maybe an owl?

[narwhal master]

I've seen it during the day. I scared it out of a tree in the back of my land. I was driving my fences and it flew from a tree. I had no idea they could get so big. I'm guessing 3ft tall. It was so big. Roosting about 15ft off the ground. I was real close when he took off. I was looking right at it. I have mixed roosters that will not go in the coop at night. They go up in the trees. I'll notice them gone sometimes too. All of my Oriental s are in pens with netting or a metal roof. I never loose them anymore. My pens are very heavy duty

great horned owls have a wingspan of about 5 feet and weigh about 3 1/2 pounds but the great grey owl is the tallest standing over 3 feet but weighing less than the snowy and great horned.
(i like owls when they are not near chickens)

 

[ARWyandott]

i lost my first hen yesterday to what i thought was a falcon, since that is what we think we hear screeching in a cavernous and distant screech. at 12pm noon was when it went down but i didnt discover the carnage till about 1 when i noticed the flock was no where to be seen.

everyone was hiding. i did my count, realized i was 1 down, and thats when my wife came out and saw what i had missed.

its throat and neck were totally gone. there was a triangle dispursion pattern where the feathers were being thrown, and i found some puncutre wounds at the rump where the bird was being held down.

we were inside, the back door 15 foot away and we're cooking another 10 from that door.

seemed like a pick and run

any other possibilities other than a great horned owl? were in central AR.

 

[narwhal master]

i lost my first hen yesterday to what i thought was a falcon, since that is what we think we hear screeching in a cavernous and distant screech. at 12pm noon was when it went down but i didnt discover the carnage till about 1 when i noticed the flock was no where to be seen.

everyone was hiding. i did my count, realized i was 1 down, and thats when my wife came out and saw what i had missed.

its throat and neck were totally gone. there was a triangle dispursion pattern where the feathers were being thrown, and i found some puncutre wounds at the rump where the bird was being held down.

we were inside, the back door 15 foot away and we're cooking another 10 from that door.

seemed like a pick and run

any other possibilities other than a great horned owl? were in central AR.
( what does AR stand for?)

hawk owl, great grey, barred, barn owl, long eared, short eared are all common owls in North America but it could have been a hawk

 

[ARWyandott]

Arkansas

 

[ARWyandott]

short of sitting in my backyard with my .22 while they range, can you point me to any prevention or advice to stop it?

 

[narwhal master]

the only predators of owls are eagles and large hawks but making a territorial owl call would likely scary the owl off the only problem is that it would scare your chickens as well.

 

[centrarchid]

Slow down folks. Arkansas species list is relatively short. Owls operating at night are easiest to defeat by proper roosting sites. Hawks at night are more problematic, especially if chickens are small or female only. Describe situation better to see what resources you have in place. Short-term control of losses may prove very different from what will work much better down the road is birds to remain free-range.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

An owl in flight is absolutely silent. IMHO even the sound of air passing over an owls wings interfere with its ability to hunt.

Once in the 1960s I set up one night trying to waylay an owl who though that my place was the poultry counter at the local A&P. Here is what I witnessed.

The owl comes in and lands in an area were he or she can survey the roosting poultry, a fence post or other tall snag in a clear area is a favorite perch and look out for GHOs. After a hoot to disturb the sleeping chickens the owl will fly into the tree were they roost. Then the owl starts at the tree trunk and inches down the roost limb forcing any chickens on it to walk the plank..

When the owl has the chicken at the end of its tether the chicken is forced to fall to the ground. Since it is dark it is impossible for a chicken to escape or fly, but instead it falls off the branch and the owl is on him or her in a flash.

Sometimes during all this is when your chickens begin screaming bloody murder. The GHO also begins feeding on your chicken as soon as it has captured it, creating even more screams of pain and panic from both the flock as well as the victim. If the chicken is lucky the GHO will sever a major vein or artery by trying to eat the head first. If the hen or roo is unlucky its torment can go on for 15 minutes or more.

Personally I would rather deal with a box car load of raccoons than a single pair of migrating GHO.

Arkansas, all raptor attacks have similar forensic patterns but from the time of day I think that your predator is a hawk. Hawks scream, screech, or call often, falcons tend to only kill prey that they can strike on the wing, hawks on the other hand will strike either airborne targets but prefer Earth bound targets.

Do be advised that we live in a dishonest world, and that some documentary film makers are not above dubbing in hawk sounds in a documentary about falcons for dramatic effect.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Unlikely. Owls like to carry their food somewhere safe to eat, namely in a tree. So they take things that are light. A starving owl MIGHT target large prey and only eat the head, but very unlikely....

