I've got a nuisance situation where a coyote has been taking some backyard chickens mid-day on a small property ~20 acres. I've narrowed their travel way down to a cross of the property along a split rail fence horse pasture, past the chicken house, and exiting to the neighboring property through the split rail where a board is down. My coyote snaring experience has been on wire fences, and natural trails. My gut tells me the coyote is going to hug the fence post where the opening is at its largest (one end of board still up on next post down) and that's where I hung my snare. Any input on adding any blocking in the rest of the opening? Or, am I correct to leave it as natural looking as possible and by nature the coyote will hug to the post when passing through the fence?

I would also hang one parallel along the fence on
His way to the opening if there is cover for one !

No cover at all, perfectly groomed horse pasture all the way to the fence... That's especially why I feel like adding any brush to the fence opening will seem unnatural the next time the coyote comes through.

The opening is actually where the fence corners so the coyote comes into the opening perpendicularly. It's also about 20 feet from the actual corner, so the coyote is well off the parallel portion as he approaches.

To my thinking, adding anything will make him leery.

Glad to have my thoughts on that seconded.

Is it natural for coyotes using split rail fence gaps to hug tight to vertical posts when passing through? In this case with the board only being half down and the gap at it's largest at the post it also strikes me as the natural point of least resistance to head for on approach by an animal. Here's also a quick illustration of the setup.