Being raised it the west, I was raised up knowing what a Western coyote looked like, but when I moved to Ontario, they were just wrong, found out that the coyotes in Ontario interbreed with wolvies
For year now, there has been a pack in my area and I have never had a issue with them, they circle around the farm, some nights they sing so close that we lift our heads, and head down to lock down the doors on the barns just for safety sake..
We have had fishers, coon, and skunks and we tend to have a fox problem pretty much every year with the free range birds till we got the guard goose’s.
But never the coyotes.. till yesterday..
Till one of them cross over from local bush lots, trotted right up a well used path, jumped a fence (which is very low jump because the snow is so high at this point) caught one of my wee bubble twin lambs, and jumped back out and took it back to the woods..
SON of a @&&*, parden the lang but the idea of one of my trusting sweet lambs having to suffer that kind of fate is enough to make me both want to howl in anger and cry in sadnesss.
I had hoped to do a bit more tracking today but the weather has succesfull destroyed that chance, so we only have what we got in night by flashlight.
The sheep and lambs spent the night in the barn locked up, as did the geese etc, they have only been let out well after dawn and they will be locked back up well before dusk.. The trail cam is current set up in a spot that I hope will give me some answers, and the locals have been informed of what has happened as well.
I have a very firm policy that I let the wildlife be wildlife, I don’t feed them, I don’t mess with them, but I also have a firm policy, no messing with my farm, gardens or my livestock!
A very grumpy Farmgal this morning..
Just another Day on the Farm 
Mine are the same, they have been good so far, but when one goes bad he will be back.. what a bastard.. horrible .. c
On Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 9:16 AM, Just another Day on the Farm wrote:
> Just another day on the farm posted: “Being raised it the west, I was > raised up knowing what a Western coyote looked like, but when I moved to > Ontario, they were just wrong, found out that the coyotes in Ontario > interbreed with wolvies For year now, there has been a pack in my area and > I h”
I could not agree more C, it will be back, I am planning on running a hot line, a good solid zap can do wonders for helping protect and deter a critter away from the area.
I am so sorry about your lamb! I have also felt the sting of stolen animals many times, due to coyotes. I follow your policy of letting the wildlife alone, but also not wanting my gardens or flocks attacked. The coyotes around here are mean, tough, and smart. The only effectice control I have found for them is my farm dog, Bando. He regularly chases them off of our farm, and has fought with them on numerous occasions.
Sometimes, one of the coyotes in the pack will feign an injury and whimper and crawl into the forest, and this leads the dog away, while the other coyotes come in to steal chickens. I have observed this technique many times from my porch, and finally taught the dog to hold his ground by the chicken pen. One time, that lone coyote did her squealing in the woods, and me and Bando stood in the dark listening, and suddenly two coyotes nearly barreled into us, they were coming so fast. They must have assumed the dog took the bait, but Bando showed those rascals.
I truly empathize with your frustration, anger, and sadness this morning. I am so sorry for your lamb, and I hope you share what the critter cam shows is going on. I am wishing you the very best today!
Thanks for your reply, sorry to hear that your coyotes are being such bad ones, I have said for year to hubby, I am so glad that the pack we have is so well behaved. What kind of dog is your Bando? I have heard of female’s in heat out west luring male farm dogs out of the yard and then killing them but I have to had it to your’s for figuring out how to draw the dog and then do a back sneak attack..
I do have dogs but they are in the house with me when I am in, and out on the farm when I am, I don’t have a outside farm dog, my dogs are slightly under medium size dogs, females average around 22 to 26 pounds and males are 30 to 40 pounds so they are certainly not going to do well on a one on one, but perhaps as a group, still ideally I would prefer that they don’t have to get in a fight, now bark and give a controlled chase and pee the fence line, you bet on that one.
I know others have donkey’s or other livestock that help with this but my farm is just not big enough for that, same reason I don’t feel I have enough land for a livestock guard dog. I think it will need to be a combo of the horses protecting, putting the sheep into the barn at the best hunting times, putting the dogs out in the dog runs more during the day as the weather warms up and come running when they let me know something is up, getting a hot wire up to zap them if they try and come under or over the sheep fencing and if I can catch one in the act.. well.. that’s a different way to end the issue.
Our farm dog looks sort of a like a border collie, but the vet says he is one part border collie and 56 parts something else! He is a mixed breed, but I am so blessed in that he is very smart dog, very trainable, and most of the time he is training me.
