?
Update: I think it might be a raccoon after all but I’ve already completed this piece on coyotes.
We just got our baby chicks and I fret about them everynight.
Sorry to hear about the Predator Problem. If you think you have a raccoon problem and are looking for a way to get rid of them, a good way to do it is with a live-trap, baited with some peanut butter & tuna fish. They create a very strong smell that the Raccoons find absolutely irresistable (all that yummy protein!).
You place this mix in a live-trap of choice, and wait for the raccoons. Then when they are caught, you either offer them a quick humane death with a small caliber rifle–or you relocate them to the next county.
Sorry to hear you have lost some chickens. We have different problems in the UK, its all about keeping away Mr Fox. We have a mains connected electric fence, and deffinitely do shut our chickens in at night, as soon as dusk falls, always.
What a shame but what a wonderfully informative post. We don’t have coyotes but we have foxes. Thanks for the great information and sorry about your chickens.
Out here on the Wet Coast of Canada, it’s mink and raccoon at night who take chickens. Cougars would be a problem but they’ve been hunted almost to extinction (so instead we have a deer problem in our gardens *sigh*). For night predators we have a secure coop and a light sensitive automatic chicken door. You never have to be home to let them out or shut them in. Great for us because we don’t live on the farm. But we still have to worry about aerial attack from ravens, hawks and eagles. But it’s pretty rare and they only seem to pick off the littlest ones.
http://www.chicken-house.co.uk/acatalog/Automatic_Door_Openers.html
So are racoons easier to deal with than coyotes?
I guess a little. They’re diggers though so it’s a whole new problem. They are known to pull a chicken through the fencing. I’m installing some motion lights today.
Racoons will also scoop them out, one body part at time…….
Yikes. I’ll keep that in mind for the future. We can’t really get chickens right now, as our backyard faces the backyard of some very enthusiastic hunting dogs. They’re caged, but I think it would drive them crazy to have chickens prancing around.
Jenni, I would seriously check out the forums, just to get an idea of what you’d be looking at when you decide to go for it. I don’t know what kind of a fence you have between houses, but I’ve got two dogs on one side of me (in addition to my own two), and our 6 ft fence has not had a problem keeping them out……. fwiw. 🙂
Racoons are much wilier than coyotes and can wiggle into a hole so small you’d be shocked. If a ‘coon thinks it can get into a coop, it will keep working at it until it can. Two years ago I had a coon figure out how to climb up the wall of my coop and squish through the eaves. The mess it made of my flock was absolutely heartbreaking. They eat only the tastiest part: The breast meat. I found one hen still alive but missing her breast meat, it was absolutely horrible.
I did end up shooting it. My daughter went down to lock up the hens at night and found it in there sucking eggs waiting for the chickens to come back and roost for the night. Haven’t had a ‘coon problem since.
Very informative and helpful post! I think raccoons are more difficult to deter than the larger animals. My Dad used to tell us that the weasel and the raccoon would kill just for sport, much more than what they needed, while the coyote would just grab dinner. Good luck!
We even have coyotes down here in south Alabama, rural area that is more suburban. I occasionally hear them calling at night, the pack running call. I was amazed when I first heard that–the same sound I used to hear on the plain of Oklahoma. Thanks for all the tips. I’m sorry for your loss. We do have sand around our chicken house; our run is sand-bottom. I’m going to be paying particular attention when I go out in the morning to see if I spot tracks of any kind.
We have coyotes too. Lots in the area and a mother denning her cubs on the hill behind our house. You can also (this may seem strange) but mark your territory with urine also. It is surprisingly effective. Hope this comment does not cause a rucus.
This does work for lots of animals are deterred by humans. i had a problem with raccoon going through the cat flap in the barn to eat the barn cats food so every week or so i pee near the catflap (outside of course) and this seems to work.
Great information, but I’m so sorry about your chickens. We’ve dealt with lots of different predators over the years — raccoons, possums, foxes, coyotes, and even a bear or two. The smaller critters we can usually trap and relocate, but with the bigger ones, all we do is secure the chickens better and hope the predator moves on to find an easier meal. Unfortunately, a few times that easier meal has been a young goat or sheep from the pasture.