Centrachid is right on about owls.

The problem with a raptor flying off with even a small hen is not a matter of lift overcoming weight but a function of drag. An eagle or an osprey for instance can adjust a dead fish in its talons and fly with the fish head first or forward like it was a torpedo or the fuselage of an aircraft, dramatically lessening drag.

A dead 4 pound hen on the other hand has two limp and useless wings, disheveled feathers sticking out in all directions, dangling legs, head, and feet, not to mention a mop of tail feathers all of which creates drag or air resistance going forward. Hawks and owls are not helicopters. Hawks, and owls must have and maintain forward momentum or speed to achieve and maintain flight. Lift is the most important requirement for flight.

A dead chicken in the talons of an owl is the avian equivalent of a drogue parachute. I also have seen images on the National Geographic Chanel of owls sitting in a tree on their summer nesting grounds wolfing down mice and voles like you or I eat raw oysters. On the other hand I never saw a chicken coop or farm house in these images non did I hear a rooster crow. However, there is a huge difference between the drag created by a dead vole or mouse griped closely to an owl's body and the drag created by a freshly killed RIR or game hen with drag creating body parts waving in the slipstream. If part of its victim can be stowed in a GHO's craw or crop it greatly streamlines the dead hen or rabbit making it possible for the owl to get airborne with a portion of its kill.

 

[ivan3]

An owl in flight is absolutely silent.  IMHO even the sound of air passing over an owls wings interfere with its ability to hunt.

Once in the 1960s I set up one night trying to waylay an owl who though that my place was the poultry counter at the local A&P. Here is what I witnessed.

The owl comes in and lands in an area were he or she can survey the roosting poultry, a fence post or other tall snag in a clear area is a favorite perch and look out for GHOs.  After a hoot to disturb the sleeping chickens the owl will fly into the tree were they roost.  Then the owl starts at the tree trunk and inches down the roost limb forcing any chickens on it to walk the plank..

When the owl has the chicken at the end of its tether the chicken is forced to fall to the ground.  Since it is dark it is impossible for a chicken to escape or fly, but instead it falls off the branch and the owl is on him or her in a flash.

Sometimes during all this is when your chickens begin screaming bloody murder.  The GHO also begins feeding on your chicken as soon as it has captured it, creating even more screams of pain and panic from both the flock as well as the victim.  If the chicken is lucky the GHO will sever a major vein or artery by trying to eat the head first.  If the hen or roo is unlucky its torment can go on for 15 minutes or more.

Personally I would rather deal with a box car load of raccoons than a single pair of migrating GHO.

Arkansas, all raptor attacks have similar forensic patterns but from the time of day I think that your predator is a hawk.  Hawks scream, screech, or call often, falcons tend to only kill prey that they can strike on the wing, hawks on the other hand will strike either airborne targets but prefer Earth bound targets.

Do be advised that we live in a dishonest world, and that some documentary film makers are not above dubbing in hawk sounds in a documentary about falcons for dramatic effect.

James Audubon observed the response to owls, of roosting turkeys:

...the Owls, which, on silent wing, approach and hover around them, for the purpose of reconnoitring. This, however, is rarely done without being discovered, and a single cluck from one of the Turkeys announces to the whole party the approach of the murderer. They instantly start upon their legs, and watch the motions of the Owl,which, selecting one as its victim, comes down upon it like an arrow, and would inevitably secure the Turkey, did not the latter at that moment lower its head, stoop, and spread its tail in an inverted manner over its back, by which action the aggressor is met by a smooth inclined plane, along which it glances without hurting the Turkey; immediately after which the latter drops to the ground, and thus escapes, merely with the loss of a few feathers....

I mention the above quote as a conv., at the feedstore, with a fellow customer, seemed to indicate a more `chicken-like' response, to an attack by a GHO, on a Narri tom roosting on the gate of a horse stall in an open barn. The owner discovered dead tom, lying on back, with a neatly circular "half an Osage Orange" sized crater of the tom's R breast `meat' excised (about half the size of a softball). The tom had numerous V shaped incisions about the head and throat and from the amount of blood found on/around gate, it seems he was bleeding out as the the GHO pressed the issue (trying to push the tom off of gate). The tom had put up something of a fight as GHO ID was made from several facial feathers found stuck on gate in tom's dried blood.

Have seen Barred Owls carrying snakes festooned in beaks, just at sundown - but mostly voles and Nocturnal Flying Squirrels. Barred Owls are very vocal and make the poultry nervous (whining and growling) at sundown while still out and about, but the Barred have yet to make an attack.