He is about 75 pounds, and he has fought large coyotes, and never been injured, but I worry often at night when I hear him barking his head off, that he will be outnumbered one of these nights. He is great about peeing the fence line and barking, like your dogs do, and usually that is all it takes. Unfortunately, we are in our SIXTH straight year of historic, terrible drought, and the wild animals are so desperate, they take chances that you wouldn’t believe. I have never seen anything like it, but they are starving and running the gauntlet on our place must seem preferable than starving to death in the forest.
I have seen donkeys work very well as guards in Mexico, but they are sure loud at night, and I think they eat quite a lot for their value in protection. But people that have them love them, and they are pets.
Our cows like you said did a GREAT job of running off coyotes, but we are down to two now because of the drought so they aren’t able to cover the same range. I also followed your advice exactly bringing the cows in when it was their time, or we could have definitely lost some calves as newborns to coyotes.
I love your blog, thank you for keeping your posts coming. I try to comment more, but you know how busy things get. All the best to you and your family! Justin
I am so sorry about the baby lamb and want to cry. Also angry. Our heifers will be calving soon and coyotes are our biggest threat so I plan to deal with them as we see them. We have far too many of them here and have almost no rabbits as a result. Our precious baby calves are too valuable to suffer that fate. We have no guard animals. What would u recommend. Would a horse serve that purpose. Thanks.
Hi Grace,
The momma cows will defend those calfs strongly, the really scary part is when they are calving out, during the time they are down, right after birth etc, so if you can do it at all, putting the cows into birthing area’s when they are very close is a good idea. Cleaning up afterbirth and composting or even burning the bloody bedding is a good idea.
Most folks with lots of cows bring them in close for calving but for those that have a few, and a barn that will allow us to do so, you can teach the cow to come into a loose stall or lean to and then just close them off for a day or two till the calf is nice and strong etc.
The horse’s will help but a good mother cow can do as good of a job as the horse will.. Now if you want a livestock guard , a donkey is a better choice then a horse, but if you want to be able to ride as well, a mule will hit the middle ground nicely.
Thanks. All 22 are heifers so hope their maternal instincts kick in. All are due in a six week time frame so will be intense. Dog is a lab and not coyote savy so I plan to stay close camp out with them maybe. Ha. Learning all of this over again after being off farm for 50 years. Yes I am a grandma rancher and loving it with a grandsons help.
O my, all heifers, well, see how it goes this year and if needed, look around for a nice middle aged boss who can help teach the girls how to doing things well, just like all herds it helps to have a older girl in there with the young gals. Congrats on being a grandma rancher and a huge! awesome for being a generational farm family! Wishing you all the best, but with all of them being first time mom’s, be prepared for some things to perhaps not go as smoothly as it could.
omg I am so sorry.
Although I am still in the city, there has been a major coyote problem around here for the last few years. The only recourse that we have is to call the SPCA and hope they send someone out to deal with it.
Thanks Old School, I have a firm grasp of what is legally allowed in my coded area, so that will help me figure out how to deal with things, but the big thing at the moment is to see if I can use the hotwire to keep the current lambs safe and have no more loss’s
got my fingers and toes crossed that they all stay safe
Is it not Ontario law that says you have the right to defend your livestock? Beekeepers have the legal right to kill a bear that goes after the hives…
There are a number of regs in place but if you can catch them in the act on your property and you have photos etc for proof of livestock issues, then yes, the way I read the regs is that you are allowed to defend your livestock
I am so sorry for the loss Farmgal! We had issues with coyote/wolf crosses in Victoria County (okay… City of Kawartha Lakes) too. We had our 90-lbs chow chow run them off on a number of occasions as they figured the small dogs in our neighbourhood were fair game. We also caught them stalking houses with small children. We had long talks with several ministries and reported them a bunch of times but in the end we were told to do what we needed too. The farmer behind us came in and dealt with it. Not the first choice obviously but when kids of all sorts become the focus, there need to be some priorities. I gather the farmer got a good price on the pelts too.
Hi Lake Lili, thinking it’s time that Urban people, who are the majority population of this Province): need to become more aware of how Life works… Like how bears are neither cuddly nor called “Pooh”, who come with awesome strength, prodigious hunger and scimitar-tipped paws. That Bambi’s Mother was killed (out of season, by an irresponsible idiot) but, while Bambi was a Disney animation, real deer are canny and, if needed, those dainty hooves are spear-tipped weapons of self-defense. That in Nature it’s all about the predator/prey balance; whether to eat or be eaten.
