What we have noticed is that the coyotes have become rather brazen,
this year.
The teaching phase for the young coyotes is gathering momentum.
The pressure is on.
When we gather the ewes from the grazing area,
the coyotes come out and watch.
They are continually watching we do.
They lay on the newly made bales and observe our routine.
Here are some photo's, taken late at night ( about 10.30pm)
to show what is happening:
Where Fena is in the night corral of the sheep.
This corral is made with temporary electric nets.
The ewes just came in from grazing for the day,
when Fena suddenly stormed off to watch the coyote that came to look at what we were doing.
(Between Fena and the coyote is a pasture of fenced off turnips.)
Fena is a very vigilant dog, so once she sounds the alarm,
the reinforcements,
Lucy and Katcha race to the scene.
As the fencing is in between,
the dogs can't really make an impression on this coyote.
So, I decided to let them out and give the coyote a wake up call.
When the coyote saw that the dogs where headed in his direction he packed up and left.
After a while, Fena and the others make their way back to the sheep and night corral.
It is now getting pretty late, so I feed Lucy and the others
while the sheep bed down in the back.
To give these girls some extra help, I have placed Beli and Tosoxs in the bush where the coyote was.
They spent a few days working really hard, and we saw and heard a lot of coyote commotion during these days.
With, 5 dogs out there, it does make me sleep a bit easier at night.
Snowy has guard duty with some training sheep and Vuk is teaching Shadow and Zina
how to behave themselves.
If the coyotes keep the pressure on then Vuk and Snowy will be added to the mix.
Boy, I am so happy I have some extra dogs to match the coyotes with some extra dog power.
I am hearing from quite a few people that they are having trouble with the coyotes and I have recently had quite a few enquiries for trained dogs.
Having sufficient dog power to patrol the area and guard the sheep is key to managing predation,
along with night corralling, electric fencing and other management strategies!
When you say "I have placed Beli and Tosoxs in the bush where the coyote was." does that mean you just took them out there to smell that they were there and then they take it from there or does it mean you put them there and they stayed in that bush?
ReplyDeleteMy routine is usually before the sheep enter a new area to graze I let the big boys and Alaska "clear" the area first for a week or two. As this coyote came out for a few nights to watch us, I decided to let Tosoxs and Beli stay in that area for the next few weeks. This is a full quarter section ( 160 acres) and is really rough. By letting the dogs establish their territory here, they do push the coyotes out further away. I do see coyotes sneaking in, but have not seen them watching the sheep since the boys took over that area.
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