Owl Trouble

[arrowti]

Let's preface by saying owls are very common where I live, but have never gone for our chickens prior to now despite having hunted in our yard for the past 6 years (as long as we've had chickens). I love owls and their calls. But this winter has been cold and icy and a lot of the prey has been vanishing. Naturally an owl would turn to another food source...

Last Monday (afternoon) my mother entered the coop and had an owl (thought it was a Great Gray because of the size, but now confirmed Barred Owl after today), flew over her head and left the coop, leaving our senior/head rooster Vanilla headless on the coop floor. To clarify - the owl had flown into the chicken coop via the open door and was inside it eating the rooster.

Over the next several days we looked around but did not see the owl. This morning my parents opened the chicken coop back up (and tried to let the ducks out, but the ducks seemed afraid to go outside). It was afternoon when my brother heard screaming inside the chicken coop and entered to find a dead hen lying in the nesting box. He began to count the birds only to realize there was an owl perching on an empty roost near the hen's body. Because it had black eyes we now know it's a barred owl. It flew out of the coop when my brother began to approach it.

Coops will now be staying closed.

There will be no killing the owl. It is illegal in my state, and anyway... no one in my family wants to kill an owl.

Other than waiting until winter ends and regular prey begins to return is there any successful tool at scaring away the owl? The run is in a heavily wooded area and cannot be covered by wire. Currently the ground is frozen and a temporary structure can't really be put in.

The run itself has many trees/shelters that birds can hide under or in, but since this owl doesn't seem afraid of entering said structures, it is no longer helpful.

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

Try pultry betting since it is in the woods. Owls attack chickens, like you said, when other prey is scarce. Since it is federally illegal to shot owls or hawks that is definitely out of the question.

 

[centrarchid]

The owls may be coming in for chickens, they may be coming in for something else like mice and taking chickens as targets of opportunity. I watch my owls closely, mostly using game cameras but their are times they allow me to observe directly and sometimes they seem to follow me around. I agree, they will go into tight spaces without much hesitation.

There are some things they seem to avoid. Mine seem to really not like deer netting. They will stay at least 3 feet from it. They may have to get tangled in the stuff to learn it is bad. A tangled owl is not fun to get undone as they do not cooperate and try to grab you with talons and even bite. The other thing they do not like are dogs. My owls will knock chickens out of a tree all night with a dog out, but will not get on ground with a dog around.

Shortly I will be going out nearly an hour after dark to close up so chickens are safe. A dog will then be penned. To reduce odds owl will go after penned birds, I leave a dead chicken out where owl will see it. The chicken is tied down to a chair. The owl go for that first and leave live birds alone. I can quickly look at carcass to determine if I need to be closing gate sooner. It is not as bad as you think leaving the carcass out. Current carcass has not been touched for a month indicating owl not coming in which agrees with camera and what dog says.

There are other tricks using dogs if you have one that can go out at night. I now use a red night lite so chickens can see owl come into barn. Chickens sound alarm calling me or dog to scene when dog not confined to barn.

Most of my owl issues involve Great-horned Owls. They nest somewhere east of me most years and are working barnyard and pasture area for about 6 months of year. I loose few chickens to the owls. Owls here more after rodents and rabbits. I still invest a lot of time making sure pens closed up.