* Added Video of Owl v. Peacock** What to do about a predator you can't shoot, you can't catch and i

[Oregon Blues]

I've got a Great Horned Owl who lives in the tree just outside my orchard where my poultry are located. The owl comes up and sits in a tree just outside my back door and watches me during the day. He has never taken one of my birds.

He can't take any of my birds because he can not get inside their secure night pen.

OP, as long as you continue to let the owl into your barn, he will take chickens. He's found a nice easy food source and has no reason to give it up. So you can either continue to feed the owl, or you can keep the chickens where he can't reach them. The barn is not secure when the door is left open, so if the barn door will be left open in the future, then I suggest that the chickens have a pen, with a cover, inside the barn. Or they can be moved to an outside run that is covered. Or, they can have a corner of the barn that is secure and opens into an outdoor run that is covered against aerial attack and sturdy enough to defeat raccoons and stray dogs.

 

[furbabymum]

Now that moon is waxing near full my great-horned owls are visiting as well. One was on power line as I pulled in to drive. The great-horned owls for me visit only at this time of month while barred owls at opposite on lunar cycle.

I did not train my dogs on owls per say and that would not be able to get at one more than 10 feet up but they clearly are a bigger concern than I am to great-horned knocking chickens out of trees around midnight as I watch. Most dogs likely have similar abilites to humans in regards to discriminate bird species. When barred owl was caught in garage a couple weeks ago it was very close to a similar sized (with respect to feather volume, not weight) dominique cross cockerel on floor when I found dog pinning down. Owls also different from chickens which even you can pickup on at close range.


Great-horned owls will pursue prey on foot and negotiate tight areas on wing to get at a prey item. I do not think they will actually push through a barrier as provided by a bead curtain. You might also be able to deny them with tarp used to make a cheap wall. Having owl work your barn during day is going to make issue difficul.I. Suspect owl will be concerned about dog if it has to get down on ground with dog to get at chicken. Can you pen dog in with birds?Otherwise covering run may be required.

We can certainly lock the dogs in with the chickens without a problem. The chickens are safed when they're locked up though. It's only when we open the door to let them out/us in that things happen. I don't want to have the barn be a permanent prison for them. We dreamed of free ranging and it'd been going really well up until now. Just very sad for us at the moment. We are considering a run with a top on it but that'll have to wait until after winter anyway. We are going to try to scare the owl off but I think we need to face that he's not going anywhere. He's not afraid of anything.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Sorry, duplicate

 

[centrarchid]

Owl may be having difficult time itself and not have barn as preferred location. Your area may be drought affected and breeding season of 2013 is setting up with territory establishment occuring now. If your owl is loner, then it may also be operating to avoid persecution by other GHO's with established territories and such owls get harassed in open by larger hawks during day so barn may be best place for it to be.

If correct, then problem is seasonal unless owl has reason to stay even when chickens not available. Do you have a lot of rodents in barn?

 

[furbabymum]

I've got a Great Horned Owl who lives in the tree just outside my orchard where my poultry are located. The owl comes up and sits in a tree just outside my back door and watches me during the day. He has never taken one of my birds.

He can't take any of my birds because he can not get inside their secure night pen.

OP, as long as you continue to let the owl into your barn, he will take chickens. He's found a nice easy food source and has no reason to give it up. So you can either continue to feed the owl, or you can keep the chickens where he can't reach them. The barn is not secure when the door is left open, so if the barn door will be left open in the future, then I suggest that the chickens have a pen, with a cover, inside the barn. Or they can be moved to an outside run that is covered. Or, they can have a corner of the barn that is secure and opens into an outdoor run that is covered against aerial attack and sturdy enough to defeat raccoons and stray dogs.

