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One Dead Coyote and Too Many Dead Ducks – Duck Chronicles Adjunct Nine

The Survival Podcast Posted on by
Too High a Cost but This Yote is Done Harming My Ducks!

Too High a Cost but This Yote is Done Harming My Ducks!

Warning this Video Shows Graphic Footage of a Dead Coyote and Dead Ducks. Some of the images are bloody and may be disturbing to some viewers.

That said this video is the reality that comes with farming at times. This is what really happens and what must be done to protect animals that depend on you.

Again some of the footage is pretty graphic including decapitated ducks that had to be put down. Viewer discretion is advised.  Parents should watch this and determine for themselves if they want their children to see it.

Sorry for the wind noise at the beginning.  Any PETA types do not bother to comment, this is an example of a rouge predator, one that kills and kills rather than kills and retreats with a meal.  Such predators must be eliminated.

We lost at least 12 young layers in total along with some drakes and two geese, the financial loss alone to our farm there exceeds 3,000 dollars.  This is however one coyote that will do no further damage to anyone or anything.

Big time equal credit to Charlie who bravely confronted the coyote, chased her into the coop and was then smart enough (a challenge for him) to back off and let me shoot it.

Charlie was later seen, pissing on the body!  Good boy Charlie.
Last week I did this post, vowing that I would have this animal dead within a week, https://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/tsp-will-return-tomorrow-a-coyote-will-die-asap

The post was on Nov. 16th, 8 days ago, one day late and too high a cost, but let it be known to any predator, if you harm my animals you head goes on a T-Post!

Comments

One Dead Coyote and Too Many Dead Ducks – Duck Chronicles Adjunct Nine — 57 Comments

  1. Good job Charlie! (Jack, you helped too..lol). Now here’s to a quiet winter for the rest of the flocks. Happy Thanksgiving!

  2. Glad you finally got that coyote. What would make a coyote kill so many at one time? Is that normal behaviour for a coyote?

    May need to secure your coop better too in the future so it doesn’t happen again.

    Glad you finally got him but sorry for your losses.

    • It is rouge behavior. Only a well fed animal would do that, this one was female and about 60 pounds that is heavy for a coyote, specifically for a female. Likely has been making a living on stay cats and dogs in the areas behind us and on the chickens of a neighbor down the road and then found what she thought was a buffet.

      Is it normal, no, is it pretty common, yes. Will this one do it ever again, NO! Right now a very large vulture is enjoying her.

  3. The neighborhood dog did this to my chickens a couple weeks ago. Caught the dog in my pen. Almost killed it but resisted. Never know what you’ll do in a fit of rage. Sorry for your losses, its more than just an animal when they are producing for your family!

    • When I was at deer camp a dog came into our yard and killed all 4 of our turkeys. The bastard is just lucky I was not home. I dont like killing someone else’s dog but if he is killing my animals he is free game. I think it is very important to kill the dog right there dont let a wounded dog go back home.

  4. Great job Jack and Charlie! Is a key reason we’ve held off getting chickens/ducks. Can hear coyotes that howl around us every night.

  5. Impossible! That’s clearly a pic of you in your twenties! 😉

    Congrats and have a care free Thanksgiving.

  6. Good job getting rid of him. We had a skunk do that to our chickens. He would just rip open the necks and leave the body intact, never ate a one. We lost 7 in 2 days.

  7. Jack and Charlie. Great Job. Sorry that it had to be done, however fully undersantdable. I hope the yote did not have Rabies. Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas/Yuletide and a Blessed,Healthy and Prosperous New Year to the Spirko Family.

    Questions for Jack, One what caliber rifle did you use? How many shots?

    How did Charlie seem to know to ‘Back off and Let Alpha Male Jack do the needful?

    The last question makes me think he is a heck of alot smarter than the average dog, which is a good thing. I will watch the video and if it answers my previous questions, my bad.

    Thanks for all that you do for the Survival Podast and Thanks to Dorothy for all that she does so you can do your stuff so well.

    Charlie and the crew, Thanks as well for helping Jack.

    Grog

    • Just a ruger 10/22 and 10 shots because that is how many I had. 9 into the guts in about 4 seconds and about 5 seconds later one behind the ear. I seldom take pleasure in death but this was an exception.

      Charlie I can’t say, I was very concerned he was going to end up in the way, bit or worse. But it was like he knew what to do, which is surprising, we have had a lot of issues with him during training with guns. I think dogs know certain things especially when bonded with an owner, all it took was stop Charlie, and I was in the door, frankly he didn’t have much time to falter at that point.

      In any event it was Charlies first kill of anything beyond a squirrel and not only did he do well it is clear he got what it was all about.