These animals (be they coy-wolf or coy-dog crosses) are dangerous predators who have lost Wolf’s natural fear/respect for humans, so who can blame them for asserting themselves at the top of the food chain? In Canine Society, one individual is EXPECTED to be Top Dog and, when we leave a power vacuum at the top, they feel obliged to fill it. Outside of the City, weapons are tools intended for obtaining food and fending off predators such as these, but never for taking life on a whim.
That is horrible! How awful!
We have a group of six coyotes here that are working like a pack even though I have heard many times that the coyotes here don’t pack. They come through our land several times a week. We either see their tracks in the snow or hear them or actually see them all. There have been times over the years we have had to take one out (legally of course) because it was hanging around too much and not scared of humans. Generally, if they aren’t getting animals and they are timid and run from humans we let them be. But this group of 6 acting like a pack and being here almost every day or night has us on edge.
We have a mixed breed 55lb guardian dog who is excellent but they have lured him out and attacked him as described in another comment and they would have killed him had my husband not seen it all happening and saved him. At this point our main defense against coyotes is sturdy fencing they can’t fit through nor dig under with the dog inside of it with the livestock, but we only have a small area to protect. No big pastures.
I have heard Anatolian Shepherds are great LGDs and one can be content on as small as 3 acres. We were considering one earlier this year and we have a small amount of property. Maybe one of those would work for you.
Like you and others said, the one that got your lamb will be back. I hope you are able to deal with him without more loss.
Hi WillowCreek,
I hear you, thanks heavens as farmers if they are on your land, and directly attacking, you do have the right to protect your livestock, I hope we never lose that right. I have heard that myth as well, about they don’t pack or pack hunt, yet I have seen it time and time again over the years that they can and do.. certainly not the norm but its not unheard of either.
When they get bold and unafraid it is indeed a real problem, Interesting about the info on the Anatolian shephards and that they do better on smaller spaces, I am like you, I have a number of acres of pasture but really that is pretty small compared to what many folks have, I will do some research on it, I know in my head that they are bonded to the flock but to me hounds want to be with you as the person.. I would have to really wrap my head around the idea of a dog that was not bonded to us but to the sheep/farm.
We had always had “pet” dogs that lived with us indoors and we were out with them when they were out. I was not real fond of the concept of outdoor only dogs. Then we got Tundra. And from the start he always wanted to be outside. When we would bring him in he would be happy for a few minutes and then want to go back out. When we began getting chickens and other livestock he went right into the role of guard dog as if it was always his purpose. Took to it like a fish to water. He is always happiest out with the livestock and in the barn. Not that he doesn’t love the attention we give him when we are out there, but he doesn’t want to come in with us. And he has saved many animals for us and gone after bears, coyotes, bobcats, and even a mountain lion. He has even protected rabbit kits and baby chicks from the barn cats who saw an easy meal!
So he has changed my view of outdoor dogs because I see how much he truly loves his place in life, and seems built for exactly that purpose.
We still have our big ol’ couch potato indoor lab too, and she serves her purpose as floor pillow very well too. 🙂
Time to break out the cordite and put the fear of Man back into them, hey Darlin’…
Good luck!
You are allowed to harass, capture or kill any nuisance animal in defense of your property, with certain exceptions, as detailed in Section 31 of the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. More detail via:
http://ofa.on.ca/issues/fact-sheet/Nuisance-Wildlife-What-can-farmers-do-
If I were boarding animals at your location, I would be able to protect them under this Section. Since I can’t tell which animal was being targeted by the nuisance creature, I’d have to protect them all. There is already a history of predatory actions, any more coyote visits would be cause for a terminal ending.
Polearm
Thanks Polearm, good information to share
You have to stay extra alert now that the coyotes have found your stead, free & easy food for them they will back not only at night but early evening’s and mornings as well. Coyotes in this area definately pack and don’t object to cats small dogs chicken etc.
supermag
Agreed, I will need to be very careful indeed, we are locking the sheep up in the barn and not letting them out till well light and they are going back to the barn before the sunset/hunting time
Most predators will come back where they have been successful in finding food. We had a bear that raided one of our bee hives. Our inside dogs barked and my husband went out and the bear ran off, but he came back again later that night and wiped out two of the hives. He came back again and we dispatched him b/c he would just keep coming back again until all the hives were destroyed. I assume coyotes operate the same way. A good website on guard dogs, llamas, and donkeys that protect livestock can be found at: http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/pubs/1218.pdf.
Thanks you so much for the link, good info to have, I hear you, once they are successful once, they will rarely stop on their own.