Well shit. 3 dead ducks and coyote tracks all about.


Ok, as some of you know, I have a small (hair under 2 acre) pond on my land. About a month ago, my wife gets a wild hair and decides we need ducks. :Picard: I knew this would end badly one way or another. Ducks run off, die, or worse yet, I end up having to take care of them. Rather than argue,I said that I didn't care one way or another,figured it would be easier to let the situation solve itself than to argue. I didn tell her, be prepared for some of them to die from whatever cause.  She was like "nothing will happen"
Her father lives next to a lady that sells ducks, chickens, ect. So this past Monday, he gets 5 of them for her. 2 Mallards, and 3 Pintails. All babies, or ducklings.  They do not have their mother with them, so the lady said to put a cage out by the pond, and keep them in there for a week, after that. they can be let out and will consider the cage their "home" Whatever:rolleyes:.
So, while I was at work monday, her father comes out and constructs this pretty pimp cage from chickenwire. It is half on land, and half in the pond, but they still cant get out.
Anyhow, we take my little girl out there and she is all about the ducks.:love:
Monday, Tue, Wed, and Thu go by with no problems.  Today, I go out to feed them, and only notice 2 are in the cage. I thought "great, the little bastards got out"
Then, I noticed a damn duckbill just below my feet. Upon closer inspection, the cage has been pretty ravaged. 2 are completely missing, and there is nothing but a head and bill left of the 3rd. :mad: We didnt tell my little girl about what happened. She is 3yrs old and not ready for that.My wife is pretty sad, and I cant bring myself to even hint at an "I told your ass"

Well fuck, I end up having to deal with the ducks anyhow.

I did some wildlife trapping back when I was younger, and got familiar with animal tracks. From what I can gather, it was 2 Coyotes, a fairly large one, and a smaller one.  So I gathered the 2 remaining ducks up,and took them back to my folks house for a while. Earlier this evening, I set out a series of foot traps around the cage, and placed some chicken and coyote long distance scent around the cage.

Ill go back and check it in a bit, and on my break at work. I should have some pictures by tomorrow.

Tag for update and pics.  Hope you get them!

Long story for 'yotes doin' what they do, and you doin what you have to do.

Kill 'em. there's plenty more.

5.56x45 is your friend.

You have to decide what's more trouble.

1) Letting the problem solve itself a couple times or,

2) Getting stuck with cleanup repeatedly.

And what are you going to do with the predators? I'm betting nature can make them faster than you can trap them.

i don't have ducks, but a coyote did get one of the guinea hens here on the farm.   i've tried and tried to call them in to shoot them, but never any luck.

i hope ya get 'em.  

I raised ducks for years growing up.  There is nothing more frustrating than a wild animal killing them off one by one.  I hope you nail the coyotes.

You need to deaded them ASAP...all of them.

HH

Wounded rabbit call + buddy w/spotlight + AR at night = win.

Can you shoot in your area? If so, it sounds like fun.

set some snares if you cant catch them out to shoot them.

Its out of the city limits.

Also, I have done quite a bit of Preadator calling in my day. I would have done it tonight but had to work. I may set up for tomorrow night. I still have my Jimmy Stewart caller and a wide assortment of tapes.


On a side note, I was wondering if I should just paint a tunnel on the side of a rock face.
Thoughts?

Quoted: On a side note, I was wondering if I should just paint a tunnel on the side of a rock face. Thoughts?

Don't skimp

Quoted: Its out of the city limits. Also, I have done quite a bit of Preadator calling in my day. I would have done it tonight but had to work. I may set up for tomorrow night. I still have my Jimmy Stewart caller and a wide assortment of tapes. On a side note, I was wondering if I should just paint a tunnel on the side of a rock face. Thoughts?

kill kill kill the furry roaches
 

then post pics

Damn I wish I could help!!!

