Sometimes in life you react to a situation in a certain way because you instinctively know what you need to do, even if you don’t like it. I had one of those experiences at the farm last night. I was enjoying the lingering light of late dusk, sitting in my favorite lawn chair and having a phone conversation with a friend. Gus and Clover, my trusty Border Collies, were unusually attentive and quiet. In fact, they were asleep, more or less at my feet.

I noticed a bit of commotion coming from the sheep paddock but didn’t think too much about it until the female coyote came into view, pacing along the outside of my “new” sheep fence. And then I saw another and then one more, and sure enough there was a fourth inside the fence. Gus and Clover have been great at running off the wild canines – at least when they are so close to the barn, but for some reason they weren’t on task last night. The donkeys are also heck on wild dogs – they were bedded down in the corral on the other side of the barn.

iStockPhoto.com Tony Campbell

I take my role as animal husband quite seriously; part of that responsibility includes protecting the flocks from predators. I appreciate predators, especially opportunists like coyotes. I am particularly fond of coyotes because of their song, the social structure they adhere to, and because they have been so willing and able to adapt to virtually every move humans make to destroy their habitat or to eradicate them. I find no joy in killing coyotes.

Without so much as a second thought, I excused myself from the telephone and grabbed the .270 and a handful of rounds. Four shots and, just a few minutes later, it was over. Gus and Clover were hiding in the barn, the sheep, hogs and chickens were safe, and I was swept with the remorse that you can only feel when you waste a life. I wondered whether I mightn’t have somehow deterred that coyote mom and her three pups. Intellectually, I know the answer to that question is a resounding no. She was teaching her babies to live out their genetic destiny, and they all got caught in the crossfire of my animal husbandry.

Had I not been enjoying the evening outside, the scene would have played out much differently. And come morning, I would have felt the terrible remorse of having failed in my animal husbandly duties.

We got started a little late with this year’s laying flock … I don’t remember the exact date, but it was at the end of spring. We needed to start over this year because our independent minded chickens took to roosting in the pine grove last year, much to the coyotes' delight. Actually, they were safe in the trees, but they were easily startled, which caused them to fly to the ground at the sight of a coyote and into the waiting jaws of the trickster himself.

It would be accurate to say that we were bummed about that chain of events, but we also know that coyotes need to eat too. So this year, we enclosed the flock in a portable electric net. They roosted in the mobile pen (I built as a modification of this plan), which was located inside the net. Surprisingly enough, we didn’t lose one chicken to anything, and the netting helped the dogs get used to watching chickens rather than chasing them.

Now that we have staked a firm claim on this formerly uninhabited farm, the coyotes give us wider berth. Our dogs taunt them some, but so far they have agreed to keep a healthy distance. I recently moved the chickens into a semi-permanent pen that’s about an acre in size. We surrounded it with welded wire that’s 4-feet high and topped that with a single strand of electric. When we installed the welded wire, we took care to give it good ground contact … not even Woodrow the Cairn Terrier has been able to squirm under the fence.

As winter approached, we were just a little blue that we hadn’t had any fresh eggs from the flock yet. And then it happened. Last week, one of the Welsummer hens began delivering some of the most beautiful and delicious eggs we have had all year. Kate says that they poach perfectly. I just marvel at the bright orange yolks, firm whites and yummy flavor. I also think the copper-colored shells are absolutely beautiful. For more on the joys and benefits of home-grown eggs, check out this article.