Barred Owl Hunting during the Day

[wekiva bird]

The only thing i have seen the owls get are mice,rats, bushy tail rats, snakes.

 

[Gifa]

I had what I believe to be a HUGE Barred Owl flyover my girls really low earlier this evening. They were out and about in the yard, minding their own business about 5 minutes from putting themselves to bed... and out of nowhere, a Barred swooped in really low over my yard, dragging a cloud of other smaller agitated birds.

I was out in the yard with a pitchfork, aerating my lawn and all of a sudden, the girls dashed into their run, heads held very high, in that alarmed posture... The owl landed in a tree about 30 feet from my coop behind the fence. This was their first real scare... They've seen hawks and whatnot before, enough to make them take cover under the spirea... but never a predator this close. I've never seen them so scared that they chose to dive into their run as opposed to any of the bushes on the way... I did a quick hen count, and when I came up short I did a quick scan of the backyard to see where they scrambled to in case I needed to put myself between them and the owl... ALL of my girls made it into the run, except my brown leghorn. She was standing in the middle of the yard, totally exposed and totally frozen... in a deer in the headlights kind of way... .

I watched her watch the owl watching her... She was just so still... I took a few steps in her direction and she started slowly making her way over to the run... By now the rest of my flock had decided that was about as much fun as they could stand for one evening and started putting themselves to bed... Zoe followed suit. By this time, I looked back up at the owl... it turned it's massive hornless head and flew off in the opposite direction... taking it's cloud of angry little birds with it. I secured their digs and went inside.

In hindsight, I don't think the owl was swooping in on my chickens. It came in over my house and flew over the backyard to the woods back there... I think it was mostly trying to get away from all the little birds who were yelling at it to get out of their territory. But still... a good experience for my girls. I had wondered how predator savvy my flock would be... and I worry the most about my two light colored Easter Eggers since they are not camouflaged at all... but they were the first two in the run... Good girls.

 

[donnavee]

Wow! What an experience. The Barred Owls are beautiful, in a freaky kind of way. Early evening is when I would normally see one, doing almost exactly what you described. Glad everyone got in safely. My chickens seem much more predator savvy than the ducks. Though I have noticed the ducks are now responding to the chicken alarm calls.

 

[ConPollos]

I recently talked to a lady, who lives in a rural area, and she said an owl had gotten all her chickens; so they've covered their run with chicken wire. She said it happened during the daytime. I don't know any details, but I'm researching owls now.

Two other neighbors both say no hawk or owl has ever gotten their free range birds, even though I see many hawks and a few owls around here. I'm so worried about my girls, who adore ranging in my fenced fron yard. There are some things for them to take cover under, and I've made a web of poly twine over the area between the coop and my house. I need to do more to protect them, and I'm confused about how some people don't have a problem with arial attacks and don't even worry about it.

I was talking to a local old timer, who said they always used to let the chickens run loose in the old days because they figured they'd reproduce fast enough to make up for predation. But, they didn't view them as pets, like I do.

 

[Usedtowanna]

We've lost 6 chickens in the past week to an owl - barred or great horned. Four of the ones missing were taken during the day. A few months ago, one of our chickens was wounded by an owl during the day but pulled through. They definitely hunt during the day!

Last night and tonight, just after dark, we heard loud clucking from the shed where a few liked to roost. We ran out seconds later and found nothing amiss other than one less chicken than before. Of the six gone now, we've found only one carcass around the property. They're just....gone. Tomorrow will be a busy day building up the shed so it's a safer place. It's so sad. I hate the thought of having to lock them all up. They are so happy free ranging.

 

[centrarchid]

We've lost 6 chickens in the past week to an owl - barred or great horned.  Four of the ones missing were taken during the day.  A few months ago, one of our chickens was wounded by an owl during the day but pulled through.  They definitely hunt during the day!

Last night and tonight, just after dark, we heard loud clucking from the shed where a few liked to roost.  We ran out seconds later and found nothing amiss other than one less chicken than before.  Of the six gone now, we've found only one carcass around the property.  They're just....gone.  Tomorrow will be a busy day building up the shed so it's a safer place.  It's so sad.  I hate the thought of having to lock them all up.  They are so happy free ranging.

Daytime this time of year is very unlikely. How big are birds being lost?

 

[Usedtowanna]

Two were full grown, taken after dark. The other four were 16 weeks - ish and went missing sometime during the day.

 

[aart]

We've lost 6 chickens in the past week to an owl - barred or great horned. Four of the ones missing were taken during the day. A few months ago, one of our chickens was wounded by an owl during the day but pulled through. They definitely hunt during the day!

Last night and tonight, just after dark, we heard loud clucking from the shed where a few liked to roost. We ran out seconds later and found nothing amiss other than one less chicken than before. Of the six gone now, we've found only one carcass around the property. They're just....gone. Tomorrow will be a busy day building up the shed so it's a safer place. It's so sad. I hate the thought of having to lock them all up. They are so happy free ranging.

Two were full grown, taken after dark. The other four were 16 weeks - ish and went missing sometime during the day.

Did you actually see an owl take the bird(s)?
Cause it could be any number of predators given your description.

Definitely build them a tightly meshed coop for night time protection....and a run is a good thing to have against daytime predators, doesn't mean you can never free range again but when daytime predators strike there's a good chance they will be back until all your chickens are gone if you don't protect them.

 

[Usedtowanna]

I guess you're right, in all fairness it could have been something else since we didn't see it. We're basing our conclusion on owl because 1) we see them often lurking near our coop 2) we see them flying around frequently during the day 3) the injuries one chicken had to her back are consistent with what a bird of prey could do 4) the two chickens taken at night, the predator would have had to scale a fence to get to the bird and get it out again and we don't think he/she'd have had time from the time we heard the clucking to the time we got out there to check.

I'd be interested to hear any other thoughts?? It does seem hard to imagine that an owl could fly off with a full grown chicken.

 

[aart]

I guess you're right, in all fairness it could have been something else since we didn't see it. We're basing our conclusion on owl because 1) we see them often lurking near our coop 2) we see them flying around frequently during the day 3) the injuries one chicken had to her back are consistent with what a bird of prey could do 4) the two chickens taken at night, the predator would have had to scale a fence to get to the bird and get it out again and we don't think he/she'd have had time from the time we heard the clucking to the time we got out there to check.

I'd be interested to hear any other thoughts?? It does seem hard to imagine that an owl could fly off with a full grown chicken.

I guess a great horned might be able fly off with a full grown chicken, but probably not most other owls.

Since owls are protected you can't kill them......so tight coop and run are your best bet in protecting your chickens.