Coyotes are so brazen, though. At my parents’ farm, they just walk out of the woods and stand there staring at you. Even my Mom’s massive Great Pyr doesn’t seem to intimidate them. She’s considering getting a donkey, and I know at whatever point my husband and I have more land, we’ll definitely have one.
We have coyotes in North Mississippi but the only thing that has gotten our chickens was a stray pit bull who busted in the door of the coop and I mean bent the latch and all. It was a massacre. He killed all 20+ birds we had at the time. It was our first flock. But because the door had a spring on it, he trapped himself in the coop and when my husband went in, he lunged at him. There is no animal control way out here so we had no choice but to put him down. We had to start all over with a new flock. Such a shame all the way around.
We had coyotes attack our animals one year at camp and it was the goats that saved the day not the donkeys. The stupid sheep just stood there and got eaten. I have to admit I didn’t mind the coyote getting the banty rooster who kept attacking the back of my leg
Sorry to hear about your chickens. In all the years we raised chickens, we only had one incident where “something” got to a few of them one night, but once we started locking them up at night in the barn we never had another problem. Hope it’ be the same story in your case.
Great post! I’m sorry about your chickens but hopefully it won’t happen again… y’all are certainly well informed! I too love the idea of donkeys, we don’t have our farm yet but once we do a donkey will be the first purchase… then the goats and chickens. I love that donkeys are outdoor guard animals but can also do duty hauling loads or for riding. Just be sure if you (or anyone) is considering getting a donkey for this purpose to get a standard donkey not a miniature. While they are tough and ass-kickers I’d hate to see what a pack of coyotes could do to one of those little guys. Go big! Good luck warding off those ‘notes!
Sorry to hear of your chicken loss. I’ve had various predator problems over the years: coyotes, possum, skunk and bobcats. My chickens free range and the bobcat was picked off half of my flock over the course of a month. It was incredibly frustrating. I have found that locking my coop up tight at night was sufficient to keep raccoons, skunks and possums away. Good luck!
PS. I’ve also heard that adult donkeys will take on a mountain lions. I had a work colleague who raised donkeys for guarding sheep. Bad ass indeed.
Sorry to hear you lost some chickens but thank you for the informative post.
I have a monster of an owl in my woods. They are only supposed to have about a 4′ wingspan, but this one tops out at over 6′ tip to top. Last year it caught a coyote pup right outside my back door, and sat in the pine tree there, tearing it to ribbons and cooing it’s owly glee. The mother coyote just sat there unable to do anything as the owl perched about 12 feet up in the tree eating her pup. I like this owl. It plays heck on my local turkey population, but it also keeps the coyotes to a minimum. 🙂
Spray ammonia on trash cans, etc. for great raccoon, dog, etc. barrier. It works! Heard from old Piney when I lived in woods of NJ Pine Barrens in 1970’s and I stopped having problems.
I also was able to raise chickens for several years without depredation loss except for the odd hawk, maybe a skunk or possum or two. Then a fox started hitting us annually at about the same time, so I think she was taking hens to feed kits. I erected an electric fence with welded wire mesh around the chicken yard. Now, when I have chicks, they’re safe inside. When the little bluestem gets tall, I keep the entire flock inside the electric fence. I still let everyone out at different times of year, but during the denning season, they’re in the chicken fortress where they have plenty of room to graze and trees for shade and perching in. They’re always locked in at night. How many acres do you have?
I applaud you for practicing predator conservation. I do the same. And thanks for following my blog!! ~ Laura
We live in a very urban area of Houston, but we still have possums and raccoons. The bravest species of all is the squirrel. I’ve seen them perched at the tip of my neighbor’s roof top, holding a fresh ripe tomato with both hands and enjoying it as I had imagined doing myself!
Im sorry for your loss. As you point out, we humans have taken away the natural predator order of things. When I raised chickens, I recall hawks, foxes …everybody likes fresh chicken. Even someone’s labrador retriever killed two so fast like by reflex. That was bad. I like it that you suggest natural methods of protecting the flock.
