This is what I see on my property. This is on my front 40. I rarely go on the back forty until hunting season any more. I usually have three does using my place when fawns drop. Its been this way for 10 years or more. They stay in the taller earlier succession type habitat. There are seven using my front place now, some will have to go find another spot, the older does have been chasing some off the fields the past week. Its a battle for habitat. The big old does will win.
The big does almost always have twins, I can't remeber the last time they haven't
The majority make it until hunting season. One will usually get run over on the road. I can and do go out at night and howl and the yotes will howl back. They don't seem to be making an impact the deer though. I do focus on early succession habitat, I don't mow at all. I spray for grasses.
The way I look at it is the yotes don't want to work hard for there meal. I try to make it harder than my neighbors, by making it thick and irregular. I figure the yotes do better on my neighbors who dont have as good a cover.
I give the old does everything they need to live. In January if your holding the does on your place, then then the odds are better for the special buck.
I really enjoy watching the old does. I wouldnt shoot one. But I do take yearlings.
"And the days that I keep my gratitude Higher than my expectations Well, I have really good days" Ray Wylie Hubbard
I saw one of Mark Buxton's post showing the habitat he works toward with his customers, and he says if you have the understory done right, your fawn recruitment goes way up and yotes become less of an issue.
I would love to have some big clover fields like he shows pic's of.
I saw one of Mark Buxton's post showing the habitat he works toward with his customers, and he says if you have the understory done right, your fawn recruitment goes way up and yotes become less of an issue.
I would love to have some big clover fields like he shows pic's of.
We typically picture this as simply creating a bunch of thick understory for the deer to hide fawns in but coyotes don’t hunt at night through their vision……Its gonna be through scent on the air and you really cant hide from that through visual obstruction……If you notice something about all of the understory pics Buxton show they are all heavily forb dominated with low amounts of grass……These properties likely have a fraction of the rodent population that a heavily grass dominated property produces…..Without as much of the easy to catch meat and potatoes prey source...it's likely that resident yotes have larger range sizes on average and smaller litters…..
I bet its through this avenue that pressure on fawns is likely reduced and not as much through what we look at and visually think of as the reason………It probably end up being more about the number of pups per sq mile that have to be fed……Just to put some numbers on it as am example…..It may be that you have a forb dominated property supporting 1 mating pair territory for every 600 acres that produces 2 pups to feed while a heavily grass dominated property may support 1 mating pair every 300 acres that produce 4 pups on average……The difference is 2 pups per sq mile versus 8 that have to be fed......That's just the general concept anyways....
I tried to trap yotes on my hunting club once, as something to do after deer season, and because the club was fairly thick with them. I successfully trapped one. I also trapped a house dog from a neighboring property. I checked my traps every single day but usually later in the evening after work. One of the dog running guys pounced on finding the dog first to say the dog had “been there for days” (it was less than 24 hours, probably less than 12-16) and that they can’t bring their hunting dogs over because if they step in an MB-550 they’re gonna sue me and/or shoot me, blah blah blah.
Ultimately the club voted and limited me to June and July. That ended my yote trapping career. Screw them if they think I’m gonna do it in 100F heat.
Blew my mind because in turkey season you were more likely to hear a yote answer your gobble than a turkey.
Now I’m thinking of ordering a new trap or two because I would get pictures of them at night on the backside of my 18 acres around my deer stands and sometimes even close to the yard, and I have an indoor/outdoor cat.
If the guy in the podcast is correct about the impact of taking out the resident female in early spring then to be the most effective a property would need to be divided up into 300-500 ish acre units and at least one trap set placed in a prime location within each unit……with the idea being that you’re trying to target as many resident territories as possible across a given area
I saw one of Mark Buxton's post showing the habitat he works toward with his customers, and he says if you have the understory done right, your fawn recruitment goes way up and yotes become less of an issue.
I would love to have some big clover fields like he shows pic's of.
We typically picture this as simply creating a bunch of thick understory for the deer to hide fawns in but coyotes don’t hunt at night through their vision……Its gonna be through scent on the air and you really cant hide from that through visual obstruction……If you notice something about all of the understory pics Buxton show they are all heavily forb dominated with low amounts of grass……These properties likely have a fraction of the rodent population that a heavily grass dominated property produces…..Without as much of the easy to catch meat and potatoes prey source...it's likely that resident yotes have larger range sizes on average and smaller litters…..
I bet its through this avenue that pressure on fawns is likely reduced and not as much through what we look at and visually think of as the reason………It probably end up being more about the number of pups per sq mile that have to be fed……Just to put some numbers on it as am example…..It may be that you have a forb dominated property supporting 1 mating pair territory for every 600 acres that produces 2 pups to feed while a heavily grass dominated property may support 1 mating pair every 300 acres that produce 4 pups on average……The difference is 2 pups per sq mile versus 8 that have to be fed......That's just the general concept anyways....
He didn't go into specifics, I am sure you would have to go to one of his seminars to see if he would say more. I have thought about it, going to one.
I saw one of Mark Buxton's post showing the habitat he works toward with his customers, and he says if you have the understory done right, your fawn recruitment goes way up and yotes become less of an issue.
I would love to have some big clover fields like he shows pic's of.
Spoiler alert but that is this weeks topic on Wild Turkey Science……They are getting pretty close to what we’re talking about here but just arent quite far enough down the rabbit hole yet…..If we are going to fully explore this idea ^^^^ then lets also look at what happens when those grass filled stands full of rodents get flushed in Feb versus April, May, or June……How does that impact coyote litter size if females are fattening up on easy to catch protein in Feb/March that have been displaced and scattered........... and how does it then affect easy prey abundance in April/May/June when hens and poults are on the ground??......How does that effect nest predation in April when that flush of rodents was two months ago?
Spoiler alert but that is this weeks topic on Wild Turkey Science……They are getting pretty close to what we’re talking about here but just arent quite far enough down the rabbit hole yet…..If we are going to fully explore this idea ^^^^ then lets also look at what happens when those grass filled stands full of rodents get flushed in Feb versus April, May, or June……How does that impact coyote litter size if females are fattening up on easy to catch protein in Feb/March that have been displaced and scattered........... and how does it then affect easy prey abundance in April/May/June when hens and poults are on the ground??......How does that effect nest predation in April when that flush of rodents was two months ago?
Roll Damn Tide!!!... 
