coyote - ugh
 

Well we found a whole bunch of feathers yesterday...
Not near the coop which made us think the attack
happened in the early morning hours. Assumed
it was the neighbor down the road's dog - but hubby
saw it briefly this morning, it's a coyote. UGH

According to our count, seems we're down 7ish chickens
in less than 24 hrs. Blargh.
Thought we lost even more this morning but they came out
eventually, they were hiding pretty good.

Frustrating, all the effort that went into them and to loose
them so fast. Such is the life of the free range chicken
though, eh?:awh:

We lost two hens and a duck this week to a fox. I don't like feeding the fox, The duck was about a $20 meal, he eats better then I do. :(

Sorry you are loosing birds, it sucks. I feel your pain.

Yeah...when predators are on the attack your chickens are going to go into super hiding mode. They will even be very reluctant to come out if you are standing 6 inches from them for fear they will be attacked. I just went through this last week, when a coon went crazy. I thought we only one chicken survived, but after searching around for an hour the count got better and I though we only lost two. Then the neighbor knocked on the door in the morning to let us know their was one at their place. In the end we only lost one. It's best to keep looking for them. I am not sure how a coyote could've gotten so many in one night.

SuzyQ2U,
So sorry you lost so many of your chickens. I hope that more will turn up safe.

We lost one two days ago in broad daylight. The chickens were in the yard not far from the house and something must have come out of the woods and nabbed a hen right on our driveway. I had just walked by there on my way up to the chicken house with some hay and while up there I heard the chickens making a lot of noise. My husband yelled outside for me asking me what happened. I didn't know since I was at the chicken house. Not long after that, I discovered the pile of reddish feathers beside the driveway in the grass and knew something had gotten one of the hens. One of our RIRs was gone. We've been keeping them locked up ever since. I hate to do that and they hate being confined. We don't know what got it, perhaps a fox, bobcat, coyote or even a hawk. We haven't heard any coyotes lately but we know they're still around.

They travel in packs...

sounds like its time for some coyote stew to me... ;)

Well I went out to shut the coop last night (the kiddos forgot) after hearing yipping out behind the house...sure enough eyes looking back at me! GAH! Hubby came back out with me and fired off a few warning shots. I'm sure this isn't the last. We've been here a yr with out any predators, so I guess we were due :(

Ugh, I'm sorry. I went to bed last night with the doorwall partly open. All of a sudden I hear chickens screaming. Go to grab my gun and it's empty. Ran down and a huge coon was eating on a rooster. Ran back to the house to get another gun. Spent a couple of hours in a chair last night, the rooster is alive(?). Coon did not come back. Tonight I'll have a better chair to set in, I'm in bad pain(back) this morning.

UGH! So sorry. I guess I didn't expect it this yr with the drought dwindling. Lord knows there's enough wild rabbit, etc.

Time will tell...

If you let your chickens free range, you are spreading out a free all-you-can-eat buffet. Once a predator finds the easy meals, he will be back for more.

I free range my during the day, but would never do it at night. Everything likes to eat chicken, and they have no natural defenses. I'm sorry you are loosing your birds, but once a predator has found them they will keep coming back until all the birds are gone.

Or until the threat is eliminated.

We had a HUGE coyote, in our area a couple of years ago...eating more than chickens....(Cats). After many months of this particular coyote showing up in peoples back yards all of the area hunters set out to get him.

My son shot a huge coyote and we think that was the one because there haven't been any problems since, although I can hear them yipping at night, sometimes.

Hope you are having luck with your coyote problem. Dh put ot a trap for our coon,it hasen't returned yet.

If you have any cull chcikens inject them with antifreeze. Hear it works great.

I've been letting them out later in the mornings, so far so good (knock on wood) and hubby bought a night scope for one of the rifles so he can get a clean shot if he happens to be in the right place and the right time.
Here's hoping they stay away!!

A good dog earns it's keep by keeping the predators out of the yard day or night, and it doesn't need to be a livestock guard dog. Just needs to be trained to leave the birds alone and to bark to keep the coyotes and other predators away.

Antifreeze kills by crystallizing in the kidneys, shredding them until they no longer function. About 3 days later, the animal dies in agony from kidney failure and toxins that have saturated every cell of their body. And you can't usually guarantee what will eat the poisoned item.

Dog's are a major part of the coyote's diet where I live, so if it is not an LGD, it better be a pretty bad ----- dog. The coyotes here travel in packs and litterally tear dogs apart. They are very healthy and beautiful, but they kill like heyenas.

If you live in an ural area and don't mind killing the coyotes, why not invest in a predator-prey caller and a 22-250. It makes for a fun and challeging evening. Add a night vision scope to the 22-250 and the fun extends into the night.

Better make that a really big dog. My neighbor's Rottweiller was attacked by coyotes.

The coyotes were terrified of my Scottish Deerhounds, but I would never allow the dogs to follow the coyotes beyond the tree line for fear the coyotes would try to kill them. They will try to get one dog separated from the pack and once they have a dog off by itself, they can finish it off.

If I am running a coyote, I use a pack of 3-4 sight hounds so my dogs don't get hurt.

Our coon finally bit the dust last night. He had been taking the cans of cat food out of the trap and not setting the mechanism off. DH emptied 3 cans onto the wire beyond the thingie, and the coon had to enter to get food. He bent the trap trying to get out,but he is gone now.

We've got a bad coyote problem here too KEW and they even hang around and grab calves from the cows just as they're coming out, and there's wolves and fox too, but (knock on wood) my maremma keeps everything away.
My neighbours joke about him expanding his territory to their places to keep the coyotes away there too.