When I lived in Erieville in the boonies, twice I saw coyotes, two running up a sunny morning winter road from my breakfast table and once or twice while driving into town. Where we live now, sometimes late at night I take the dogs out and think Im hearing a bunch of teen girls laughing in the distance…then I realize it is coyote song. I had a hen get lost one night under dense berry canes–cut myself to ribbons trying to extricate her and gave up bloody and frustrated after dark. Come morning, I woke up sad, sure she was gone. Only to hear the click of claws upstairs in my barn.
That one wonderful rooster Papi, who answered to Spanish words, really shepherded his girls safely. I miss them. My chapbook “Slide-show in the Woods” still available, ( Foothills) ’08 features poetry about the chickens as well as several prize winning poems about my pot bellied pig friends.
I am sorry to hear about your tragedy! That is never good to hear 😦 I hope you can get rid of them.
Thanks for stopping by my blog 🙂
We have coyotes but I have never had any trouble from them. For the first few years I was here if i heard them I let off sky rockets, or shouted back, Also we have outside dogs! Plus it is a good idea to walk your boundaries every day and hopefully your dogs will mark the fence posts.. Also a radio playing in the hen house is an excellent deterrent. There are good coyotes and bad coyotes, and if you have a baddun you have to deal with it but if you have a good pack you are lucky. We have a good pack, they keep the bad ones away as the packs are very territorial. . I always lock my hen house at night, but I also have a barn flock who wander and the only murders (of two ducks years ago) were from local roaming domestic dogs. It is so sad when your good steady symbiotic lifestyle gets messed up. Good luck.. c
i vote for putting up a motion-activated camera…then you’ll get lots of cool video for your blog, too 🙂 i was visiting my in-laws and they have a game camera- they caught a coyote on it the other night! i posted the vid on my latest blog post “taste of the country.” they are neat animals but of course, not if you have predation issues. good luck and thanks for all the great coyote info!
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Are Coyotes like foxes when it comes to scent? I don’t know if you have heard of Hugh Fearnley Wittingstall (U.K.) and River cottage homesteading? He swears by getting some of his hair (from hair cuts) and putting it into nylon stockings and hanging it from fences. They apparently hate the smell of humans and it keeps them away for a while…same goes for peeing on your fence posts apparently…Coyotes do it to mark and so if they smell human urine on the fenceposts it will apparently deter them. Best eat some asparagus to make sure you make your point! Sorry about your lost chickens. The only native thing that we have around here that eats chickens are quolls…a sort of spotty cat like thing but they have almost been rendered extinct so it is more of a privilage than a hassle to have your hens predated by them. The main preditor of our hens is Earl, our year and a half old American Staffordshire Terrier pup. Bezial (4 year old same breed) is able to walk right through the middle of the hens, chicks etc without even twitching but Earl has it in for each and every single member of the flock. He has taken Big Yin (our rooster) and plucked every tail feather out of him before we managed to extract him from his “game” and Pingu, our home raised mental half human half chicken hen has had her leg broken by Earl once and the last time he repeated the chicken plucking event and now she has decided to stand up for herself and has staring competitions with Earl through the gate as if to say “Bring it on!”. She now terrorises the feral cats and steals food from them. I guess she figures if she survived Earl…twice…she must be invincible! Try the peeing on the post. A lot cheaper than bullets…
Thankfully, we don’t have coyotes in Australia. The area where I live has a fox population, but my coops are fox, rat, and snake proof. Your instructions for detering coyotes are very similar to what we do down here for keeping foxes out.
Some areas have native wild dogs, (Dingo) to cope with, but we’ve never seen or heard them around here.
I don’t think we have ever had to deal with coyotes here, but we have had the stray bobcat or two. Granted, we live in suburbia, and our HOA doesn’t allow chickens, but we still have issues with some animals getting into our garden.
That said, what can I do to protect a vegetable garden from rabbits? I’m pretty sure that’s what has been nibbling on our little garden, but I want it to be non-lethal since we have two pups as well.
Thanks!
I had no idea about wolves and donkeys. Great stuff!
Thanks for liking my blog post! We haven’t had too much of a coyote problem with our free-ranging chickens mostly because we have quite a few neighbors close by so it’s not so country-country. However for our larger chicken tractor, and the goats we have electronet to hopefully keep all the predators away (and the coop locks up TIGHT at night, EVERY night)
I love the idea of guard donkeys though! And if the herd ever gets big enough that might be the way we end up going. The only problem with donkeys though is that they can be LOUD, and bray frequently. Therefore it could potentially be a problem because we have some neighbors close by. They also will choose the company of other equines (horses, ponies, etc) over sheep and goats and will plow down fences to join their own kind.
