Coyote eradication methods sought

[Collector]

We have our flock fenced in, better safe than sorry!

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

If more than one they can lure your dog or kill it. Keep your dog safe, have a tall fence with the electrical wire and shoot, even if you miss, and even if you just see one or if you hear them shoot. When I lived in Kansas they were everywhere and I cooked food for greyhound puppies at night and they had my place surrounded, yipping and coming right up to the barn and I would go out and shoot and they would leave. They did in daylight lure off one of our young dogs and kill it. They have been seen here right outside of town jumping over a tall fence, get a small dog and go back over the fence. Friend's neighbors lost 2 dogs like that. SInce there are wolves here, I have wondered if it was wolves and not coyotes. I heard wolves from my house one night and we live in town. It about made my hair stand up. I was in the back and DS was in the front of the house. He came back around and said did you hear that and I said yes. I have heard plenty of coyotes and they do not scare me, but this sound was something else. I saw a wolf in a field about 2 miles from here, sun shinning and not far from a busy road and a subdivision.

 

[Nyboy]

Rabbits did you breed greyhounds ? They are one of my favorite breed. My 1st dog as adult was a borzoi a long hair greyhound. Red your dog will have little chance against a pair of coyotes. Most pet dogs do not know how to quickly kill, a coyote kills everyday and is a master at it.

 

[catjac1975]

That's the USDA definition of it, but free range really means free to range...ranging meaning to walk about in a large space and usually without fences~as in cattle pastured out on range. Some free range can be conducted in areas that are large that do have boundary fencing but free range doesn't truly mean just being out of a cage. When an animal is confined to a certain space they are not free to "range", no more than cattle confined to fenced fields are able to "range".

Free ranging comes with risk but so does keeping chickens confined to a pen...I've read far more massnacres conducted in a fence or pen where the chicken cannot escape the predator than I have on a free ranged flock. Mostly you'll hear of chickens getting taken out on free range when no one has taken measures to provide for some semblance of protection...usually those birds are picked off one by one as the people continue to range them under predator pressure.

I've been free ranging for almost 40 yrs and haven't suffered even a tiny percentage of the stock loss of most people I know who keep their flocks in a coop and run situation. And most of my losses were just last year...for all the years previous to that, I hadn't lost more than a handful of birds over 39 yrs.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/bees-key-points-to-successful-and-safe-free-ranging.65895/

Red, if you don't have a good farm dog that is savvy on coyotes or are not willing to get one, the electric fencing is the next best thing.

I was really being a wise guy. I have been told that chickens marketed as free range are not truly your idea of free range.

 

[catjac1975]

Free range means free range as long as the chickens are safe. They are not any longer. The fence gets started tomorrow morning.

My chickens have a huge pen and go in the large veggie garden all winter as well.I have few losses by predators.

 

[ducks4you]

I hope that you can solve this problem. Maybe build a chicken tractor?

 

[Beekissed]

Red your dog will have little chance against a pair of coyotes. Most pet dogs do not know how to quickly kill, a coyote kills everyday and is a master at it.

I agree that MOST pet dogs that live on the couch and only get out in the yard during the day are no match for big predators, but a single dog can be effective against a coyote pack, if he's the right dog. Jake has protected the flock for 11 years now with coyotes all around, sometimes he had a partner to help, sometimes he didn't. It really depends on the dog whether coyotes can kill them or not.

Red, what kind of dog do you have and has he ever done that kind of work before?

 

[Nyboy]

Bee I wouldn't call Jake a pet, more farm dog.

 

[bobm]

My neighbor that has the sheep, owned a HUGE Rotty male farm dog. He was lured by a coyote untill the pack killed it while his Border Collie was shacking in his dog house. Neighbor found his head and hide, rest was eathen. Another neighbor about 3 miles away owned a Rhodesian Ridge Back, same fate. How about a Doberman, ditto. I lost 2 HUGE Boxer farm dogs, both killed by coyotes. So what type of farm dog has a chance to kill a pack of coyotes ? You would need a pack of dogs that know how to fight and kill.

 

[seedcorn]

1-2 dogs against a motivated pack will lose every time. There is strength in numbers and motivation.