A lady that has a farm with many different types of fowl and small barn animals contacted me. She has had a tough time recently with Coyote packs feeding on her fowl and wanted to know if I could help by hunting or trapping some of the Coyotes in the area. Absolutely!

I spent a good part of a day on her 150 acres just getting the lay of the land and seeing what kind of activity she has there. Needless to say there were many tracks and several dens on her land and most of the activity was near here barns and paddocks.

Her property was full of great habitat for Pheasants and Rabbits especially. Hay fields, fencerows, thickets, excellent stuff. I scoured the land and after hours of walking I realized something very bothersome, I saw zero rabbits! These predators have decimated the rabbit population on this property and I assume the pheasants as well.

This is a bad deal as a kid my winters were spent hunting small game especially rabbits. We need to get ahead of the exploding population of Coyotes in southern Michigan. They need to be hunted and trapped and regulated. Kids are going to miss a great hunting opportunity with no rabbits or pheasants.

I have farmers telling me not to shoot their Coyotes because they are helping control the overpopulated deer herd they have on their land. I understand their thinking but Coyotes are a real problem to the small game we have and the deer need to be regulated by hunters and not Coyotes.

This needs to stop!

Is anyone else seeing this same problem?

Over the summer break I thought it would be a great educational project for my family to raise some pheasants for release. I purchased an incubator and eggs from a well regarded hatchery and the project began.

Very educational and rewarding indeed, the girls spent lots of time turning eggs and caring for the chicks as they grew. When it came time to release them to the wild it was quite an event but what happend that same night was very frustrating to say the least.

Our first release was 11 of the 19 birds and was done with weather in mind. On a warm August afternoon we released them to a small field with lots of wild cover and water nearby. As the birds wandered in and out of the thickest habitat we could often hear them calling to each other. This went on for a few hours and before dusk the calling stopped completely. At 9:45 pm we were startled by Coyotes yipping and barking like crazy in the back yard. There was quite a pack and they were not bothered by the lights coming on in the back. My dog was in the yard barking loudly at them but that did not phase them either. I had to run out into the yard 60 yards or so from the house hollaring and clapping to get them to stop. Yes, they were quite brave. It was hard to believe that they were on those birds that quickly. I have no idea if or how many they may have gotten, I do see one or two occasionally but the Coyotes continue to return.

Our next learning experience will be hunting Coyotes this fall and winter.

Here are a few pics from the release.