# I knew this day would come….



## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

Well , they finally made it here……coyotes :blue:
I knew it was only a matter of time. From what I've heard there was a sighting in this county. Not a confirmed one , but a reliable one. 

Not sure if its going to mean i need a LGD or some kind of guard for my guys.
I do leave them out during the warm months for as long as i possibly can , until those bitterly cold winter days . I have more then enough dogs here , but none stay out overnight and none i would want to leave with the herd unattended even though i know some could be . None of them i would want to risk a encounter with a coyote anyways. Ughhhhh , never really gave serious thought to having protection for my herd , not here at least. But , never say never i guess. :sigh:


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

You should be ok. Dogs and fences are usually enough to keep em out if they have easier food sources. But locking them up in a smaller pen area at night is just another good line of defense. Yesterday I saw a yote running in the neighbors property and then saw him again that evening as he was running back the way he came through my other neighbors property. A rogue male. So got the rifle out. Going to site it in, in the next couple of days and clean it. I have a visual (goose wing on a stick) and a distressed rabbit call. So will get suited up and go out early morning and late evenings till I put him down.


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

Thanks Dave , yeah , I'm thinking that too now. Neighbors have dogs , we have plenty of dogs , and geese , ducks , chickens , walking around.
So , if it has to be something , let it be one of those ….hate to say it though. The chickens are locked up , but the others are out.
And the sheep , but i doubt it that a coyote could take one of them.
I could be wrong though….never thought i would be worrying about these things ! Electric fences, high fences and dogs , so I'm hoping all the above keep them away.

Good luck getting that rogue Dave !


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

There are coyotes in our area, about 1 mile away <if that> my son's grandma had told me she had to lock her chickens up or the coyotes would get them.

We've had the goats 5 years and never had a predator issue ::knock on wood!::. 
I seen a coyote running on the other side of our neighbors back in fall of 2010, haven't seen one since. We are a small neighborhood here, surrounded by horse farms. I think that's one thing that helps, because I believe it's the horse farm behind us that has a dog that runs the property, you can hear him barking now and then, especially at night. You know there is something, somewhere when a few other neighbors dogs sound off. 
Now... earlier this year, my neighbor on the west side of us found a dead deer doe behind their barn! Something had been eating on it, and dragging it. That was VERY scary, because we didn't know how she died, or what was eating her/strong enough to drag her several feet! Thankfully neither of us have had issues. I think the deer probably got hit by a car, and hid next to her barn until it died. It's a hidden area with brush, etc.


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

We DO have coyotes out here. My goats are out in an open pen all summer. I have yet to lose a goat to coyotes. I DO have them locked up at the barn when they are kidding tho too. And I don't turn little babies out in the goat pasture. I have lost all my ducks and all but one goose and a few turkeys and peacocks to yotes or fox or something. Your girls should be ok


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## dreamacresfarm2 (May 10, 2014)

Its usually the smaller ones they target. My friend has hair sheep and lost all his lamb crop to yotes this year. He doesn't have them locked up when little or at night. If a coyote is old, injured, ill, or hungry enough they will hunt in the daytime.


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

was an case this year if I recall the story right where a pack of yotes killed a new born calf and then managed to kill the cow as well cause she stuck around trying to protect the calf. They were able to bleed her out by attacking her rear end. Not to sure how legit the story is but yotes can and do take down deer.


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

I wouldn't worry too much and I would jump to getting an LGD. Coyotes in the mid-west and western U.S. have very different behavior than eastern coyotes. Eastern coyotes are much more mated pair oriented and rarely rarely hunt in packs. Certainly there are sheep and goat losses in the western states but it rarely happens here in New England. I recently posted about this in a Connecticut goat group on Facebook. Asked people to tell me of true first hand stories of goats being killed by coyotes and there were none. Most folks do use secure kidding stalls until the kids are good on their feet but locking them up at night in a enclosed barn does not seem to be necessary if they are fenced in.