      I did some airsoft gun training at the last event and demo’d the shock collar training (just using vibrate, he has only ever been shocked three times) a couple weeks ago. Lucky I guess we did that, it was likely that recent training that gave him the discipline he needed.

      Hunting dogs come to understand guns, they know their roll and let the gun do its job at a certain point. I am hoping Charles crossed that learning bridge today. He is pretty proud of himself.

      Hate to say it Max was totally useless in all of this!

  8. I never doubted that coyote was going to end up hanging on a fence post. Should deter others for a while. Sorry for such a senseless loss of some beautiful birds. Extra kibble for Charlie!!

  9. Closure can be grizzly. Joe and Buddy are together again. I find it amazing and disturbing how much damage that animal did in one morning. I would think as a predator it would make a kill, take it to eat or feed pups and then return for another kill and dash but killing and leaving makes it seem territorial.

    Hats off to Charlie, he’s always been a good dog – I know this can’t be easy for Dorothy and I feel for you all.

  10. Coyotes around here keep there distance, but I’ve had to shoot a raccoon and a possum killing my chickens in the coop.
    Good job.

  11. I recently lost 2 ducks, 4 chickens and 1 more duck I had to put down later due to her injuries. They were left in the coop in this same way. My husband said it must have been a dog because a predator would not just kill for fun. Now I wonder! The rest of my flock was terrified for days, they didn’t even want to go in the coop.

  12. Congrats, Jack. Everyone knows that the wily coyote always has to lose in the end. At least you didn’t have to resort to the ACME TNT or falling anvil gimmick.

  13. Was Max inside the house when this went down? I’m betting he would have dispatched that coyote with extreme prejudice.

    • No he was outside and absolutely useless. Seriously. As big as Max is, he just is not aggressive at all. Charlie on the other hand at times scares me.

  15. So sorry it ended the way it did. Not sorry for the coyote but your birds. We have lost livestock to coyotes and feral dogs in the past so I understand the frustration and anger that goes with it. Losing that many at one time is a hard blow. It’s a constant battle that people outside of the farming / homesteading community don’t and can’t understand until they experience it first hand. Just know that we hurt with you.

  16. Jack & Dorothy, Sorry to hear of such a tragic loss! Hopefully Nine Mile Farms can bounce back quick from the loss. How fitting, 9 shots to the gut and Adjuct Video #9… At least it all ended well. Good Dog Charlie!!!

  18. You may have said this, but how/where did she enter the coop and yard? Jumped a fence? If so, what kind of fence (material, electric, height, etc.) Any lessons you can share to try and avoid a future breech?

  19. Good job Jack, my pit knows his job is over when the gun comes out. He will fight if I don’t bring out the gun.
    Sam

  22. We’ve found that coyotes like to kill indiscriminately. We’ve lost goats, sheep and chickens to them. They never kill to eat it seems. As they always kill more than one and then just eat a small portion. They see killing as a sport somehow. Foxes on the other hand in my experience, try to grab one animal then run off to eat it.
    The countryside is full of coyotes now. I’d like to leave them alone if they are eating rats and rabbits, but when I lived in TX, we lost a small dog to them. So if I see them, I kill them. Coyotes and wild hogs………………what a pain they are!

  24. Sorry it did even more damage. Guess you won’t be using that fur, now that Charlie peed on it and all.

    I’d clap for Charlie but I know he hates that, so I’ll just give a virtual high five.

  25. Good job, Jack.
    NEWB QUESTION: Isn’t there a way to build chicken/duck/turkey/fowl shelters so that they can get in/out/up them, but NOT dogs, coyotes, skunks, etc?

    • Ducks don’t really want to be in a building, that is just there in case they need or want shelter. They spend most time in the holding area, the yote just chased them in there to corner them. They are not like chickens, you just close them in at night and done.

  26. Nicely done Jack and Charlie! I have a question though, when you were making your first few vids on 9 Mile I seem to remember high chain link fence that reminded me of a compound of sorts. Did I dream that or did that menace go under or through or what.

  27. Jack, what a nightmare. I am so sorry for your duck/goose losses. Good for you taking out the neighborhood menace.

  28. Glad you finally got him! Too bad you lost so many.

    We had one a few weeks ago going after our birds in the woods in the middle of the day. He ran out into the yard and I yelled from a window and he took off before I could get out the door, shotgun in hand, to pepper his ass.

    If the window hadn’t been open to where I could hear them squawking, I’m sure we would have had some dead chickens.

  30. So many ducks lost at once. That sucks. Poor Joe, but good boy Charlie.

    Consider perhaps putting the door back on the duck shed and cutting a small duck-door to keep out larger predators like coyotes. Also, if legal in your quasi-subdivision, wired or solar electric fencing with a cattle heavy charge to extend over-outward over the unshared portions of your exterior fence and on the duck-yard fence. It would be rare for the now dead bitch not to have a pack with some of her pups nearby.