Llamas are a quieter option… But they can also be quite the animal to deal with if they weren’t socialized properly. Good luck with solving the coyote problem!
I totally recommend Nite Guard. It is a solar powered small red light that comes on after dark. Without it we have problems with fishers and fox (and the nuisance opossum). With it–we have nothing. We don’t even have to close the coop door. The red light really wigs out the would-be predator. You hang it at the height of the imaginary predator’s eye level. We hang ours right over the coop door. For some reason it also stopped daytime thievery by the foxes even though it doesn’t come on during the day–the fox must think “it” could still be hanging around during the day.
Have to say, how awful! 😥 Before we got chickens, I spent entirely too much time on the predator section of the backyard chickens forum, and learned a ton about predators. Scary stuff, that. Sounds like you’ve got good plans in place- hopefully there won’t be a repeat!
The predators in our area include coyotes, foxes, raccoons, possums, skunks, dogs, cats, bear, cougar, hawks, owls and eagles.
We cope by having multiple perimeter fences and dogs. The only time we’ve lost hens was when we left coop hatchtes open and the dogs in at night. We’ve also lost a hen or two to eagles when the hens are free-ranging in a large paddock. Raptors don’t hunt in areas too narrow to permit full wing expansion, but open areas are easy pickins.
We have neighbors who don’t fence their areas as tightly as we do, and they have constant losses. They also don’t run farm dogs in a fenced perimeter either.
Good luck outwitting the varmints. It’s a challenge to balance our needs & wants with theirs.
So sad! I’m sorry about what happened but impressed at your well-researched post. I learned a lot about coyote (and donkeys!) that I never knew.
Here on Lydia Street we had a tragedy of our own — our little dog is quite the hunter and last night she proudly brought her catch to the back porch. The young rabbit was several weeks old (and dead) which means that we have a hutch of babies somewhere, probably along our fence row.
Now we have to guard the dog in order to protect the rabbits. Ah, the circle of life!
In NC our worst predators have been possum and foxes. Funny about licenses. Here you have to get a permit to shoot possum. Totall free. But really a permit?
So sorry to hear about your predator problem. We have fox and coyotes in our area, but have not been troubled by either (fingers crossed) yet. Friends lost a large flock of 45 hens to two maniacal weasels that just killed but did not eat (!?!) a few years back. Predator issues are a problem. Our chickens are locked in the barn at night but totally free range during the day time. I love the light sensitive door closing device mentioned in the comments!
Currently we have a rabbit or groundhog eating up our emerging strawberry plants… and an empty have-a-heart trap 😦 tis always something on a farm, eh? Good luck in your quest to find the predator…we all gotta eat, but dang when it’s our food that they want.
*anna
In the southwest, our neighborly advice is to dig the fence down a couple of feet and then sprinkle chile powder around the perimeter. My land is next to a large open field and we often see coyote scat around our land, but our chickens aren’t to be messed with behind the chile powder line.
That stinks. Have you tried a LGD? I hear they do quite well for situations with livestock.
Coyotes, and fox…no problem with 17 llamas looking out for our flock. Good luck, hope all is well.
Jess
Not sure we have the pasture space for a donkey, but we do find that if we keep the hens in until an hour after sunrise, our local foxes have bunked by then. This isn’t true everywhere, however, as our neighbors have a fox who hunts by day. There’s always something new when you live on the land.
Again a great post, love all the facts. Once, on federal land I had a coyote and and its mate, the worst looking rottweiler (bitch) I have every seen come up to the door of vehicle, neither had any fear. Next they laid down about 20 -30 Ft. away. I don’t know if she was a coydog or not.
A really interesting read for us, as we’re on the cusp of getting chickens. We have our share of coyotes on our land, though until now – being without any livestock – they haven’t posed any kind of threat. This is such a helpful read for us. So sorry to hear you lost some chickens and thanks for sharing your experience and learning.
