Persistent coyote after chickens

[Okanagan]

A coyote has come after my grandson's chickens three times.  The first encounter a few days ago, he heard his dog barking one afternoon so went out to look and a coyote was by his fenced-in chicken house and yard.  Grandson ran back in to get his .22 and the only call he had, an elk call.  He came back out, blew the call and the coyote came right back, but was chased by the dog and moving so he missed his only shot. 

The coyote has come back at night twice more and dug about halfway under the chicken wire fence.  Grandson has seen it both times but the dog has run it off before he got a shot he would take.

That is a persistent coyote!

Grandson borrowed a cotton tail distress call from me and a new red spotlight I got for Christmas.  We talked it over.  Any ideas welcome. 

  First, I recommended that he use a shotgun.  Tie up the dog outside near the house so it can alert him when the coyote comes near but can't chase the critter.  He could sit up but I like my sleep and figured the dog can keep watch and let him jump up and grab ready gear when it barks.

Second, if he does not kill it the first night, then try calling.  I'd try lip squeaks only the first night, and just a few with a ten minute wait between clusters of calls.  Go to minimal predator call sound the second night, and he is working on chicken distress.  I am concerned that he make the coyote wary of calls. 

He has set up calling and shooting spots with cover, that he can get to silently and give him a good shooting radius.  His house is basically in a clearing of scattered trees set in pretty thick forest.  The coyote likes a cleared lane 60 yards long between the fenced chicken yard and a wall of thick brushy trees.   

I need to find a couple of traps I have.  A fun project with a grandson.

[nastygunz]

Snares😉

[Coulter]

Sounds like some good plans. If all else fails then go with the traps. It's fun trying to outsmart those cagey K9's, not so fun when your dog screws things up. Good luck!!

[Okanagan]

Snares😉

Good idea!  I hadn't thought of snares but have some wolf snares I bought at a garage sale a few years ago.  Hmmm... live chicken in half a small pen with one snare-rigged entrance on the other half...  I've never snared nor set a snare for a coyote but have run lines with trapper friends. 

[JohnP]

Okanagan, we need an update  Our daughter has about seventy free-range chickens and has had a very limited coyote problem.  However, she has lost several to eagles and hawks.  Both of which are protected by federal law.

[nastygunz]

When I was a kid and a hawk attacked the chickens, dad used to unleash the 12 gauge thunder, I don't think he was very well schooled in federal law  

Okanagan, we need an update  Our daughter has about seventy free-range chickens and has had a very limited coyote problem.  However, she has lost several to eagles and hawks.  Both of which are protected by federal law.

[Okanagan]

Coyote dead.

Yesterday morning grandson Jon killed the coyote that has been raiding his chickens.  Pic below is his two year old covering the dead coyote with his cap pistol. 



Jon hadn't seen the coyote since early January, but it has tried to dig under his chicken pen fence two more times, making three different digging spots.  The last week in January it killed and ate a chicken from one of his neighbors.  The neighbor saw it grab his chicken, followed it without a gun and found the coyote eating the chicken.

Yesterday morning Jon was fixing breakfast for his two boys, ages 2 and 4, when his dog started barking.  The dog is tied up on a 20 foot line, so it cannot chase the coyote off, but warns him when the coyote shows up.  He looked out the window and saw the coyote sitting up facing him at 25 yards.

He grabbed his 12 gauge and some 3 inch  #4 steel birdshot. When he slid open the window the coyote moved a few yards into the edge of the timber but Jon could see it behind a light screen of limbs.  He shot and the coyote disappeared.  He found 32 pellet holes spread about 2 ½ feet wide in limbs but no blood nor hair.  He brought his dog down, a short yearling black lab pup, and it went right to the spot where the coyote had been sitting.  It sniffed the ground, then it took off into the woods for 40 yards, where it stopped and sat up beside the dead coyote. Yay!



Jon made a ground blind last month with a lawn chair in it and has sat up several nights watching for the coyote.  Yesterday morning the coyote was sitting up in his ground blind when he looked out.  Short yearling male with good coat for a coastal coyote.  Lotta pellets in the critter!

[JohnP]

"Jon made a ground blind last month with a lawn chair in it and has sat up several nights watching for the coyote"

I would do something similar.  I would just sit on the back patio if in the morning I had a cup of coffee if, in the late evening, I had a cold beer or two fingers of good bourbon.

[nastygunz]

Great picture of the little guy on guard duty, that's a nice looking coyote.

[Okanagan]

Okanagan, we need an update  Our daughter has about seventy free-range chickens and has had a very limited coyote problem.  However, she has lost several to eagles and hawks.  Both of which are protected by federal law.

Only way I know to protect chickens from raptors is to put a roof over them.  When I was growing up some folks would put light chicken wire over pens up to 60 feet across.  Netting would do.  When I was 15 a hawk dived almost straight down and killed a chicken in our open chicken pen, about 30 feet from me.  I was under a shed roof and the hawk did not see me.  Super fast and over in a second or two.

There is surely some other way to keep the raptors away, like putting up a fake owl to keep birds from nesting nearby.  Maybe some fake cats scattered around the area where the chickens range:  one cat in the open, another half hidden under a bush...