While out checking the cows and calves, which we do daily, Terry and ran over onto the cactus hill to see what we could see. We like this rocky point on the farm….every time we are up there we talk about maybe building a house on this hill. Although, it won’t be a typical house, but an house built into the hillside with southwest facing windows to capture the sunlight and the wonderful sunsets.
(Now to be honest you and I both know that Terry and I will never do this, but it’s fun to sit on the point and dream)
Leaving that point we headed over to the cattail area…Red-Winged Black birds were BACK! They wonderful songs filling the air. Traveling forward onto the grass pasture (next to the equipment area) three coyotes ran past us lickety-split. (Another of my Momma’s terms 🙂 )
This is blurry as they are running full speed. You can see the cattails in the forefront of the photo.
I detest these creatures.
We have lost calves to them. The sneaky pack of killers. They also kill cats! And small dogs!
Sometimes you have a cow that wants to be by herself to calve. The coyotes wait and watch, then when the calf starts to come out, they surround the cow, grab the calf, dragging it off and eating it–or eating parts of it leaving the poor helpless Mom in a frenzy.
Most cows will stay within the herd to calf, the other cows form a watch allowing the birth process to proceed as normal. IF a predator, coyote, wild dogs, or others try to capture the calf, the cows will stomp the coyote/predator to death, if they can. Most of the time the coyotes/predators know they will loose so they slink off.
They are heading into an area we call Deadman’s Land–the reason is it’s hard to get water there so nothing really grows well.
The other thing coyotes wait for is the sloppy-I really don’t want to be bothered by a child-Mother. Yes you have those Mom’s in the animal world, just like you do in the human world.
These Mom’s park their baby somewhere, anywhere, saying: you just stay there and don’t move—all cows put their babies in a safe spot (Usually with a cow babysitter) so the Mom’s can go graze. The “I really can’t be bothered with a kid” cow just parks her calf any old place and trots off to jolly it up with a group of her friends.
The coyotes wait, watch, make sure Mom isn’t paying any attention, slink in and have lunch/breakfast, dinner/snack.
Yes, I know the coyotes are beautiful. I also know that the calves and the cows are beautiful. Yes, I know the coyotes need to eat. BUT NOT OUR ANIMALS!
NO….feeding them WILL NOT STOP THEM FROM HUNTING!
In fact, it will just teach them that you are a source of food and create horrible coyote behavior—. Just read this little article from Boulder…
Whew! I guess I have ranted and raved long enough. I will stop now and apologize for this huge post.
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 
We lost one of our cows during the snow storm last week and Eddie is going to haul her off to another farm because the ground is frozen and we can’t bury her. He doesn’t want to leave any food anywhere on the farm for those monsters. The farm he’s taking her too doesn’t have any livestock anywhere close to it. I’m surprised you got the pictures of them as close as you did. They must be really hungry not to run off.
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No, not hungry. Just very used to being around us. We have two dens that we know of, possibly more. We startled them on their lark to check out the cows.
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we’ve had troubles with coyotes here. neighbors have lost calves, ducks, chickens, cats, goats. and they’ve gone after my dogs a few times. thankfully my pack has learned not to engage them, but still, they try to seek out a loner and i try to keep watch for that and always leave 2 dogs out at one time.
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I’m with you, Linda!! The coyotes are terrible here and I have lost cats and 15 roosters we were raising to butcher for meat. They broke into the pen and the ones they didn’t kill, they chased off to have later. They have been outside of my garage as they can smell the kitties that I have in there during the night. I really dislike these predators and we have so many as they are at the top of the food chain…no one to weed them out. I sure hope they don’t get any of the calves!!
Take care….blessings!
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I’m beginning to get the impression that you don’t like coyotes! I can’t say that I blame you, though. It’s hard enough raising livestock and poultry without providing meals for these creatures.
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Hi Linda,
Sorry to agree… My uncle was a rancher down near Westcliffe. Coyotes are a ranchers /farmers nightmare.
It’s swore you snow here tonight. The Chinooks ate nearly all of our snow gone – in two days. Back to winters’ brown.
Take care!
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Coyotes sound terrible. I can’t blame you they sound pretty wily… So sorry you lost livestock and pets to them.
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Hey, you left me hanging on the story. Did the coyotes get to one of the babies that a mother cow didn’t leave with other cows ? Or do you mean this is what can happen ? I see my neighbors below free range chickens and they can get taken by the coyotes here or run over as they get out on the road. I understand the “wild” and free ranging but it seems if you love you animals you would take better care of them. I went to my friends house and her one chicken stopped laying. So I go to see her and sweet talk her and that evening she laid three eggs. My friend says I am the chicken whisperer. Maybe so. Always loved anything with feathers. But I do like learning how other animals live. Go away coyotes !!!! And here I say Go away deer !! They seem to like my NiteGard system. Oh, well…..life in the country.
