This site is about my life as a farmgirl, wife, mother and grandmother. We have a beautiful granddaughter and the cutest grandson. We own two farms in Craig County Virginia, leasing one and raising beef cattle on the other.
The Nasty Beasts are Back
I’ve said in the past how much I detest and despise coyotes.Well, we have almost a month to go for the first spring calf to arrive and nasty beasts are back. Hubby set snares and has caught two, one young male and this huge male that’s probably two – three years old.
Huge coyote male snared 02/2014
If there’s males around there’s bound to be females and their mating season will soon begin if not already. This brute could take a newborn calf away from it’s mother in a matter of seconds. A month old calf in a few minutes if it’s not with the herd. Of course, these cows always decide to calve out in the woods alone and the babies are then easy prey, especially with canines like these:
Two to three year old male coyote.
There’s open season on them and several trappers are trying to help but Mother Nature gives them the inate sense to breed larger welps when the group get’s killed out or dies out. We’ve lost too many babies to these predators and stopping them is essential to our farm profits each and every year.
Not only do they kill the calves but they devastate the deer population, all livestock and will kill your pets.
I hope I don’t offend anyone with this post but everyone needs to be aware of the problems this creature creates for farmers.
I am a wife, mother, and grandmother that lives on a farm in Craig County, Virginia and I am retired. I love to cook, read, quilt, craft, garden, hunt and take long walks in the woods. I have one gorgeous teen granddaughter, a wonderful little grandson and two beautiful and caring children, boy & girl.
I've been married to my farmer husband for 46 years and he's the "love of my life"!!
I love doing things the "old" way such as canning, making maple syrup & cider, handcrafts and baking. I've taught myself to crochet, embroider, and quilt with help from my paternal grandmother. I could read until the cows come home.
We live off the products we raise and hunt for the most part. We run 75 head of cattle on our farm, 30 chickens, three rabbits and one dog. I help my husband with the cattle, feeding the livestock, hauling in firewood, fence repair, and general maintenance on the farm.
I was a stay-at-home mom to my children and then went to work when they finished high school. I was a cook at a School for At-Risk Teens and part-time substitute teacher. Then I started work at our local Farm Bureau and stayed there for 17 years. I worked at Virginia Tech for almost five years and decided to take early retirement in July of 2015. NOW, I'm a full-time farmwife and loving every minute of it!
I love to read fiction and the Bible. I'm currently hooked on quilting novels and Annie's Attic mysteries.
I started this blog in 2011 and have met so many interesting bloggers and have kept up with my friends through my blog.
I love to hunt with my bow and rifle and with a camera. We hunt to fill the freezer and cellar but would never kill anything for the fun of it.
I have friends and family all over the United States. Some of my ancestry last names are Bradley, Dickson, Hylton, and Rose.
I've lost both of my parents to brain cancer and miss them very much. I have one sister and four living brothers. I was raised in Paint Bank VA and moved to New Castle VA when I married. I went to school in Waiteville, WV, Gap Mills, WV and New Castle Va with a short semester of college at Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke VA.
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7 thoughts on “The Nasty Beasts are Back”
We’ve discussed this issue before haven’t we! Hope you’re have a great morning.
Rita
The females will be about 10 pounds lighter and this is the second largest Eddie has caught. I hate them!! When they howl they make my skin crawl and the hair stand up on the back of neck!!
Our department of Game will send a guy out to trap them but they are so smart and learn quickly about new methods and what to stay away from. If you have hunters in your area that you trust you may want to give them free range of land and time to call them in. Eddie has had good luck doing that too but I’m not always able to go out with him as a watcher. We have to do something!! There was talk of bringing in Red Wolves to kill them but once the coyotes are gone then we will have the wolves to contend with. It’s neverending!
I totally despise coyotes and wolves. We have had a terrible time this year with coyotes. They are just snatching calves right under our noses. Waiting for mama to go get water/hay. Its nasty. We had USDA wildlife services out with the plane. They got a few. Its illegal to trap them in Washington state. But this is outta control and we will do whatever to protect our livelihood.
Cheri
This is the blog for our little farm in Skagit county. Here we have Shetland sheep and Nigerian Dwarf goats. In addition we have donkeys, cattle, pigs, chickens, geese, and peafowl. The blog describes the weekly activities here.
countrygirl-lifeonthefarm 
We’ve discussed this issue before haven’t we! Hope you’re have a great morning.
Rita
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Nasty – just plain nasty. They’re not good for much and the one is one of the biggest I’ve seen as well
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HUGE!!! Those are HUGE compared to ours here!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
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The females will be about 10 pounds lighter and this is the second largest Eddie has caught. I hate them!! When they howl they make my skin crawl and the hair stand up on the back of neck!!
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I hate them also!
Linda
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Our department of Game will send a guy out to trap them but they are so smart and learn quickly about new methods and what to stay away from. If you have hunters in your area that you trust you may want to give them free range of land and time to call them in. Eddie has had good luck doing that too but I’m not always able to go out with him as a watcher. We have to do something!! There was talk of bringing in Red Wolves to kill them but once the coyotes are gone then we will have the wolves to contend with. It’s neverending!
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I totally despise coyotes and wolves. We have had a terrible time this year with coyotes. They are just snatching calves right under our noses. Waiting for mama to go get water/hay. Its nasty. We had USDA wildlife services out with the plane. They got a few. Its illegal to trap them in Washington state. But this is outta control and we will do whatever to protect our livelihood.
Cheri
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