Quoted: i don't have ducks, but a coyote did get one of the guinea hens here on the farm.   i've tried and tried to call them in to shoot them, but never any luck. i hope ya get 'em.

do you prevent the guinea hens from flying?   all the guinea hens i knew growing up were strong flyers, and would roost in very high trees at night.   so i don't understand how a coyote would get one, unless its flight feathers are trimmed or it is immature.

.223 REM with something like a 40-55gr Ballistic tip will learn those yotes to better not fuck with the ducks. You may need more ducks though.

Quoted: .223 REM with something like a 40-55gr Ballistic tip will learn those yotes to better not fuck with the ducks. You may need more ducks though.

If I do stake-out, im going to use a friends Savage in 22-250. I have used it a few times on other critters, and it always does a hell of a job.

Quoted: Also, I have done quite a bit of Preadator calling in my day. I would have done it tonight but had to work. I may set up for tomorrow night. I still have my Jimmy Stewart caller and a wide assortment of tapes.

Why bother with the calling, just put the ducks back in the cage, the 'yotes will be back.

Pick them off a will.

Just don't call it "baiting".  

You already know the outcome of this, if you have bait you'll have predators.

Yotes, fox,skunks,snakes,feral dogs etc. I have a neighbor that way just refuses to get rid of the birds but always complaining about lost/dead livestock and when one turns up dead calls and ask's if my dogs have maybe gotten loose.

Tell your wife to just go get some yote chow from the grocery store, it's the same thing.

Quoted: Quoted: On a side note, I was wondering if I should just paint a tunnel on the side of a rock face. Thoughts? Don't skimp

a1 grade stuff there

Quoted: Quoted: i don't have ducks, but a coyote did get one of the guinea hens here on the farm.   i've tried and tried to call them in to shoot them, but never any luck. i hope ya get 'em.   do you prevent the guinea hens from flying?   all the guinea hens i knew growing up were strong flyers, and would roost in very high trees at night.   so i don't understand how a coyote would get one, unless its flight feathers are trimmed or it is immature.

'Yotes can catch turkeys so why not a gunea.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: On a side note, I was wondering if I should just paint a tunnel on the side of a rock face. Thoughts? Don't skimp a1 grade stuff there

Yeah but.....no INSTANT HOLE !!!

Tag for update

Winchester .45 grain JHP is the stuff on coyotes.

Quoted: On a side note, I was wondering if I should just paint a tunnel on the side of a rock face.

you should have done that first.

Good luck bro.

I lost 125+ chickens in two days so I feel your pain.

It's funny all of this, "Blow the critter away! Show pics!"*fapfapfap* nonsense when he should give the coyote a fucking medal for doing him a favor. He didn't want the birds in the first place and knew this was going to happen.

Stop telling the guy to bait the animal. After the last bird is gone it will go away, no fuss, no muss, no misanthropic masturbation fantasies.

height=8

Quoted: It's funny all of this, "Blow the critter away! Show pics!"*fapfapfap* nonsense when he should give the coyote a fucking medal for doing him a favor. He didn't want the birds in the first place and knew this was going to happen. Stop telling the guy to bait the animal. After the last bird is gone it will go away, no fuss, no muss, no misanthropic masturbation fantasies.

No shit! Pond is water, which is the universal key to life, then throw in some young, tender, juicy meals and what the hell did you expect?hinking.gif

My dad had a pond dug when we were growing up and then mother had the great idea of putting some rare breed duckies in there. So much for a nice swimming hole they shit everywhere, and polluted the water so bad that it killed fish. Let um die +1 for the coyotes!

When I was a kid... We had a similar problem that you had..

My friend and I basically were put in charge of coyote duty and we read pretty much every booby trap setup that was used in Vietnam.

We made lots of them too, snare traps, pungy pit setups, spring loaded tree branches with tons of spikes on them.. Eventually we got the courage to make a homemade bouncing betty (basically it was made as kind of a warning thing, so we could figure out where they were coming from, we used M80s and stuff) kind of thing after we killed a bunch of them with the other traps..

yeah.. his mom wasn't too happy about that..