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What a nasty tale to tell..I am so sorry that you have to put up with all this nasty stuff and I feel even greater sadness for the calves and the cows and all the other poor creatures that get whisked away by coyotes…. Is there no defense, electric fencing, or something…
You can tell that I am not a farmy person can’t you….if all else fails sh**t them
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We always have a rifle with us or nearby. Coyotes get shot here and they are smart enough to know to stay out of range. We live in the middle of cattle ranching country and all ranchers shoot the coyotes. We used to have a state trapper, but in these economic times, his job was axed so it is up to us. We lock our chickens up in their reinforced hen house at night. I don’t care if coyotes stay in the fields and eat ground squirrels, but if they cross my property line, they are dead meat,.
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You are so spot on about coyotes! UGH!
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I don’t think your post was too long, nor was it a rant. You have good reason to dislike the coyotes! It’s breeding season for them and that’s probably why you saw more than one at a time. I hope you were able to frighten them off.
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Loved this post –and it’s SO true. I hate coyotes also…. Sad to think about them stealing the baby calves—and eating them and many other critters… Gads!!!
That’s why we do NOT feed the deer.. Several people say that if we feed them, they will not eat our flowers… HA—that would just make more deer come to our area… NEVER will we feed them.
I’ve always said “Lickity Split” also…..
Hugs,
Betsy
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You have every good reason to get on your soapbox on this. Animals like these and birds like starlings (that have nasty habits, pushing other birds eggs out of their nests etc) always seem to thrive, nothing seems to stop them. It really causes one to wonder about life in general.
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Those coyotes sound shrewd and awful. I read a nonfiction book called The Daily Coyote once. It was about a young woman who raises and tries to tame a coyote. The whole time I was reading it, I thought she was NUTS. Now I am positive she was nuts!! They are beautiful, but hard to love. Good luck keeping all the babies safe.
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We have them here in our woods and I hate them too…
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I’m wondering if the cows who don’t want to be mothers think tor know heir calf is defective. I know of mother lambs who will reject a baby once in a while.
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I meant mother sheep.
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I despise coyotes. They have been bad here this year. We had the USDA wild life services here with an airplane. Same with last year. Those rotten coyotes have snatched 17 calves so far!! If you just shoot AT them, they become wise. You need to kill them with the first shot. I have never seen them in a gang like this. and just waiting. We have thinned them out pretty good so far. Our livestock is our livelihood. They pay our bills, put food on our table. We go above and beyond to protect them, keep them healthy and happy.
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We have coyotes here too. Last spring my husband was taking his wirehaired griffon hunting dog for a run out back. Eli went down into a ravine, John called and called and the dog popped up over the edge with a coyote right on his tail! We figure it was a female with pups, John yelled and she went back down the hill. The funny part is that AFTER big brave Eli got all the way to the other side of the field he stopped, looked back and snarled.
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You don’t need to apologize. It was a good post.
I’m hoping the groundhog was wrong about the 6 more weeks of winter…
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When is Coyote Season? We can hear them howl at night here. They eat all the rabbits and probably some sick deer. The Wild Turkeys seems to survive..but maybe the spurs on the male turkeys are a powerful weapon and they know it.
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Coyotes are scavengers, so there’s no reason for them to feed on those calfs! I don’t feel sorry for them.
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Coyotes are horrible. They prowl up and down the bayou and a few nights a week we hear them “getting” a dog. Makes my skin crawl. They are reproducing at an alarming rate.
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We lost a wonderful dog to a coyote. Took him right out of our backyard. I’m not a coyote fan AT ALL, but they’re just doing what they have to do to survive. That being said, I wish that the circle of life could play out somewhere else other than on our land with our animals!
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Rant away! I dislike them as well but they are amazing the way they live in cities and our back yards slinking about and one even insisted on living under a poor woman’s home here in NH no matter what they tried except for KILLING IT this one would tear apart the skirting on her home and move in beneath 😦 I have track all over my place and if they keep MOVING they will remain safe they stop to harass us or JT they will hunt no more. Poor baby cows don’t have a chance against them 😦
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What about introducing a donkey to the herd? They are certainly protective and have worked for other people. “The Daily Coyote” has a website. She indeed raised him from a pup and he is still with her today, not without some trials and tribulations along the way though. Our family farm has rented out all the pastures to a man who takes great care of his cows, the problem he has is coyotes as well as wild dog packs and maybe a bear everyonce in a while. No mercy for the first two if caught, but black bears are now protected in Louisiana.
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I am sorry to hear about the problems you are having with coyotes. We have a small problem with them in our neck of the woods and it is very distressing loosing one of your animals to them.
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Coyotes are pretty bad. We lost one cat to them. But baby calves? This is sad.
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They are pretty thick here too, at least some people say they are. I have a bunch north and a bunch south of me and I think they both run some distance to the west. They talk back and forth to each other. So far (fingers crossed) there has been no problem here. The Gus, who is confined to the yard unless he’s with me, yells back at them. He isn’t very big (or very brave if push comes to shove) so I keep a close eye. I encourage him to mark the fence lines and I am out and visible a lot during the day. It could be that territory and human presence helps, I don’t know. Horse herded the sheep to a safer spot the other day and then stood on his hill blowing and snorting. So far there haven’t been any loses. But I am worried about the cows when they start to calve. Always something to worry about!
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You can rant as much as you like Linda. If I were in your shoes I’d be doing the same.
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Here is a Yahoo post on donkeys and cows..
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110723114027AASCPKB
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Learned a lot from this post. That’s sad they would attack like that.
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