OT - Coyote question for you ranchers and country folk

[jdad]

Just kind of curious.......

I live in unincorporated county, on the border of suburbia and farmland. We have enough coyote sightings that the sherrifs department said if they posed an immediate danger to take them out. How bad is it for you that have livestock or farms? Is it possible to keep the populations under control or have they become like ground squirrels?

[kimwcook]

I live in the country about five miles out of the closest town. I only have horses, but I've grown up in this country and while growing up we raised everything from pheasants to horses/cattle. We never had a problem with coyotes and I don't have problems with them now even though come dusk there's about four packs surrounding my place. I've had them as close as across the pasture fence as I went to feed my horses. They just looked at me. I only had my service auto on me at the time and I wasn't about to dirty it and then go to work. Short answer, they aren't a problem here.

[Don McDowell]

They can get out of control and become somewhat of a problem. They do keep the barn cat population managed somewhat...
The only time I have trouble with them is during calving season, and usually things can be handled easy enough. Sometimes I do have to have the government trapper come in and do some serious elimination work.

ps , I should add the biggest thing with the coyotes around here is they kill about 1/2-1/3 of the antelope fawn crop.

[pwl44m]

Shoot on sight here, I can't tell U how many goats I have lost to them. It has helped somewhat having a big Dog around though. I did have a problem with stray Dogs running in Packs. At least the Coyotes killed for food. The dogs on the other hand had 7 goats killed one nite before I could get to them. If I didn't have animals I wouldn't mind so much.

[Hobie]

Shoot on sight here. Even have a bounty.

[pdentrem]

In our town, we used to shot them as varmints, but as the big city people moved in and posted their land and complained about our dogs entering their space and the dirty hunters shooting the little poor dog like creatures that they saw running around in abject fear, the numbers have shot up like crazy. The town passed bylaws to restrict hunting to the far reaches of the town limits.
I see regularly two or more come in to the local dumpster beside the school and check out the area around for targets of opportunity. The local cat population has dropped like stone. Friend saw 2 coyotes each carrying a cat last week. The local police officers working the night shifts see 20 to 30 coyotes just about every night, even seeing them in the downtown core. The last 2-3 the winters have been mild, therefore the population and food supply has jumped up. I am hoping for a harder winter to help control them as the town does not have the balls to open up the area to hunting yet.
The best part is that the big city people are now complaining about loosing Fluffy and their dog Spot. Well that is just too .... bad!

[damienph]

Shoot on sight here. Even have a bounty.

The bounty for them in Kansas ended, I think back in the 70s. We see them every day and hear them every night. They are pretty bold and will come in close to the house and barn. They drive our dogs nuts. They don't bother our horses, but occasionally they will kill a chicken or a guinea hen and probably have been responsible for the disappearance of a few cats. As for predators, the owls and bobcats keep our barn cat population under control.

We keep a 9 shot Mossberg 590A1 with ghost ring sights in the kitchen pantry (for "pest" control). I usually have either a 30 Herret Contender or a 30 Carbine Blackhawk (both scoped) in my truck, easier and faster to stick out the window and shoot. Either one is good coyote medicine.

By the way, in Kansas we pronounce it "kiyot", long vowels, the "e" on the end is silent.

[2X22]

Shoot on sight. I've lost 40+ of my laying hens over the past 2 years. No matter what I do short of a fortress they find a way into my coop....

2x22

[rangerider7]

+ shoot on sight. Bad for calves and deer.

[DLMcDorman]

Shoot on sight in WVa also. Considerable lamb and wild turkey loss in spring season. Some farmers adopt extreme measures to try an eliminate but from all I have read the only way to get rid of coyotes is to bring in wolves. This would really make farmers happy.

[Streetstar]

My 10 acre "slice of heaven" (kidding) was what most people considered "in the country" 10 years ago when i bought the land, but in the housing boom 5 years ago, neighborhoods full of everything from starter homes to McMansions started gobbling up tons of available land around me -- when it did, it ravaged the 'yotes natural population. I now see far more of them than i did 10 years ago.