    There is a indoor/outdoor wireless security camera system by Netscape with motion detection, night vision, and cloud film storage called Arlo. It will send immediate alerts to your phone (awake you at night). Something like that may provide you some peace of mind at night as this may not be the only Wile-E coming to the duck yard for a night of killing.

    I really want ducks but predator losses are going to be a sad reality. I’m not sure if I’m up to facing mass killings like Dorothy’s flock suffered. I’d probably be stalking the yard with night vision or thermal camera. A good excuse to consider a silencer. No reason to wake the neighbors if the next Wile-E needs killing at dark-thirty.

  31. I’m very sorry for the loss but I see a lesson in this story. I think its one hell of a story on how far geese will go to protect the flock and the farm. Both of his geese gave their lives to protect the flock. Joe was found dead outside the coop, he was engaging with the coyote. Same thing probably goes for Buddy. A hero’s death for both of them. I bet you that Jack gets 2 more geese plus that 24/7 outside dog. I think this true story of woe is an excellent real life addition to the Duck Chronicles story and the tremendous video education on Ducks and the farm that Jack has produced.

    Steve

  32. Hey Jack…. if you could go back in time a day, would you put a baby monitor in the coop to wake you up when the geese were sqwacking and the ducks were making a ruckus because of the predator ?? Do you think that would of given you an early warning of trouble ??

    Steve

    • May be, perhaps, I don’t know.

      Not looking to really Monday morning QB it right now. Had that damn piece of lexan not been where it was last week, she would have died 8 days earlier.

      So many what ifs, the truth is other than the losses today went perfect, and that doesn’t happen often with yotes.

      Charlie did exactly what I needed him to, the yote got cornered in the coop, frankly if I had not had a gun and just walked out there she likely would have charged and bit me being cornered like that and I’d be getting rabies shots and more today.

      In any event I am lighting up 800 feet of wire with a two mile charger, so that should keep the girls safe at least till we get a good LGD in place.

      I really can’t believe how perfectly Charlie performed, not his typical day for sure. When I say he did exactly what I needed I mean it. Instead of going into the shed, the damn dog flanked perfectly, cut off the escape and let me in for the kill.

      Sometimes I think there is a link between dogs and owners, if so today was such a day.

  34. My friend here in Panama has had 6 neighborhood dogs try to com kill her ducks. After the first death toll and a warning to her neighbor, she put an electric wire around the pond and duck house and turned it on nightly when her ducks were locked in the pen. I don’t know what voltage she has but it alone kills the dogs. The wire is about 8-12 inches off the ground. Works wonders to eradicate the threat.

  37. Sorry for your horrendous loss. It is good his coyote will no longer menace your farm. Hats off to Charlie.

  38. At the ranch, the most fierce dog ever against coyotes was a big border collie mutt. I have found that herding dogs will lay their life for the stock they’re entrusted with.

    I too have experienced the same thing with GSD, they are not very driven dogs for live stock protection, despite their size. Perhaps it’s the American lines that have taken that out of the dogs in the US.

    • Hey Jose,

      I think about dogs more as individuals than breeds. I’ve known some damn good mutts in my day, some herding mixes, some not. I think most dogs that come to love his/her family, full-bred or mix, develop an instinct to protect their pack. It always comes down to kindness. Kindness given, fierce protection tends to follow. That’s why I love dogs.

      • To a degree but many underestimate coyotes. Any dog can and might scare away a coyote but even a dog much larger is likely to loose a fight with one if not sufficiently trained and aggressive.

        A house dog is fed daily, it has its survival assured and despite what made for TV movies say, most dogs are NOT super heroes.

        A coyote or any wild canine is a savage animal by necessity. Those who can’t kill and do so effectively die, those that can’t fight off others of their own kind die, those that can’t fight off their predators die. The average age of a coyote at death in the wild is three, deceptive because many die at 6 months to 1 year and many live to be a lot older, but it still makes the point.

        A live wild coyote is an animal that after being kicked out of a family unit at about 6 months of age, survives in a world that is designed to make sure it dies. On top of this tens of thousands of years of this have evolved into the modern coyote. This animal has been here so long there are coyote fossils in the Tar Pits in California. What that means is the coyote outlasted animals like the saber tooth cat, the mammoth, the short faced bear, to name a few of note.

        When a domestic dog (especially alone) takes on a coyote the dog needs both size and aggression to do the job without being torn up. For all the good that Charlie did yesterday, I am glad he knew to block vs. engage, I know at minimum a vet trip would have happened.

        Ever notice when domestic dogs go at it they grab each others necks and just shake each other? Sometimes it is worse but mostly this is what happens with common domestic dogs especially if we are not talking pits or rots or something. Very little injury occurs because the dog has VERY think skin there, again evolution.

