Attracting Owl to Silo - Hear me out, suggestions needed!

[DaisyFaye7]

We used to have nesting owls in the old silo that is near our barn. We barely had mice in the barn during this time. I don’t remember seeing many hawks during this time. The owls moved out a couple years ago, and now we have hawks, and we have tons of mice in the barn. I’d love to have a barn cat, but outdoor cats rarely survive long in our area. (People drive too fast, and we have coyotes.) So, probably not going to go that route.
I‘m wondering if the presence of the owls deterred hawks? I’ve heard before that owls and hawks don’t like to live near each other, and I’m wondering if anybody has any evidence for or against that.
I’m also wondering what I might be able to do to attract owls back to our silo.
I would love to have less hawks around, as I’m getting chickens in the spring, and hoping to semi free range them. I know losses are inevitable, but would also like to do as much as I can to reduce risks. The chickens will be all tucked in to a very safe coop at night, so it seems to me that owls would be a much lesser threat than hawks, for my situation.
The silo is unused, made of concrete, with one of the curved metal roof pieces removed. There is still a ladder up the side, so if I really got my nerve up, I could get to the top if there were simple adjustments that I could make to encourage owls.
Thoughts? Ideas? Thanks for reading!
PS I’m in central North Carolina, in case that sways anybody’s advice!

 

[sourland]

The owls will need some sort of a nesting platform near the top of the silo. Barn owls are really interesting birds.

 

[DaisyFaye7]

The owls will need some sort of a nesting platform near the top of the silo. Barn owls are really interesting birds.

I wonder if there used to be something up there that they used as a nesting platform that has since deteriorated or fallen, and perhaps that’s why they moved out. Maybe I should climb up there to investigate....

 

[Ginmary]

Just a thought... if you have any kind of wildlife or raptor rescue in your area, perhaps they'd be willing to release an owl in your silo once you have it owl friendly.

 

[Weeg]

In the movie, "the biggest little farm", (that is the best most inspiring movie in self sufficiency by the way!), they attract owls to there farm with boxes, like bat boxes or bird houses, but big enough for the owls, so that they can keep the gopher population down. In a few weeks, they had over 80 owls living in there barns. The movie explains there ideas and everything really well, its a great movie, and super inspiring for ideas like yours. I think your idea is great! Try boxes.

 

[Weeg]

Just a thought... if you have any kind of wildlife or raptor rescue in your area, perhaps they'd be willing to release an owl in your silo once you have it owl friendly.

That is a very good idea actually.

 

[Chickeria]

Hi I'm in another part of the world (Europe) so I don't know how appropriate my writings are regarding your region and the particular owls that live there. The biggest owl we have over here is the Uhu, and I have read a lot of reports that such a bird indeed keeps away hawks because, as you wrote above, they don't like to live near each other. The Uhu is a natural enemy of any predator bird smaller than him (which are nearly all) - even of all other kind of owls we do have here. But the Uhu is kind of rare, so I don't have personal experiences. Plastic Uhu-statues are sold here to place them nearby chicken runs to scare off hawks, but I read very different reviews regarding efficiency regarding that practice.
I never heard or read one of the smaller kind of owls here does keep away hawks. We have two kind of owl living and/or nesting in our neighbourhood (and neighbours do have chickens), but hawks come every year about August and stay all fall and winter.
All owls are great mice-hunters so it would be clearly a benefit to have them nesting at your place! When they have to feed their chicks they need a lot of little rodents. I have seen several nesting boxes for very different kind of owls we have here. Some need a tubular thing, others a common looking nest box with a very big hole and others prefer a nesting platform as DaisyFaye7 mentioned above. We do have a kind of owl that loves to nest in barns, roofs of old churches, etc. Here is a plan how to build a nest box for them: https://praxistipps.lbv.de/fileadmin/_migrated/content_uploads/schleiereule.pdf - it is just an example. I'm sure you can find plans for the kind of owl who used to nest in your silo. It is only importand to find out if they prefer nest boxes or platforms and which dimensions they need.
I think owls are incredibly interesting animals and I hope you will successfully encourage them to come back!

 

[Chickeria]

Sorry i got confused - sourland mentioned the platforms!

 

[sourland]

The link to the nest box that @Chickeria has posted is a great idea.

 

[DaisyFaye7]

Just a thought... if you have any kind of wildlife or raptor rescue in your area, perhaps they'd be willing to release an owl in your silo once you have it owl friendly.

Oh, I love that idea!