RE: Lions, Bears and Children DON'T MIX ~ The REALITY OF LIFE 📷 [Video inside]
Absolutely true. We are on the watch for a coyote who has now visited our property within 100 and less than 50 feet of the chicken coop twice. He has yet to do killing but he is in our sights now since we've done our due diligence of first, chasing him off, then second, chasing him off with a BB gun. This third time is sad to say, deadly force. I am not happy to go this route, but it is my duty to protect my chickens (and my chickens are desensitized to dogs - when they saw the coyote, they didn't even run... makes sense, I've got two dogs here). I am very much against senseless killing, but protection is a different story, hey, I haven't even gotten eggs from these turd chickens yet!
With coyotes it's always a battle. You don't want to kill them unless they become a direct threat. I have learned with research that they do a nightly roll call, if someone's missing, they get back to the reproduction, and pop out 7 more pups to replace the missing. This is why eradication has not worked. There is one benefit from coyotes however, they eat these damn ground squirrels! Wish they'd eat them faster. Haha. But sorry, coyotes, I can't have you scoping out the chickens. That's where I unfortunately have to draw the line and we will no longer be able to live in proximity peacefully.
The yotes will target livestock ONLY when they don't have enough wild game to go after. Livestock are a harder target usually because they have to contend with humans and guard animals. So its only when competition for wild game gets too hard do they go for livestock like newborn lambs, calves and chickens.
They have very few direct predators here so when you see them, shoot them. We will do some more videos this fall and winter on coyote hunting and calling.