I’m in an area that has seen heavy predator pressure, but less so now. In the past we’ve had poultry eaten by neighbor dogs, fish (ducklings), raccoons, coyotes, foxes, cats, and several bears. A cougar used to go past at night, but he was always chasing deer (you could hear him screaming as cougars do). The bears are the worst – if they really want it, they will break open a solid wooden door or wall. I’m hoping with this newest batch of chooks that a heavy duty “trailer,” a good barking dog, and keeping them close to the house at night will keep them safe.
Raccoons are the worst! Our small run that we leave open is enclosed on all sides with 1/2″ hardware cloth.
thanks for dropping by my blog and liking my post about Giving the gift of life… at Easter. I love this post too.. great advice and I especially love how you offer non lethal methods to cope with predators. Comprehensive and very well written. Well done! ❤
Very insightful blog – we don’t have coyotes in my country, but the info on the donkey fascinated me. Who’d have thought a donkey can keep small predators away? Some farmers here have the same problem as you with their smaller livestock, only it’s the jackal that catch the livestock. I wonder if a donkey would react the same way to a jackal?
I vaguly remember my grandpa doing something with tar when i was a kid. I can’t remember exactly what he did, but I know it had something with keeping the coyotes away from the chickens.
Get a dog. Any old dog will do, as long as it’s bigger than a Coyote. Make sure not to kill the Coyote. Our Conservation Department says that killing them won’t really put a dent in the population numbers, but it might just let up to 8 new ones move into the old ones territory.
A little electric fence can go a long way as well. Works for coyotes and raccoons.
Thanks so much for checking out our blog. My husband and I hope to get our own small farm when we’re a bit older so we can live in a sustainable fashion. He’s raised chickens before and just loves them. It’s nice to see someone living the dream and posting such great information to help others out.
From what I’ve heard/experienced, coyotes take a chicken and run, leaving no trace of the kill. Racoons will enter a pen and kill everything and then eat. My mother lost her two young hens to racoons who basically killed, ate little and left. Foxes will also snatch and run, stopping to eat at the first place they deem safe. We lost a hen in January to a fox. He ate it in the stand of trees at the edge of the field.
Donkeys are wonderful creatures. We had coyote tracks all over our field and even one in the snow on our step. When we got the donkey last spring, they disappeared. We no longer hear or see sign of them. Our donkey is a miniature. We believe her noise keeps away the coyotes. Coyotes seem to know to avoid the animals making the noise.
Still, our goats, sheep, chickens and ducks are locked up at night. The donkey is free to come and go as she pleases. She shares a living space with a horse, so she’s not alone if anything comes prowling at night.
Unfortunately, losing chickens is part of raising them.
I have lost SOOO MANY chickens to coons, and now we are starting to see many more coyotes out in the middle of the day around here! It’s crazy! I thought the paw print picture was so interesting. Their foot prints are surprisingly small! Thanks for the information and I sure hope you don’t loose anymore.
Sorry to hear about the chickens – we recently lost a few to the local fox. The information you’ve provided is excellent – I’m off to subscribe so I get to hear more about your amazing little farm.
Very informative post. We live in Oklahoma with free ranging chickens and coyotes. A week or so ago the coyotes came to visit. The dogs woke us with barking. We then heard the yipping of the coyotes. Outside (at 2am) we had a loud conversation in the driveway. Went something like this; “I wish those coyotes would go away.” “Me too, I’d like to go back to bed.” “They’re not much for singing.” “Maybe if they sang a better song.” “I bet they’ll like this one…” and so we sang. The sound of our voices in combination with house and porch lights was enough to deter the coyotes this time. The chickens are locked up every night but security can always be improved. Thanks for the tips!
I love it! I’ve been fortunate I havn’t SEEN them on the farm yet, but I’ve been fixing the holes they dig under the fence. I don’t have chickens yet, so this has been extremly informative.
We have anywhere between 8-10 dogs on a 20 acre plot, they help keep that trckster at bay for the most part.
We try to make our pressence WELL known. Lots of dogs playing, we whistle and I often imtate a wolf howl.
That gets them reallllll quiet.