        Coyotes attack not the side of the neck but the throat, the sides, the flanks, the belly, the legs, etc. They have speed and razor sharp teeth and a lifetime of fighting and killing as their allies.

        Coyotes often kill dogs twice their size or more. It is all about skill and aggression.

        This is why we use dogs like Akbash, Great Pyrenees, Anatolian Shepherd, etc. to deal with them. Such dogs from good stock do not engage in neck shaking like your lab or GSD.

        After generations of selective breeding these dogs know to use their size to in most instances grab the predator by the head and crush the skull and they do this fast, very fast. This is the only way domestic dogs do well against wild animals unless you have a team.

        Teams change everything as does armor for the dog. I know a guy that hunts pigs and yotes with a team of cur, the dogs all wear thick spiked collars on hunt.

        They push the yote till it must stand and fight, sooner or later it ends up grabbing a collar of one of the curs, then it is all over but the blood shed. The grabbed dog locks its front legs, the team members now have an opening and from two sides neck and throat come out. This is how canines kill when they don’t have the size to do it another way.

        So while I very much believe that any dog as as good as his training and owner, I don’t feel you can rely on many dogs to effectively fight a coyote and even if they win, your dog will be hurt, often badly, perhaps to the point on needing to be put down.

        We underestimate yotes because they are 35-60 pound animals, this is something we should not do.

        If you want something that kills yotes, this is what you seek, https://www.petinsurance.com/healthzone/pet-articles/pet-breeds/~/media/All%20PHZ%20Images/Article%20images/anatolian_dog_standing.ashx

      • A dog’s courage is primarily a function of his temperament. Some dogs simply don’t have it. In a farm, there are usually 3 or 4 dogs, whole not neutered, that form and work in a pack. The younger dogs learn from the older. One dog alone, even if it’s big, unless he traps the coyote will not be able to kill it simply because coyotes run fast. Many times coyotes work in packs and send scouts to lure single inexperienced dogs away from the farm. A dog in a farm without more experienced canine mentors is bound to fall in this trap.

        Dogs don’t experience love in the same way humans do. For them it’s all about the basic needs and a rigid hierarchy. Food, shelter and a stable environment is all they need.

        The border collie mutt that I mentioned killed many coyotes in his life never worked alone. He had two smaller compadres that would flank the coyote around the balls, hind legs and gut. The collie, being 80 lbs, would deliver a crushing bite to the back of the yote’s neck.

  39. I’m glad you got her Jack! Thanks for letting us in on what it takes to be a homesteadfarmingbadass. I look forward to meeting you at PV3.

  41. Thinking back and looking forward, do you think there was or is anything to do differently in your setup that could prevent or limit the casualties in the event of another coyote or pair of foxes targets your livestock?

    Condolences on the extent of the loss.

    David

  42. Hopefully you took away some good post event info. And made changes accordingly. No time for woulda, coulda, shoulda. A little rifle practice, predator gone. We lost two ducks and four chickens this year to Weasels, and they make a mess as well, basically ripping the innards of the birds inside out. It is frustrating, since four of the eggs hatched and we had four chicks maturing and they were wiped out. We have Coyotes up here as well. Thank god for no Fishers.

  43. Jack and Dorothy, sorry for your loss. We really are sorry as we know all your animals are like family there. Good job on getting a predator! Hope your Thanksgiving Day is better!
    Les and Cookie

  44. Sorry for your losses and I am glad you rid the neighborhood of that coyote. We do shut our duck flock in at night. I think you will continue to experience losses if you don’t. We have also had five different Livestock Guardian Dogs on our farm and one thing they all have in common is they bark and/or howl through the night. This is a good thing with regards to predator control, but can be rough on your own sleep cycle. We did eventually get used to it.
    I think the hot wire is the way to go, one low and one high so predators cannot dig under or climb over without getting hit. Let me know if you want pictures of our fence and hot wire set up. Good Luck

  45. Sorry for your loss. I’m glad you got him. Years ago my step dad kept coming up with goats missing. He thought someone was stealing them. There were no remains found and all the missing goats were very young. I told him it was probably a coyote but he said coyotes couldn’t get in his goat fence. One evening a coyote snatched a baby goat and ran off with it while my mother was watching. He waged war on coyotes and as far as I know he hasn’t had any more problems.

  47. Jack,
    A coyote killed a grown Royal Palm turkey on my property this morning after the sun was up. It then went to my neighbors house ~ 300 yards away and killed another one of his chickens (third in two weeks)… Would appreciate info on trapping this P.O.S. so we can eliminate it permanently. We did get a pic of it from a game camera and, like the one you dispatched, is huge. Thanks, Dave

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