More coyote problems

Was walking the pig paddocks today and noticed barred rock chicken feathers where they shouldn't be.  A small pile, but this is all you see when a coyote kills a chicken.  They grab it, probably kill it there quickly, and then carry it somewhere secluded to eat it. 

Sometimes the chicken puts up a fight.  You can see these feathers are in a circle, probably from the chicken flapping around in the mouth of the coyote.

While I was investigating the barred rock feather trail, I found evidence that a black australorp had been recently eaten.  Notice that on some of the longer feathers the end (quill) of the feather has been eaten.  Coyotes seem to like that part of the feather.

Usually there's a feather or two.  I track the coyotes to figure out where they are entering/leaving my land so I know what part of the property to watch when I'm hunting the coyote that's preying on my livestock. 

This is where the coyote ate the chicken.  Careful scrutiny of the ground yielded coyote tracks.  When they start eating chickens they come back either every night or every other night, so I've got a few days of getting up at 3am to see if I can't get this coyote. 

I don't usually have problems this late in the year -- usually they're most interested in the poultry in early spring when they're raising litters.  If I don't get this coyote chances are good it will continue to pick off chickens during the rest of the year.