I’ve been known to pee on coyote marked trees. LOL
We have heard reports of coyotes on our mountains (WV), but never seen them ourselves. We have implemented several of your suggestion regarding fencing to keep our animals in the fields and the native ones in the woods. Our neighbors recently sighted something that they believe fits the description of a coy-wolf, which a website claimed have moved into the Mid-Atlantic states. No second sightings yet. We have a rescue dog that I joked was a mix between an Akita and coyote. I have watched her round up calves to one end of the field, then split one off to run it to the other end of the field. No training on our part. Interesting post.
Oscar
We have lost a few pullets to hawks. None in awhile, but I think it’s because I stopped getting white chickens. We had one mystery death where something got in the small coop and ate a bantam cochin from the back down. It was rather horrifying and no one wanted to sleep in the little coop after that. A feral dog killed two Buff Orpingtons – he had been abandoned in our area and was very hungry. Then there was the Boxing Day Massacre, where the neighbor’s dog came over and killed 10 hens, then returned two weeks later and killed a couple more. After that we started fencing. He came back the other day and while the front gate was open, the chickens were safely behind their chicken fence and it kept the stupid dog away. This time my dogs barked and chased him off. Soon we’ll have a compound with chain link completely surrounding the house. The dogs will be able to spend as much time as they want outside where they can watch the chickens.
I often hear coyotes in the distance but I believe our dogs keep them away. We have raccoons and once a bear ran through a chicken wire fence, completely bending those T-poles it was set up with. We’re hoping the new chain link will help keep the bear out when we get bees next year.
Many years ago I was at Yosemite, hiking back from Camp Curry to my tent, at about 6 a.m., and a mountain coyote (a subspecies, a bit taller and rangier than its lowland cousins) was trotting the other way, no doubt to investigate the dumpsters. It passed within a couple of feet of me, and we smiled at each other. I feed and do TNR for feral cats, but I don’t have chickens. You might try what Farley Mowat did (see “Never Cry Wolf”), and go pee all around your perimeter. It worked for him in the Arctic! As I say about wildlife, they were here first.
We have 3 distinct coyote packs in our neck of the prairie – and none of our neighbors ever lose chickens or livestock to them. Either you learn or you lose.
Plus there is at least one burro – named Scratch. 🙂
What neighbors do lose – because they can’t be contained easily – is cats. Though I’m not about to tell them they’re usually lost to owls at night.
Recently, my mother told me of an incident she observed with some coyotes. One day, she noticed a sizable pack of coyotes running across the back of her property. In no time at all, she saw them running back. Each one had a chicken in mouth from the neighbor’s flock. Ouch!
Our neigbour has a donkey to alert them to bears. I sleep more peacefully knowing she is on guard.
Did you ever see the documentary on National Geographic channel about a mysterious kind of dog/wolf in a certain region in the United States of America? They were closely compared with the coyotes, but this one had no hair, was of an ugly grey color and sucks blood of those animals instead of eating them. It was too bad to see. I hope you dont have such animal out there, because I really like your farm as far as I can see on your blog:-D!
nice post got some coyotes around here but my dog not very friendly with thankfully. Best of luck with the chickens
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Wow I’m glad we don’t have them in Australia, we do have foxes which take the chickens but yours look meaner.
Thank you for the information regarding non-lethal ways to assist in the prevention of carnivorous pests! The knowledge will prove helpful as we enter into the chicken-raising industry!
You forgot… Dogs are deterents. We had the largest German Shepard ( Taller than me and HUGE) we could find. She had ALL the coyotes scared for miles. Friendliest dog in the world to us, though she thought she was a lap dog.
[…] Whether you raise them for fun, profit or food, it’s always sad to hear a story like this. […]
We are so sorry for your loss… Whether you breed chickens for show, fun, food or whatever reason (ours is strictly fun/pets), it’s never easy losing them to a predator. My sincerest condolences.
aaah,..Too bad for losing a few of your lovely chickens! thanks for the arnings & solutions too! 🙂 A huge thanks!
i will try some of these things because about 3:30 in the morning i woke up to the sound of my dogs barking so i walked out on the back pourch and their was a coyote tring to breack in to the feance ooooooo yeah sorry about your chickens
[…] has a great post about coyotes, with a list of recommended steps to increase your farm’s coyote resistance. #4 on their […]