how to deal with aggressive coyotes

i get asked about Llamas for coyote protection a lot! neighbor has a herd (flock?) of them as well as sheep, when he lost sheep he said he had no idea what more he could do! i told him he needed a different Llama! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llama_firearms

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àigeach carnaid
chaora dhubh
"Don't raise your voice, improve your argument."

cruachan

Where my calf was, in the field is strung with high tensile 3 strand 100 mile elec. fence. And We have a Llama in there. Donkeys are supposted to be better.

We have coyotes here and they draw out a dog and will kill it. When my brother had sheep, they would cross the motion light in front of the barn door and pen on the pasture side, sit around the pen and watch us with the donkey in the pasture. They come up to the house, one year my brother and my son shot about 30 of them and didn't touch the amount that came up to the house. We had a bounty on them also. You might lose your lab to them, one dog to even 6 or 8 coyotes isn't good odds, but if there are more, the odds are even worse. Get a gun, learn to use it. If there are small children around, keep it up, but also teach the children to respect a gun--a real gun isnt' a toy, it needs respect, guns don't kill, people kill using a gun. I have a friend that averages 100 ewes and found the llamas are better for him than the donkeys were. I have a paint gelding now that won't tolerate coyotes or strange animals in the pasture, is a sweetheart with the children and the goats, but I have seen him turn into a wild, screaming, stomping mean machine with a strange dog or coyote. We have a gun, even though we have a 4 yr old around. Coyotes are a part of life here and always have been. With us, predators are an ongoing homesteading problem.

Get a catahoula or blackmouth cur from bigger boned bloodlines. Get a male. They will be dog/coyote aggressive when older and will often kill to get their point across but be excellent with family members. They hate trepassers..human or animal. They are excellent fighters due to their method of fighting/baying. They are used to hunt feral hogs and cattle.

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Ted H

You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas.
-Davy Crockett

We've heard a lot more coyotes singing at night then in past years. We don't have livestock so they don't bother our place as much as the neighboring farms.

Last year I came face to face with some coyotes as I was walking the fenceline close to dusk. They weren't shy and retiring. I'm used to carrying a weapon when I'm out and about anyways.

I'd recommend 2-3 Anatolian shepards plus a rifle or carbine with some heft to it (hi-point 9mm carbine is very reasonably priced and is pretty sweet).

Mike

I started teaching my own son about shooting and gun safety at four, before he was even big enough to hold a rifle. I would let him sit in my lap while I was holding the rifle. I let him aim and pull the trigger. As he grew more mature and physically larger, I gradually allowed more freedom in what he was allowed to do.

You can do the same thing with these boys. Make them understand exactly what a real rifle can do so they can learn to respect it. Make sure they have ear muff hearing protection and eye shields. For now you can keep the rifle at the ready, but with a trigger lock on it. But, in just a few short years you may be counting on the boys to get the rifle to shoot those coyotes!

What other people mentioned, about being in other boys homes with guns is very true. Teach these kids what's right NOW. If they are ever in a situation where they are at someone else's house and a gun gets pulled out, your kids will know what to do!

Keep the gun under lock and key and they'll be fine.
Michael

Big dogs.
Multiple big dogs.
Multiple hungry big dogs.
Ours eat coyotes.
Yum.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

You may have wolf coyote crosses. They and wolves do this behavior but true coyotes according to an article I read. It talked about wolves crossing into the coyote population and with that the coyotes learning to go in larger packs (a wolf trait), hunt more efficiently and do this sort of thing.

Our dogs use exactly this tactic on coyotes. Two keep the coyote's attention while the third and usually bigger dog comes around from behind, grabs the coyote by the neck and snaps it tossing it up in the air. I've watched three of them work a coyote, kill it and devour it. They're efficient. Older, wiser coyotes learn to skirt our valley along the other side of the marsh on the east hills - they are the survivors. They stay back and know not to mess with a bigger gang.

This is an important issue. "You are dealing with gang warfare here. Our pack is bigger than your pack, meaner, faster, etc. We'll eat you." That is the message our dogs ---- around their territory and howl out at the coyotes when they come around. To handle predators it really helps to have multiple, big, territorial dogs.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

I talked to a lady the other day whose dad is a coyote trapper here.
She said he kills them by the 100's outside of these big chicken houses down here.
The chicken farmers just dump the dead chickens outside the houses and coyotes are there in the 100's .

Yeap 4 or five dogs make a pack and a pack of large dogs will keep coyotes off your place they will also keep big cats in the timber instead of your back yard .
Ours consider a coyotes howl to be a challenge and rush to meet it with force .