I almost feel sorry for them and wish i could put a few away, as the ones i see are so skinny, i know they are fighting for every scrap of food they can get. But, i do have to keep my dogs fenced in, and i keep a keen eye on the cat and dont let him run around at night. My dogs bark like crazy whenever they are crossing my pasture area but other than that, they are not much of a bother -- as stated, they are usually so skinny they are not much bigger than a blue heeler (but definitely lethal to a kitty cat)

As i said, i wish i could put a few of them away, but the new homes that now rest down the hill from me keep me from firing a shot

[AJMD429]

Shoot on sight here, I can't tell U how many goats I have lost to them. It has helped somewhat having a big Dog around though. I did have a problem with stray Dogs running in Packs. At least the Coyotes killed for food. The dogs on the other hand had 7 goats killed one nite before I could get to them. If I didn't have animals I wouldn't mind so much.

We have large dogs we run WITH our goats, and the fence is all either high-tensile electric or steer-panels, so with the amount of 'turf' fenced in, the dogs don't try to escape. We also have a llama, which at 350 lbs is amazingly agile, and will seek out and destroy anything entering the pasture it is in that doesn't have hooves. They help, but we hear two packs most nights on each sides of our little valley, howling back and forth. In the winter their tracks show how they pace back and forth outside the electric fence perimeter.

We shoot if/when we see one, but they're hard to get the drop on.

pwl44m is right about 'regular' dogs though; packs of 2/3 'pets' plus 1/3 chronic-ferals roam around and prety on livestock all over the county. They're fair game too, as far as most of the farmers are concerned.

[markinalpine]

We also have a llama, which at 350 lbs is amazingly agile, and will seek out and destroy anything entering the pasture it is in that doesn't have hooves.

An aunt who lived just outside El Paso in New Mexico used to raise young burros with her flocks of sheep for the same reason.
I found out the hard way how protective they were.
Mark

[BAGTIC]

I live in southern Missouri (Ozarks). I have 82 acres, at present 33 head cattle of all ages, 30 goats. I used to have 26 Muscovy ducks.

Ducks are all gone. Two were taken by a pair of bobcats as caught on neighbors game cammera. I don't know what ahppened to all the rest but several were killed by my own dogs.

I lost one registered calf to a pack of stray dogs. It was only cattle loss.

This year I have lost dozen ++ kids and only two born this year have survived and that is because they were born after I killed the killers. They were two of my own dogs. Not the same as the duck killers.

The toll in the last five years is one stray Blue Heeler shot, two labrador crosses shot, one Jack Russel shot and one mixed breed shot. Ironically I have never had any problems with a cocker spaniel, springer spaniel, or Pyrenees. All these dogs were family pets, well fed, well treated members of the household. Coyotes are seen on my place almost weekly and heard at night more often than that yet I have never had a confirmed loss due to coyote.

[horsesoldier03]

Have family in both Kansas and Texas, ALL expect that if you see a coyote and have a gun in your hand and there is a SAFE SHOT opportunity, YOU BETTER SHOOT! If you dont, you best not be talking about you didnt shoot!

Ditto on COYOTES being bad on Calves and deer and I will add in Small Pets!

[Old Ranger]

Here in East Texas we have lots of cattle. The calves are at risk as are the young deer that populate the woods and pastures about. In the late 70's I patroled the streets by day and lived on a ranch of 2000 acres where I rode fence by night. I shot wild dogs by the dozens and few coyotes.

Flash to present day. Retired from the lawman business, but still ranch (a little one of my own). The wild dogs are still a real problem, but with more land being bought up by folks that don't ranch, the coyotes are moving in close to the city as well. Calves are being mutulated and such. In my part of the country we shoot wild dogs and coyotes on sight. My calves cost me plenty to raise and I can't afford to loose one. My .45-70 has always taken care of the most persistant varmit...

Bottom line in my opinion, if you feel that they are a threat to you and yours, defend you and yours. If you do not wish to shoot them, that's fine too. I will respect any choice made by one of my fellow levergunners....

Wade