stubborn owl watching my flock.

[chickengeorgeto]

GHOs usually kill avian prey by forcing it off the roost after dark. The GHO follows the prey down and captures then kills it on the ground. If your birds can be accessed by this owl, he, she, or they will kill every bird you own.

Owls are cavity nesters. An attic, bridge, or abandoned building suits GHOs as well as a hollow tree trunk. Also as soon as one owl egg is laid the owls begin incubation. This stretches out the owl rearing season because there is a new owlet hatching every couple of days and they all love chicken tenders. Your owl is not going anywhere fast.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

My MIL's small poodle a few years ago was carried away into the air by an owl. She witnessed it, the owl dropped her dog, and the dog died eventually from injuries. She was outside with her dog when it happened.

So keep your cats inside as they are smaller than my MIL's poodle was, and protect your chicks with fencing/netting, is my advice.

Don't interact with the owl. We have owls here all the time. The overhead netting in areas, hawk shelters that I made with wood/metal, and the chickens' own vigilance to stay in a safe part of the yard when they note a predator makes the chances for survival better. When chickens are juvies though they don't have any sense.

I buy the heavy knotted netting 2" which protects against aerial predators during the day. It is not chewproof though so don't depend on it for nighttime.

For those in cold climates think snow load when hanging netting. I hang it on the fence posts and not on the metal fencing itself.

Since you are in a suburbia situation, you could create a safe zone for your birds where you can lock them up for days on end when you are having predator problems. The aerial predators are not something you can guard against with your physical presence- they will swoop down even when you are there. So the only option is overhead protection.

I hope this helps!

Oh also- almost forgot to mention that owls and hawks (if you have them) will pull chickens thorough fencing that is 2" x 4" and also chainlink. So if you have holes that large in your run fencing and they are standing next to those holes, line the fencing near the bottom of the fence with something like chicken wire or hardware cloth so they can't pull them through. I have had this happen.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

A few months ago I promised you that there was a way to protect your flock from owls. Owls like to land on a fence post or other high perch and case the layout of your chickens' coop or run before attempting to snag a chicken. Run the hot wire from an electric fence charger up one side of a tall fence post. Strip the insulation off of the last 12 or so inches of the hot wire. Fasten the hot wire to the top of the poll using electric fence insulators. About 4 inches to one side install a naked ground wire. What ever you do don't use 115V or 230V continuous current. This is enough voltage to send an owl home to his maker. Turn the juice off in the daytime. No need to shock the little song birds.

 

[animals1981]

owls are one of the few raptors that also like to hunt mink stoats and LOVE skunks and possems

One nest they found ssomething like 24 adult possems in a season?


anyways there are things around that the owl is looking for

Quite differently, in Pennsylvania, Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginianus) made up 6% by number of prey but due to their large size (approximately 2,500 g (5.5 lb)) and that all specimens were adults, they occupied the highest percentage of biomass of any species in a wide study from that state.[87


Kit and swift foxes of up to adult size may taken.[86][118][119] Surprisingly, at least two cases of a great horned owl preying on an adult raccoon (Procyon lotor) have been reported.[120][121] One instance of an owl taking a bobcat (Lynx rufus) as prey was also reportedly observed.[86]

The most infamous predatory association amongst relatively larger carnivores is that with skunks. Due to their poor sense of smell, great horned owls are the only predators to routinely attack these bold mammals with impunity. All six skunk species found in North America are reported as prey, including adult striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), which is some case at least three times as heavy as the attacking owl.[5][80][128] In one single nest, the remains of 57 different striped skunks were found.[129] Due to the proclivity of skunk predation, great horned owls nests frequently smell strongly of skunk and occasionally will even stink so powerfully of skunk that they leave the smell at kill sites or on prey remains.[10][130]


Chickens attract animals that owls love to eat.


While certain species, such as the red-tailed hawk and northern goshawk, might be seen as potential competition for the owls, most others seem to be regarded merely as prey by great horned owls. The great horned owl is both the most prolific and diverse predator in America of other birds of prey, with other accomplished raptor-hunters such as the Goshawk and the golden eagle being more restricted in range, habitat and number in North America and thus having a more minor impact. 21 out of 22 accipitrids, 16 out of 18 owls, 6 out of 7 falcons and 1 out of 3 New World vultures found north of the border to Mexico are known to fall prey to great horned owls.

 

[animals1981]

center you have great horned owls? what are they kept for?


I would LOVE to have an owl around at night whwen my birds are locked up, id like a 100 owls actually. KEep the area free of pests and predators.

 

[PapaChaz]

google "owl attacks berry eagle" and you can read up on and see video proof of a Great Horned Owl swooping at a full grown female eagle sitting on her egg on the nest. this happened last february. We watch the Berry Eagle cam's a lot.

This happened at Rome GA's Berry College, where they have a couple of pairs of nesting eagles on the campus and back on part of the wildlife management center. They have video cams watching the main nest 24/7. pretty cool to watch the eagles, but yes, whomever said they wait until their prey is 'sleeping' was spot on. That owl thought that Eagle was asleep on the nest.

 

[centrarchid]

google "owl attacks berry eagle" and you can read up on and see video proof of a Great Horned Owl swooping at a full grown female eagle sitting on her egg on the nest. this happened last february. We watch the Berry Eagle cam's a lot.

This happened at Rome GA's Berry College, where they have a couple of pairs of nesting eagles on the campus and back on part of the wildlife management center. They have video cams watching the main nest 24/7. pretty cool to watch the eagles, but yes, whomever said they wait until their prey is 'sleeping' was spot on. That owl thought that Eagle was asleep on the nest.

I have watched Great-Horned Owls multiple times under better seeing conditions than provided by video. Chickens often / usually not aware of owl's initial approach but when it lands in the tree beside they then become aware of owl's presence. Chickens then fluff up in a very stereotypical way with tail fanned and held up, body feathers all fluffed up and neck outstretched at a 45 degree angle below the horizontal. The chickens then make a lot of cackling. The owl the proceeds to try and push chickens of the roost. Generally the chickens do not let te owl touch them on the roost and will bail from tree to avoid being touched. The owl then goes after a grounded bird if it is in the open or begins working on another victim. Owl will grab a young chicken directly off the roost and usually both fall to ground. Owl consistent in killing chickens by going after head and neck which is often consumed first and at the kill sight which is reason many people find headless chickens in the AM. The cackling is what brings dogs and me out that thwarts the owls efforts after grounded birds. Entire flock will begin cackling even when birds can be several hundred feet apart. When owl goes after birds in pasture, birds on porch also cackle which helps me hear what is going on. Many times after owl attacks a Red Fox can be expected to come through later, presumably attracted by the prior cackling. I have to have birds policed up off ground before fox comes through because high weeds do not afford protection from foxes.

 

[centrarchid]

Chickens, or at least the way they are kept can attract rodents like mice and rats. This year in parts of central Missouri we are having an outbreak of voles that are so abundant they are causing bare patches in the pasture and can be seen running about in the daylight and can be heard constantly. They are so abundant my dogs no longer have an interest in them and my dogs normally like to eat voles. Additionally a Red-Shouldered Hawk (not a threat to chickens) hunts the voles freely around pens and chickens do not get riled when he is about. Locals knowledgeable about wildlife say these vole outbreaks occur every 7 to ten years providing a huge bounty for predators just like the Periodic Cicadas did about 4 years ago. This year predators will have easier targets than my chickens but the predator numbers are going to go up so by fall I will be busier when voles crash because predators will then shift back to trying for chickens.