Asking for ideas on how to "manage" coyotes

[Latestarter]

Many of the laws that at time appear ridiculous.... ARE in fact ridiculous... I shoot a 300 Wheatherby mag as my high powered weapon of choice... any 300 mag is quite a bit of overkill for anything smaller than say an elk. There are youtube videos out there on how to make a night vision scope for a fraction of that. Actually IR scopes, which are better in my opinion that night vision... anyway...

 

[soarwitheagles]

Many of the laws that at time appear ridiculous.... ARE in fact ridiculous... I shoot a 300 Wheatherby mag as my high powered weapon of choice... any 300 mag is quite a bit of overkill for anything smaller than say an elk. There are youtube videos out there on how to make a night vision scope for a fraction of that. Actually IR scopes, which are better in my opinion that night vision... anyway...

Latestarter,

Now you really got my attention! You are saying there are ways to make night vision and/or IR scopes for a fraction of the cost of the super high end scopes?

Hmmmmmm...I am all ears...please help me out here!

BTW, not wanting to turn his forum into a political debate...but I totally agree with you...there are some laws that are in fact ridiculous! And I will leave it at that.

But please, help me out on how to make an excellent night vision scope. You just may have solved our riddle on how to manage coyotes!

PS You began to keep bees in April. How's it going? We started again in April. Here's our hive on a Eucalyptus stump, then two on the ant proof beehive stand, doing a midnight Oxalic Acid vaporization.

 

[Latestarter]

Here ya go, completely from legal materials and pretty danged good for what it costs to make it. This is version 1.0, there are follow on youtubes for updated improved versions. You can link to the owner's name to find his other videos. There are actually quite a few others out there as well. One of the final/later ones I watched, they had installed small video receptors/displays in a helmet with goggles type set up where you could point the gun and the sight alignment would show like wearing a pair of 3D goggles without the associated video display light that would give you away to anyone else around you looking for you. Of course if your opposition is also using IR, video display light would really be the least of your worries... right?

As for my bees, well, we have ~6" of drifted snow and daytime high temps below freezing right now, so I can't get into the hive to check on them. I treated for mites back in Oct/Nov with Hopguard II, and hope it wasn't too late. They were still bearding on warm days in early November. I really like your set up as far as keeping them up off the ground, but it must make it difficult to work on them once they get to be several deeps high along with honey supers above that... I guess you could back the pick up up to them and stand on the tail gate... Least you wouldn't need to carry the supers far when taking them for processing.

I have to say though, having that heavy hive balanced on only two points (the stump pic) would really make me nervous! We get some really high winds here and I'd be worried the sail action would cause it to get blown off.

I haven't used OA, but am def going to check into it for future use.

 

[Beekissed]

In the eastern panhandle of our state are many sheep farmers and they are dealing with coyotes and black bear as their main predators. Either can wipe out a lamb crop in one night. For awhile they were using LGDs and that was working well...but their dogs liked to go walkabout and were patrolling far more territory than just their own herd.

This kept many bears at bay for miles around, but the coyotes were having a field day and the LGDs were getting hit on the highway, killed by neighbors, etc.

Then folks switched to donkeys. So far they seem very satisfied with the donkeys...they stay in the fences, they eat the same thing as the sheep, they don't cost a lot, don't need vetted much, and live a long time. Most have two with their flock. I've heard they've been very effective against both the 'yotes and bears.

 

[Scooby308]

I like that IR setup. Bulky, but smaller than the old days. As for noise, check out solvent traps. If you're gun savvy, you know what they can be adapted to. Totally not legal unless you have the tax stamp.

 

[soarwitheagles]

In the eastern panhandle of our state are many sheep farmers and they are dealing with coyotes and black bear as their main predators. Either can wipe out a lamb crop in one night. For awhile they were using LGDs and that was working well...but their dogs liked to go walkabout and were patrolling far more territory than just their own herd.

This kept many bears at bay for miles around, but the coyotes were having a field day and the LGDs were getting hit on the highway, killed by neighbors, etc.

Then folks switched to donkeys. So far they seem very satisfied with the donkeys...they stay in the fences, they eat the same thing as the sheep, they don't cost a lot, don't need vetted much, and live a long time. Most have two with their flock. I've heard they've been very effective against both the 'yotes and bears.

Beekissed,

I like the idea of donkeys, and I have heard others mention how effective they are at keeping predators at bay. I wonder how much donkeys eat compared to sheep?

I have finally purchased an electric fence controller [Zareba 15 miler]. I hope to line the top and bottom of the outside of the first sheep pen with the electrical wire.

I need to do more reading and more research and ask so many more questions...I have no clue what I am doing...not sure if I am to use short stand offs, extended standoffs, ect.

Important Update: Last night, for the first time ever, all the sheep suddenly gathered into a super tight group, all their eyes trained on something in the back forest...every sheep looked tense and poised to jump. I have never seen that before. I called my rancher neighbor and he told me sheep group into that type of formation when they sense a predator nearby. I went back into the forest later, and saw no evidence of any predator. But I read that coyotes can be very sneaky.

Needless to say, this incident further motivated me to do more reading, more research, ask more questions, then, at the very least, install the electrical fencing outside the lambing sheep pen. I will also install 2-3 more cameras, covering not only every square inch of the pen, but the entire perimeter of the entire pen.

Some of the ladies appear ready to drop their lambs any day now.

 

[soarwitheagles]

I like that IR setup. Bulky, but smaller than the old days. As for noise, check out solvent traps. If you're gun savvy, you know what they can be adapted to. Totally not legal unless you have the tax stamp.

I would love to have one of those quieter coyote controllers, but having one here would place myself, my family, my teaching credential, and my entire future at risk...therefore I cannot afford to even touch one...

 

[babsbag]

I use the standoffs that are about 5" long. The short ones are only good if your fence is super straight and tight. Mine is tight, but not straight as I like to use trees as fence posts when I can; better than cutting the tree down. They make standoffs for the front of t-posts and the back so make sure you get the right ones. A trick my DH taught me is to run a jumper wire from the ground rod to the fence and that way the fence acts as a ground too. If the predator is climbing the fence and not touching the ground they typically won't get shocked, like birds on a wire. But if the fence is a ground too then if the predator is climbing and they touch the hot wire they still get zapped.

I have a wire on the outside at the top of the fence and one about 5" from the bottom. If you have heavy wet grass in the spring you will need to weed whack or have a love affair with Roundup, a pain but needed here. I had a section of pasture that coyotes were breaching nightly, it had no hot wire and no LGD access at night. One hot wire on the top of that section and no more coyote crossings. Chargers have different Joule ratings, you want at least 1 Joule, of course more never hurts. The bottom wire often catches toads and lizards too.

Ask questions if you need to, there are a lot of electric fence owners here.

 

[Latestarter]

Chargers have different Joule ratings, you want at least 1 Joule, of course more never hurts.

More hurts like hell actually! 2 joule and some wet grass will put you on your butt

 

[Mini Horses]

One tip about donkeys for guards...they can be great but, they guard "their" herd. Add a buck to breed the does and he may be severely hurt or killed. He wasn't part of "their" herd. Even tho a goat. I had one who stomped a 3 mo old full blood Boer one year as it slipped into an adjoining field. NOT part of the herd!! Her herd was all Boer does with young kids. Those born there were ok, just not one from another doe/field.

Some donks do NOT guard. Those that do are great. I prefer a pair, especially if predators are large -- in number or size.