I just about stroked out yesterday to find a doe's ear torn to shreds when I got home from work, thought for sure there would be baby goats eaten & dead in the pasture from a coyote or stray dog, but no such thing - she got it caught up somewhere.

We have a mated pair that lives adjacent to our property. The best thing to do, if you have coyotes that are NOT livestock killers, is to let them be as they are territorial and will keep other coyotes away. If you kill the "good" coyotes, it opens up the opportunity for coyotes who have a taste for livestock to move in.


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

TDG-Farms said:


> was an case this year if I recall the story right where a pack of yotes killed a new born calf and then managed to kill the cow as well cause she stuck around trying to protect the calf. They were able to bleed her out by attacking her rear end. Not to sure how legit the story is but yotes can and do take down deer.


My vet went out on a call where the yotes took a calf while the cow was actually birthing. And then they ate her out to her cervix....he had to put her down. Coyotes are NOT nice animals. But that would have been a pack. We had one sitting outside Cowgirls pen when she was getting ready to foal....NOT a happy mama horse let me tell you!


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## showme (Apr 28, 2015)

Another mountain lion confirmed in Missouri this week, so at least you don't have that to worry about!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I had a goat breeder friend who had baby goats that were attacked by coyotes, they killed a bunch of the kids, took their guts, left the rest.
So never say never, if an animal is hungry enough, they will kill and jump field fence. There was a hotline and LGD's but some of his goats were way back in a hilly area away from eye sight and the LGD's were in closer with some of the other goats. I was devastating


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## PygmyGoatGirl (Apr 20, 2015)

We have a pack of coyotes who have a den about an acre past our property line, and our chicken coop. I always lock them up at night. We have lost some, but it wasn't coyotes, it was either a mink or a weasel, something of that sort.

If the coyotes are in a pack they are half wolf. True pure coyotes hunt and live alone, only meeting up with other coyotes in mating season.


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

Wow , lots of stories and info ! Scary isn't the word of the day , more like terrified. But being prepared and cautious is the only thing you can do. The babies i have now , go out all day and have a night pen in my garage , so i know they are safe. What scares me is a couple nights ago , before hearing about the sighting , i saw a shadow moving under the pines one night. I know we have fox here , and i thought maybe that was what it was , but now I'm thinking maybe it was a coyote , it looked to me bigger then what a fox would be. It definitely wasnt a dog.
We had a goose taken last year and a few chickens. I was sure it was a fox cause thats all i thought we had here. Im not surprised about having the coyotes here . I knew it was only a matter of time before they followed the train tracks to Long Island..Maybe some took the Midtown Tunnel to the LIE , lol..


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Man, I've been lucky. They've never touched anything other than a chicken or turkey. They walk right through my goat pens, the goats look at them and go back to what they were doing. The horses will stomp them, but they've never went after a horse.
They'll even come right up to my door at night, and they'll just stand there when I open the door to yell at them to shut up. They're like dogs pretty much.
The ones at my place aren't pure coyote though, they're CoyWolves.
ETA: They will kill sheep and deer though, but the entire time I've lived here, they've never touched a dog, cat, goat, horse, pig, or cow. :shrug:


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

PygmyGoatGirl said:


> We have a pack of coyotes who have a den about an acre past our property line, and our chicken coop. I always lock them up at night. We have lost some, but it wasn't coyotes, it was either a mink or a weasel, something of that sort.
> 
> If the coyotes are in a pack they are half wolf. True pure coyotes hunt and live alone, only meeting up with other coyotes in mating season.


Sorry but this is completely wrong. All dogs are pack animals. Coyotes can be in any number and different social groups. Family, unrelated, mated pair, rogue singles. Here is a wiki write up of em.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote*


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## packhillboers (Feb 2, 2011)

They haven't gotten inside our area yet, but have killed goats right next to our property. Each kidding season they will circle our property. I do have fairly good fencing that they would have to work at to get in. Our neighbors help by patrolling the property too. I was recently informed that there was some dig holes on the bottom acres where the coyotes have tried to get inside. Yep.. they sure want in especially during kidding season. We make sure they are all locked up safe at night and close to our house. I'm not sure why the neighbors goats get picked on more than ours do but they are smaller goats with a smaller dog and are not home as much.


