Screech owls

[driver]

Here's a hypothetical question: Could I have put a screech owl in my chicken run for rehab or would it harm the chickens (or would the chickens harm it)?

On Sunday I found an adult screech owl in my barn, which could walk and spread wings but apparently could not fly. He hopped into a bin, so I covered it and took him to a wildlife rehab place.
Since this tiny owl is about 1/4 the size of my hens, could I have kept it in the run to observe/rehab myself? I'm guessing this will never happen again since this is the first screech owl I've actually seen, even though they're very common around here.

Now, two days later, I found a baby snapping turtle in my garage of all places! The nearest pond is probably 1/4 mile away. I wonder how this 2" or so turtle got into the garage. Strange wildlife happenings around my house lately!

 

[duluthralphie]

Having the owl in your possession is most likely a huge fine. Call the DNR and turn it over. Owls love chicken flesh..

The turtle most likely is a new hatch that got messed up on his way to water, where he will live for the next several years. Throw him in a pond. lake or river.

 

[Trish1974]

Here's a hypothetical question: Could I have put a screech owl in my chicken run for rehab or would it harm the chickens (or would the chickens harm it)?

On Sunday I found an adult screech owl in my barn, which could walk and spread wings but apparently could not fly. He hopped into a bin, so I covered it and took him to a wildlife rehab place.
Since this tiny owl is about 1/4 the size of my hens, could I have kept it in the run to observe/rehab myself? I'm guessing this will never happen again since this is the first screech owl I've actually seen, even though they're very common around here.

Now, two days later, I found a baby snapping turtle in my garage of all places! The nearest pond is probably 1/4 mile away. I wonder how this 2" or so turtle got into the garage. Strange wildlife happenings around my house lately!

You did the right thing by taking it to a rehab place. There it can get the right kind of care it needs to heal plus who knows what kind of cooties it could have transmitted to your flock.

 

[duluthralphie]

I missed of forgot you were dealing in the hypothetical...Old age does that to me...Sorry

 

[Zoomie]

On your hypothetical: if you have the proper permits, and you have a proper area for a screech owl (probably not a chicken coop though) yes, you could rehab it yourself. The enclosures for raptors that I have seen are not like chicken coops. They are more like roofed pens, with perches fairly high up. Owls have different enough behavior that I would personally not want to keep one in my chicken coop; for one thing they have opposite schedules as chickens are active during the day and owls are generally active during the night.

You did the right thing, good for you, I hope the owl recovers.

 

[driver]

I wouldn't really want to try to rehab an owl, it just made me wonder since my tall roofed run seems like the type of place that would work, and it was such a tiny owl. I'm waiting to hear from the rehab place about its status. Their initial guess was possibly poisoning since there were no obvious injuries and he seemed to lack balance. They were going to give him charcoal and some pinkies and see what happened.

I kept the baby snapping turtle in a bin for the day, so my son could see it when he got home from school, then I released him at the park down the road that has four big ponds.

 

[centrarchid]

Owl issue covered. The snapping turtle I would release close to point of capture in a small stream or pool. When they are small, they avoid ponds and bigger bodies of water because bigger Snapping Turtles will eat them. You did not define length as including tail or as shell only. If tail included then you are talking hatchling that has not found where it will be staying for winter yet.

 

[getaclue]

Hypothetically, keep the owl away from your chickens. 1. For biosecurity reasons. You don't need to introduce anything harmful to your flock. 2. Owls and chickens are natural enemies. Even if no one got hurt, the chickens would freak out, and be really stressed. Yes, take any injured wild birds to a licensed rehabber, or bird sanctuary.

Take the turtle to the nearest body of fresh water, and either release it at the very edge of the water, or near the water, preferably where there is tall grass, or brush, so birds don't eat it.

 

[Arya28]

I wouldn't recommend sticking any wild bird right in with your chickens (permit issues and whatnot aside) just because you don't want your chickens to get sick with anything, like bird flu for example. I don't know if they would fight or not, but owls do tend to want to eat chickens, so I probably wouldn't put them in with each other.

However, that was really awesome of you to rescue it and take it to a sanctuary I'm the sure owl appreciated it. I love owls!

Also, it's cool you saved the snapping turtle too! you're on a roll with saving wildlife this week!

 

[Sunshine Flock]

I can tell you for a fact that baby snapping turtles do not like sausage, and they will run and hide if you run around the entire perimeter of your home, and if you're seven years old, as I was, you'll cry and be very sad for your new turtle. But never fear, a box turtle could show up under a shrub the very next day, which happened to me, and then he disappeared, too!

As for the screech owl, they are the cutest things ever. I adore them. They tend to stay low to the ground, and they're pretty stationary. They don't zoom off in a flash and will tolerate you coming close to observe them, although I always try to give wildlife lots of space. One screech owl flew across our property and landed on a neighbor's 'No trespassing' sign in clear defiance of their request.

But as others have said, I do believe you would need a permit of some kind to tend to the needs of a raptor, even for a short period of time. I did meet someone once who would rehab the occasional owl, but I'm not sure how he was able to do that.