can a GIGANTIC owl eat my chickens? My ducks? My goose?!?!?

[chickensducks&agoose]

Hypothetically, If I'd thrown snowballs at that gigantic owl, he totally would have just moved to another tree too... but of course I was sweet and polite instead... how can you get rid of something without harassing it? especially something that could eat my 2 year old?

 

[moduckman]

One thing that I have been told to legally repell owls is to install the flashing lights (like to ones found in industrial plants to tell when something is on. It is 110 volt) on a timer. The lights will bother the owls sight and they won't stick around.

 

[ivan3]

If you have a fenced run you should consider netting. We sometimes set up 250w spots out back to work in the garden after dark. The owls keep their distance, but use the fringes of the lighted area to try for bats and to grab any Southern Nocturnal Flying Squirrel that errs in timing its glide.

I would think any method that scares them off and doesn't harm them should be considered.

5. Describe the nonlethal measures you have taken to control or eliminate the problem, including how long (e.g., a week, month,
year(s)) and how often they have been conducted. List the techniques you have tried, such as harassment (e.g., horns,
pyrotechnics, propane cannons), habitat management (e.g., vegetative barriers, longer grass management, fencing), cultural
practices (e.g., crop selection and placement, management of pets and feeding schedules), or no feeding policies

From the form: http://www.fws.gov/forms/3-200-13.pdf​

 

[Pinky]

You could try to get one of those fake great horned owls and put it near the area your owl is in.Unless it is a great horned looking for a mate,most owls are solitary.I have a big stuffed toy snow owl that I could use if I ever have an owl sticking around.I'm pretty sure there are none of them here.

 

[lengel]

Any owl can be a problem. A small owl killed my turkey. It got into the enclosure and snapped the turkey's neck. If it wasn't so sad it would have been funny. Here's this owl that's about 1/4 the size of the turkey standing beside the dead body just looking at me without any fear whatsoever. The woman at the feed store said it sounded like a bad joke.

 

[biggin]

Some of the older folks I talk to say that an owl can not take a chicken if it has a grip on the limb, pole,etc. But they say an owl will light next to a chicken and crowd it to the end. When the chicken flys down the owl will snag it.

 

[Squeaky]

Great Horned Owls in particular have been known to attack poultry, and sometimes if they can't carry off the whole bird they just take off the head. Small meal for the owl, who might kill several in one night, and bad news for the chicken who now has no head.

A hungry GHO will attack anything. I got buzzed by one when I was nine or ten years old because I went out to feed the bunny rabbits who were safely in a hutch, and a GHO fancied the rabbits for himself. The GHO had already made an attempt (and a big dent in the hutch) but the rabbits got safely into their shelter and didn't come out for more than a week. So for a while every time I went to feed the rabbits, I put a thick hood and a peaked cap on, protected my eyes with glasses which I had to wear anyway, and didn't make eye contact.

I know a Great Pyrenees (sp?) dog who successfully mugged and pinned a GHO who was killing turkeys, and who sat on it until the farmer came in the morning. Of course that was an extremely well-trained guard dog, bred from a long line of poultry guardians, whose sole duty in life was to guard chickens and who was trained to do it from puppyhood. Performance like that can't be expected from the average dog.

 

[swdunn0926]

The post of the owl not going in the hen house isn't true to an expierence I had many years ago (when I was 16). A large hoot owl went into my hen and duck house and killed seven of my birds (Muscovy ducks and Barred Rocks) just ate their breast and left the rest. I have also seen the owls land on a tree branch and push my guiene fowl off and catch the birds before they hit the ground. Owls are very hard to get rid of. Best advice is to lock the birds up tight!!!

 

[Pinky]

We had a great horned owl land on one of the posts to my chicken run.That bird was huge!He just sat there,watching my chickens in the tree,waiting for them to come down.He was so eager to get one he didn't here me come out.Before I could scare it away(It shocked me to see how big it actually was!), My hen turkey came out of the coop the chickens never used, and flew right for the owl.I was surprised the owl didn't fight back(It was as big as her).The owl hasn't been back since,and hope it never does.I guess I was lucky

 

[mjdtexan]

chickensducks&agoose :

uh... is yelling and throwing snowballs 'harassing'? 'cause if it is, I was totally joking... i actually spoke politely to it, and asked it kindly to not eat my birdies.... uh......

Agent Smith is on his way to your house to speak with you


We have a lot of owls in our area. I listen to them every night. My girls are safely in their house locked up. I have a poultry net over their run for daytime flying predators. Its plastic though and I have wondered about its integrity during an attack.

Quote:
I see that you took this picture during the day, I thought that owls were strickly night-time predators?​