great horned owls in backyard

[rc4u]

i hae lost 3 favoruoles .. this weekend i seen two great horned owls watching over the yard...the female is at least two feet high and her belly looks like it has been feed very good.. the male is about two to three inches shorter..my chickens are only a few days over 10 weeks old..they used to stay out at nite till dark now they are in three hours before dark..
its amazing watching those owls with my feild glasses and the wing span is HUGE..they have been sitting evey nite at the end of the trees about 2 hundred yards from my coop.. one of my roosters started crowing on sunday and wouldnt quit for hours..then never crowed again...but i know its coming...and i cant put up protection over the 5000sq ft of fenced area they run in...i do let them out every nite when i get home and they are there waiting to get out...jeff

 

[chicmom]

Owls sure are amazing! But, not so amazing when they're killing your chickens. I had that problem once with hawks. I had to change the time that I let them out. I was letting them out around noon and letting them free range all day. I noticed the hawks were circling my property around 2:00 to 3:00 pm. So for about two weeks, I didn't let them out of their chicken run. The chicken run is completely covered. So after two weeks, the hawks lost interest and quit coming around so I was able to let them out again.