When my kids were little (born/raised in Alaska) we all went plinking with the .22 rifle frequently. When the kids had the hand-strength to pull the trigger, they moved to target practice. We figured since it was treated as normal life, there wasn't as much mystique about weapons, and since our kids knew the rules, they were more likely to enforce them if they got into a situation with other peoples' kids, and other peoples' guns. This is the way it actually worked out, and now it's my oldest grandkid's turn.

Kit

Well, I was thinking about getting another dog... but between the vet bills, food, ect. it might be cheaper to try the fence first. So how much would it cost to fence about a quarter acre? (there goes my paycheck)

I have a neighbor down the road with a game fence around the property. I have seen coyotes running across the pasture and go through or under that fence and cross the road to the next place without breaking stride. Never been close enough to see exactly how they do it, but never fails to amaze me. This is an 8ft tall woven wire fence.

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"Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness."
Thomas Jefferson to George Washington 1787

Never underestimate the danger that coyotes can present.

http://www.mydeathspace.com/article/...s_hiking_alone

ravensnest

Get a long gun, single shot and lock it up.
Discipline the kids, I know not very popular these days.

Or, move to the city, rural life is not for everyone.

Unless you need the electric fence for something else, you are wasting your time and money tiring to keep coyotes from an easy meal.

Good luck.

I have to agree with those who have suggested big dogs. I live in a very wooded area of southeast Saskatchewan and before we got our Livestock Guardian Dogs, we were losing goats left and right. The coyotes dug under the electric fence and helped themselves to the goat kids any time they wanted. Now, we have 4 Great Pyrenees dogs, two locked in with the goats and two loose on patrol. Haven't lost a goat since and 3 times, we've found fresh coyote heads in our yard.

Get a Gun. Go to a sporting good store and pick up a single shot 12 or 20ga with a bird shot barrel and some buck shot. Might cost ya 100 bucks tops

Eletric fence will NOT keep them out. I have a 3 strand and they go in my pasture all the time. Plus you dont want your boys tuching that.

Big Dogs will just fight with them. I have 2 Rotties and they have gotten into it before with them. All you end up with are vet bills and dogs who should not have been put int the situation in the first place. Dogs alone will not keep them away.

Get a gun. Buy a gun lock. Teach your boys to respect it. Take them shooting. Teach them to hunt. A gun is a tool not a weapon. With buck shot you dont have to be a good shot just point and shoot.

Good luck!

PS. Im taking my caller and Muzzle Loader out tonite to "thin" the pack.

That hasn't been our experience. Our dogs do an excellent job at keeping the coyotes outside their territory.

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Robin

Catahoulas and blackmouth curs can handle them because of their unique style of fighting which involves charging towards the animal and shredding the animal with teeth then bounding back then repeating it. That's how they're able to hunt feral hogs and feral cattle because the animal charges the dog in anger and the dog picks on the animal over and over again. They kill small hogs and small critters. I've known some that have taken out pit bulls because they know how to kill real fast.

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Ted H

You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas.
-Davy Crockett

I live in Nova Scotia. The girl killed by coyotes was a visitor from Quebec. She was hiking on a trail in a Cape Breton Park. She was 19 and a aspiring singer here in Nova Scotia to perform.

What a tradgedy.She was attacked by atleast two coyotes and was still alive when hikers heard her cries for help. Police were there within minutes and shot one coyote. The other ran into the woods. Two days later anmal wild life officers tracked down two more and shot them.All the bodies were sent for examination. DNA showed atleast two of the animals were responsible for the girls death.

It was also determined these animals were not under nourished as they had other food in their stomachs and they were not under weight. The animals also did not appear to be coyote/ wolf cross or coyote/dog crossWild life people are baffled as usually the coyotes here avoid people.

We live atleast three hundred miles from where this girl was killed as we are in the southren end of the province. We have coyotes here also who have killed sheep not far from our farm. They also came on the farm but our Border Collie cross chases them. She is aggressive with anything that comes in her territory. The coyotes are still near here though as we hear their blood curldling screams at night.

I see from what others write that these animals are very prolific as they seem to have covered North America from one end to the other! There needs to be bounty on them before they kill more people.

Generaly I believe in live and let live when it comes to wildlife but not when they randomly attack people. Now when I walk my small dog I stay away from the woods and walk on the paved road. I hesitate to hike in the woods alone anymore also.

It is bad enough that laws and criminals infringe on our freedom as to where we are safe to go but now coyotes are keeping some of us from going where we want.