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## packhillboers (Feb 2, 2011)

When we had our little baby buck, he was kept right next to our house when he was so small. We had horses then and they would sleep right next to him on the other side of the fence. They really liked him and he felt safe with them. I could also lock him up at night in a little pen and he kinda felt safer like that. We have never yet had coyotes attack anything here but we are prepared. They are intimidated by something here. Hoping it stays that way. Coyotes are sneaky. If there is more than one, they will have one go out and do a howl to distract then the others will circle the opposite way and come in on the opposite side of the howler. If one is hunting alone, that coyote will howl and then run to the opposite side of where it howled. This is how my husband and I have observed it through out the years growing up around coyotes. They will hunt alone but its big trouble when they work together because then they will take down bigger animals.


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

You know , come to think of it. We have sheep in a electric fence. 
One morning a while back , we come out to find the fence down , one sheep dragging part of it around with her , and the rest of the sheep scattered around outside the goats pens. I thought it was a neighbors dog possibly since at the time we had a few instances with it. But , who knows ….Parts of CT supposed to have confirmed sightings of cougars now…


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

There are no active breeding populations of mountain lions in CT. Rogue sitings of traveling animals or released pets, but no active population. No photos, no livestock kills, no roadkill.

I follow the CT mountain lion saga closely, and also try to keep up to snuff on all the coyote studies etc. too. CT coyotes are VERY mated pair oriented and very territorial. Both parents raise the pups, but hunt singly, both bringing food back to the den. Livestock kills just haven't been an issue in this state. Stray dogs are BY FAR the biggest threat to goat herds in New England.


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## springkids (Sep 12, 2013)

We have coyotes in our area as well. But most everyone I know who has had loss of goats and sheep were due to dog attacks. They can really cause some devastation. We have heard the coyotes howling off in the distance but haven't seen one close to our property. So I am assuming that my LGD is going her job. My herd has a barn to go in at night but during warm weather they sleep outside in a patch of pines. Dixie the LGD stays with them and so far we haven't had any problems. We are hoping to build a new barn this year and if that works out I thought about locking them in at night as a precaution. Even though we haven't had any problems I would prefer to keep it that way. I do feel like a LGD is a good investment for people with livestock. My dog is worth her weight in gold to me.


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## PygmyGoatGirl (Apr 20, 2015)

Hmm, thank you for that TDG.


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

SalteyLove said:


> There are no active breeding populations of mountain lions in CT. Rogue sitings of traveling animals or released pets, but no active population. No photos, no livestock kills, no roadkill.
> 
> I follow the CT mountain lion saga closely, and also try to keep up to snuff on all the coyote studies etc. too. CT coyotes are VERY mated pair oriented and very territorial. Both parents raise the pups, but hunt singly, both bringing food back to the den. Livestock kills just haven't been an issue in this state. Stray dogs are BY FAR the biggest threat to goat herds in New England.


Im sure they were released/escaped pets , never even gave thought to breeding pairs.. I heard of one found in a roadway hit by car. Not sure where it was exactly. Poor thing was probably a pet and either broke out or they let it go. Scary thought to have a breeding population in CT. :shocked:

I love the news story of Marylee , the Great White cruising around here.
People either freak or love it. I personally LOVE sharks . Some think as long as her GPS pings , we know where she is and don't have to worry about being in the water&#8230;... Well , what about the ones that have been here all along but aren't tagged&#8230;&#8230;.smart humans :wink:


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## Cactus_Acres (Sep 24, 2013)

If the coyotes go for the back end of an animal, like other canines, they will hamstring them. Saw that happen a lot with deer hounds down in Arkansas that were allowed to roam. They would rip the hamstring on a deer, and even if it managed to get away, that was a death sentence for the deer.


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