I need coyote help, and quick...

[farmuse]

My father-in-law is a dairy farmer in northern VA.  I have never seen a coyote in VA, but yesterday he told my wife he found some on one of the properties he uses to raise cattle.  He is asking me to get rid of them.  I have not had a chance to talk to him about what he saw, but my wife said their might be a den or something.  I have been reading through some of the questions and answers along this topic for a while now, but I really need some suggestions.  I am not big on killing young, or a mother that may have young, but if I don't my father-in-law will find someone else and probably think less of me for some reason or another (father-in-laws are like that.)

Anyway, I need some ideas on the best way to get this started.  If there is a den, how often does the mother (or both) come back?  If someone has already found the den, would the parents move the pups?  If they have been moved, how far?  Do I have any hope of calling in the parents after all?  Any suggestions would be great.  I have a rifle I feel confident with, but I do not have a call.  Its "open season" in Virginia for Coyote so I think I could use an electronic call and I may be able to hunt at night.

Please let me know what you think.

If anyone is near the Northern Virginia area and might be able to help, please let me know.  I would love to do this by myself, but I think it could be best to get help from an "expert."

[zapper223]

Alot of ?'s first its not likely that the coyotes would pose much of a threat to his cattle, they do like to hang around and eat the afterbirth ads well as the calves droppings. Now if the den area is disturbed alot of times they will move the pups. As far as how far they will move them I'd say it would depend on the areas terrain as well as how badly they were disturbed. It is possible to kill the pair but a word of caution if you only kill one and they have pups it may very well create a problem coyote. The reason being it leaves one to feed the pups alone and they often resort to domestic animals or whatever they have to , to feed the pups so its important to try to get them both . Which of course leaves the young to starve to death. That is why I dont hunt them unless there is a problem this time of year. A lot of the predation of livestock or should I say killing and or mauling is done by domestic dogs and not coyotes but they get the blame.
                          Good-Luck,
                                  zapper :-D

[farmuse]

zapper,

I agree with you on the pup starving thing, and thanks for the heads up about leaving only one parent to support the litter, I hadn't thought of that.

Really this is all a mute subject now though, I was told last night that someone else, that lives in the area of the den, has already said he plans on taking care of the 'yotes.  I guess since there are so few in the area news spread fast and people were lining up to render their services.

As for 'yotes getting blamed for domestic dog attacks on livestock, I guess that is the first thing people think of when they see the aftermath of an attack, but it is really pretty easy to tell the difference.  Domestic dogs are dumb, and even thought they sometimes have a strong prey drive, they don't know what to do after they kill it.  They often scratch at it and tear up the hide trying to eat the meat on the legs and such.  'Yotes don't waste much time, they know the parts that carry the most nutrients and go straight in through the ribcage to get it.  Not to many domestic dogs that start out ripping a hole in the ribcage.

Anyway, thanks for the help and enjoy your summer,

[Wlscott]

I was told last night that someone else, that lives in the area of the den, has already said he plans on taking care of the 'yotes.

I know people who hunt coyotes professionally that can't "take care of the coyote 'problem' ".  

If I were you, I would go buy a couple of mouth calls, practice using them, and go out and try calling a couple of times with the wind in my face.

This is the time of year when we usually stop calling them though.  They get pretty hard to call when they start dropping pups.  I think this is mostly because they have heard calls all season, and they are mostly educated.  You may be able to get the adults to come in to some pup squeals though.  

Once you've got coyotes, you're always going to have them.  If you're a fox hunter, that's bad.  They'll wipe out the foxes in the area.  If not....try your hand at coyote calling.  I'll bet you'll be hooked, just like I am.