Yes but my DH and the dogs were INSIDE the barn. He'd opened it so he could go in and feed them. It's not like we are just leaving the door open. We never would have even opened it to go inside if we knew the owl had 0 fear of us and the dogs. The barn is secure. It's fully enclosed now. It's been a process. After the first kill we put the door on but were leaving it open so they coudl range during the day. When the owl was still getting them we left the door closed 24/7. Now that we know we can't even leave the door open the 5 minutes it takes us to feed everyone and collect eggs we will be closing it immediately behind us.

 

[furbabymum]

Owl may be having difficult time itself and not have barn as preferred location. Your area may be drought affected and breeding season of 2013 is setting up with territory establishment occuring now. If your owl is loner, then it may also be operating to avoid persecution by other GHO's with established territories and such owls get harassed in open by larger hawks during day so barn may be best place for it to be.

If correct, then problem is seasonal unless owl has reason to stay even when chickens not available. Do you have a lot of rodents in barn?

We have several out buildings. We have the barn. We have a massive lean-to which we keep hay, our tractor and tractor accessories and a truck in. The owl seems to enjoy the lean-to a lot. No way is that going to get enclosed to keep it out though. zWe have a detached garage. We also have established trees. WY is a desert climate and not a lot of people have taken the time to plant and cultivate trees and if they did they aren't as big as ours. So he's often seen in one of our pine trees and the lean-to if he's not sitting on the fence watching the barn. We have an open duck pond as well. So we attract a lot of prey animals to our area because the dogs keep most predators out. The owl just isn't bothered by the dogs. He could eat 100's of rabbits that are free for the picking but he just really likes the easy (and tasty?) chicken meat.

He's not alone. He's a VERY big owl and he's got a smaller owl (which I imagine is his mate) with him. We see her flying about but he's the one that's stalking the chickens like the Terminator.

 

[centrarchid]

Looks like worse case scenario with respect to owl and free-range chicken management. Bigger owl is female and smaller bird although with deeper voice is male. You may have a rare opportunity to watch them rear a brood with eggs layed sometime during early January. I would gladly pen chickens up to watch that for a year. Start watching to see were male takes eats about that time to triangulate location of nest. Do not get too close to nest site without wearing a firm hat with straps. Females sometimes divebomb pretty hard.

Dogs will have to be a part of free-range equation if owls rear brood their becuase at some point you will have at least one more hunter present and the young ones could become much more people tolerant than adults already are. Normally hawks would be your friend with respect to GHO issues but that will not work so close core of GHO breeding territory, especially if owls have cover of building.

 

[furbabymum]

Looks like worse case scenario with respect to owl and free-range chicken management. Bigger owl is female and smaller bird although with deeper voice is male. You may have a rare opportunity to watch them rear a brood with eggs layed sometime during early January. I would gladly pen chickens up to watch that for a year. Start watching to see were male takes eats about that time to triangulate location of nest. Do not get too close to nest site without wearing a firm hat with straps. Females sometimes divebomb pretty hard.

Dogs will have to be a part of free-range equation if owls rear brood their becuase at some point you will have at least one more hunter present and the young ones could become much more people tolerant than adults already are. Normally hawks would be your friend with respect to GHO issues but that will not work so close core of GHO breeding territory, especially if owls have cover of building.

We are certainly interested in watching. The internet said they stick with their territory for years though. So while the young they rear will eventually leave this pair should be around forever. That's a bit of a problem since they've got a taste for our birds.

 

[centrarchid]

Find out where they are nesting. After its use this year make it so can not be used again. Birds should be fully fledged by April so legal restraints should not be a problem if it is part of building structure. Being where you live, nest sites may be in short supply so possibility remains that they will simply relocate nest among out buildings.

Have you thought of using chicken tractors? You could get many of the benefits of free-ranging yet good protection from owls even though they may be close by.

You could also monitor owls to provide useful info for others wanting to truely understand how the critters operate as they will almost certainly be more than the typical owl management problem. Too many folks operate with too little understanding as to how the owl do their bit.

 

[furbabymum]

Bump