Terror From the Sky in the Middle of the Night

[pips&peeps]

Well, now I get to be added to that list of people who have had predator attacks. I was fortunate all these years I have had chickens that the hawks, eagles and owls did not notice us as there is plenty of pickins to choose from in our part of the woods.

However, last night one of our residents got a little lazy and decided a goose dinner would be on his menu......

I woke up at 3:30 am to the sound of the dogs whining very loud and assumed they had to go potty and dragged myself out of bed and let my little schnauzer out the front door.

As soon as I did I saw all the geese and the ducks running around the garden hysterically. I knew there was a predator.

I ran barefoot out into the yard and looked into the garden area and there, no more than five feet from me, was an owl sitting on top of one of my sebbies plucking feathers. The sebbie was still thrashing so I screamed and opened the gate and ran in through the nasty muddy poop...

The owl did not fly away until I entered the gate. I picked up my baby and ran into the house. My husband awoke to all the commotion and helped my get the goose into the bathtub. As I rinsed the goose, I told him he needed to go out and make sure the owl left.

It didn't, it was sitting about 20 feet away from the geese again. My husband shooed it off again. He stayed out there with them until I could get back out.

Meanwhile, I bathed my frightened baby and was glad to see that there were only some superficial wounds around the beak and head. I dried him/her off and put her in the garage in a dog kennel for the night.

Anyway, I went out and put the rest of the birds inside one of my runs for the remainder of the night and they will go in there every night from now on.

Hopefully my goose does not die from shock.

 

[momofdrew]

Lucky your dogs made noise give them a treat for being on guard...this time of the year you have birds migrating even the preditors so tho you never had problems before this one happened to fly by on its way to where ever...keeping the geese in at night shole discourage the owl to hunt else where...

how your bird is ok

 

[pips&peeps]

I live near a lake, so there are hundreds of geese and ducks in and out of the area. They fly over my place all the time.

This owl got lazy and is probably taking cats in the neighborhood too.

 

[TaLani]

What a frightening ordeal! Hope your goose makes it - poor baby! At least you have a place where they will be safe from now on. Owls can be both good and bad. Thank goodness the dogs whined & woke you up! Whew, such a close call! Lots of

and

to you.

 

[Clay In Iowa]

Owls, actually an owl, is one of my major concerns. We have a Great Northern owl that roosts and hunts from one of 3 huge pine trees right next to or house. My birds will have to be very secure at night or they'll most certainly be on the menu.

 

[TaLani]

Quote:
I don't know about the rest of you folks, but we have a LOT of potential predators-->owls, foxes, coons, possums, bears, stray dogs, just to name a few. I HAVE to keep my chickens in an enclosed run during the day and lock them up in a coop at night, so free range is not an option for me unfortunately.

But, at least they're safe.

 

[Cordelia]

goodness you wouldnt think an owl would attack a goose !!!

I've heard foxes at night, but hopefully my girls are safe and sound in their eglu...
and it was all locked up...

In the day, if my chooks free range in our garden, the dog (chocolate labrador) is always out with them....

We have an owl around here, as iI've heard and seen it, but I dont think its upto picking up anything larger than mice and squirrels...

(Edited to correct spelling mistakes)

 

[pips&peeps]

The goose is holding it's own at this point. He has a swollen area where his check is, probably a puncture from a talon. I started him on some baytril.

I also put some eye drops in his eye as it is very red too. I held him for a while and he just sat in my lap talking very quietly

 

[pips&peeps]

Everyone is locked up tonight except a few cockerels that were running "at large".

The goose is doing pretty good, but doesn't want to eat. As soon as the kids are on the bus in the morning I will put him out on the lawn by himself.

He has a big bucket of water and oxine to rinse his face and head in, so any germs or bacteria will be destroyed.

 

[hcammack]

I hope he pulls through and nothing like this happens again. I am battling hawks that are bothering the free range hens during the day. They have not attacked anyone yet accept a small kestel went after the ameraucana hen I have but she flew up in the air and fought him off because he was 1/2 her size !

The chickens have learned to hide when they hear or see a hawk or shadow on the ground.

I hope yours have good luck from here on out and the goose makes it.

Henry