The coyotes are back. A goose was sitting on a nest next to our house, and she's gone. Her 18 eggs have been completely chilled, so the little goslings-to-be have perished. Jonathan found her head, neck, and a few feathers and bones in the woods, several hundred feet from the house. It had to be a coyote, as a raccoon couldn't carry a goose that far. Well, it doesn't have to be a coyote, but I'd prefer that to a wolf or mountain lion.
This was our last purebred female buff goose. We have three buff ganders, but they can't do much on their own. The rest of the geese are either embdens or crosses. This is terribly disappointing, since the guard dog has been sleeping on the front porch most nights. The llamas are in the pastures with the sheep and goats.
I started to get upset with us, thinking the attack could have been prevented if we'd finished that fence around the pond last fall, but last week, Katherine saw two coyotes across the road jump a fence with the ease of a deer. We will finish the fence, of course, but I am starting to think that I will just have to accept coyote losses as a normal part of life out here. Resignation is not my strong suit.
6 comments:
Our Skania papa goose was dragged into the woods like that by a fox. And our papa BUT turkey. 12 chickens burried in the straw last year. Mama fox took one home to her pups, saving the rest for later. Eight meat rabbits were slayed in a pen, one still alive with all it's bones crushed. Sometimes, I wish we had less "european" gun regulations.
I'm afraid our coyotes are too smart for us. We have guns, but they never show up when we're out there. Someone said they can smell the gunpowder. I'm inclined to believe it. Then again, they don't come around when we're outside with or without a gun.
I'm so sorry. Our neighbor keeps losing calves to a pack of feral/stray dogs. Sadly, our Maremmas can't get there fast enough. Email me if you're still interested in a pup. They're 6 months and neutered now.
So sad for you to find those remains. Years ago my daughter had some banty hens and 1 rooster in a pen in our backyard - we came home one day to find a horrid mess. A neighbor had seen 2 dogs running through the yards but couldn't get outside in time to stop them from pulling chickens through the wire....
Nancy in Atlanta
Bummer. Cyotes scare me. They are getting bolder all the time as they figure out how to live around development. They are even found in the suburbs now. People lose their pets.
We try to keep Max inside if we are away from home. I can only imagine how much worse it must be in rural areas.
As we crowd out the wild areas the wild areas creep into the developed.
~jon
Do you have Amish in your area? If so ask them to do a hunt for you.
They do a hunt here every year and get 19 to 20 of them no good blank blanks
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