When you walk onto the porch in the afternoon and the resident road runner is sheltering under the patio table, you might have a coyote problem. My first exposure to coyotes and road runners may be similar to yours: Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. You can see them here as they appeared in the “To Beep or Not to Beep” episode from the Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies shorts (created by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese). Every time I see our Road Runner, the theme song goes through my head… and it will for you now too! If you’re missing out, here’s a link to a YoutTube with the original song: https://youtu.be/OwYQsZuh2CM . Anyway, we are having issues with one coyote in particular. Here’s the deal…

We’ve lost 5 chickens in the last two days! That is unacceptable. This guy is brazen! This morning, he was waiting for Sue when she went over to the other side. When she chased him away, he came and sat on the edge of the depression, waiting for here to leave so he could have his pick of the roosters. I went over to chase him further away and he sat over in the BLM land next to us and back talked for a while. We went on and finished chores, then he was back. So I decided to get my little .22 and try to get him with the shot shell. He was clever enough to keep out of range. Finally I just shot at him to try and convince him to move along. He ran a ways away, but we knew he would be back. Dang coyote!

Unfortunately, neither Sue nor I could stay for coyote watch, we had work to do, eggs to deliver, and appointments to keep. When Sue got home, she saw evidence of an epic struggle and some really freaked out goats. She reckoned that the coyote jumped the fence into the enclosure and chased one of the roosters until he caught him. Feathers everywhere. Goats wouldn’t eat until Sue had been there a while and calmed them down. Dang coyote! So, today the poor goats’ chickens were inside the coop all day; tonight we will move them to the RCW and see how they get along. We want the chickens to be able to range around, but we don’t want to provide the daily fast food for the thief. This thief is pretty healthy too. He’s got a really nice winter coat and he’s quite plump. The other day he was down at our neighbors trying to steal her chickens. Jerk. Today we have some sad chickens and an angry Sue. Don’t make her angry!

We have been very blessed with having hardly any predation, in the years we’ve been here, we think we’ve only lost 4 chickens and a duck. So to go this long and then all of a sudden loose that many over the course of 2 days – it’s shocking. Dang coyote! We do know a guy who works for the USDA as a varmint sniper. Truly. That is his job and he does it well. Works with the ranchers when there is something killing their livestock. Also removes skunks and bats from properties in the county. I’ve been trying to get him to come here and get this guy, but we hadn’t lost any chickens, and the neighbors hadn’t lost anything. NOW we can maybe get him to come. We’ll see. Dang coyote!

Seems it has been a week for rants, at least on my part. I’ll have some project updates for you pretty soon. Oh, and Rhiann (my niece) will be coming for a visit around the 22nd this month, so that should be good for an uplifting post! Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!