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

[cgmccary]

Sounds like you have Great Horned Owls.

I have a pair of Great Horned Owls nesting nearby & they've been there for years. Great Horned Owls are pretty fierce birds and have been known to take full grown opossums. I have heard of them taking small dogs also.

They hunt at dusk & dawn when my birds are out & also, I have open coops and the Great Horned Owls sometimes sit in the trees above the run at night. They have never bothered my chickens. Like a lot of predators, they develop a "taste" for certain things-- around me, it is squirrels & not chicken.

 

[everyonesmomtwo]

I'm afraid that mine have developed a taste for both my rabbits and the chickens.
They do clean out the pigeons before they go after them. I try to keep the chickens in the coop longer so that the owls will go to sleep, but just this morning went out there later than I normally do cuz I heared the owls out hunting this morning and one of my chickens had been taken? There was feathers every where. I don't know if one of my other chicken killed and ate it or what?

It was one of the chickens that it's partner was taken the week prior by a cat. I can't find any place for something to get in and the other chickens weren't upset, they just walked out like nothing happened and asked for their bkfst very loudly. I have one chicken who is a bully and though raised with him all the other chickens give her space.

Ruth

 

[jvls1942]

come on, you do not really think a chicken could eat a whole chicken,.

or that a chicken would eat a whole chicken..

animals do not look at death the same way humans do. stop expecting them to..

it is more like," look Hilda, that fox just grabbed Charlie, boy, this corn sure tastes good , doesn't it??"

.....jiminwisc.........

 

[everyonesmomtwo]

Quote:
Yea your most likely right, but we sure can't find a way for anything to get in and this was one of our little bantan hens and the bully is a great big one, don't know the breed

it was suppose to be a small hen as well and than she and her 2 sister both got huge.

I couldn't believe how big they have gotten. Any way the owls haven't tried for them yet, they're too big

for the owl he'd get a hernia if he picked them up.

I'll keep looking for an opening somewhere in the coop, mean while I got my pellet gun handy.

 

[WalkingWolf]

Quote:
My ducks and chickens will hide and stay under whatever they can find if there is a attack. They stay hidden until I come, if I look out my window and see the birds all gone or under anything they can find I know there has been a attack or attempted attack. They may get over it much faster than we do but they do mourn.

I have lost 3 birds to hawks in the last 2 weeks. Last week one of a pair of game hens was taken from the pen, and the other hen spent a couple hours going looking in every corner of the yard. The whole time she did a different type of cackle that almost sounded like crying. It is the same noise my BRs make when I am outside the pen and they can not get to me.

I may have found a preventative measure for the winged predators though. After waking up to the hawk calls and see them sitting in tree tops over my pens with drool I had to do something. I moved my DW cloths line poles and lines over the pens and then did the laundry and hung them out. It is amazing the hawks cleared out for now.

 

[the1much]

Quote:
actually ALL animals KNOW what an attack is, and some animals ( including LOTS of birds) mate for life, and will die if the other is killed. ANY species that would look at life the way you just showed it, would die off VERY fast, and we would be looking at pics of them, not them in our yard. ALL creatures react physically and mentally in 1 of 2 ways to a predator,, fight or flight,,, so they know what death is,, and it has been proven over and over again, that animals have the same emotions as we do.

 

[Hoot]

I once found a barred owl dead in my dog kennel. My female beagle had seven, 6 week old pups she was nursing. I guess it tried to snatch one.

I'm sure they would prey on chickens.

 

[breathingnbees]

I had a beautiful owl out last night on the telephone wires. I thought my chickens were safe but this morning one had been pulled through the chicken wire, or it's head had and had been eaten for the most part. It seems from what you have said, that the owl would not do this. Maybe what the owl was looking at last night? I was looking in another direction away from the coop. Maybe an opposum?

 

[LaynaDon95]

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......

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

 

[LaynaDon95]

I'm sorry. I should probably say something helpful, but that comment cracked me up. I haven't had any feathered predators, only furry ones, so I'm afraid I have no advice.