This owl wont stop attacking my chickens and ducks!

[Horserider77364]

These 2 Owls come every night and try to take my chickens and ducks head off. I have a chicken run that had a netted roof with a tarp over it but instead the owl somehow smashed right through it and got a hold of several of my chickens. I may sound crazy but i have a very strong relationship with my chickens and i know all their different personalities,and it hurts so much to wake up and their head is missing. I have covered the roof temporally with another tarp,but does anyone know how i can stop these owls from coming and also what would be a good material for the roof?

 

[centrarchid]

First when owl makes a kill, leave the carcass in place. Owl will return to finish consuming that carcass before making a fresh kill most of the time. That buys you more time to tighten up security or patch holes. First fixes are short-term. Make so ducks roost in boxes or crates that you close before owl comes in. With chickens, could you go out with a flash lite and take a picture of where they are roosting and how owl might approach them. Then post in this thread.

I have tangled with owls a lot and still keep chickens roosting free-range without killing owls. There are also approaches using heavier duty bird netting than you have used so far.

 

[Horserider77364]

Ive tried waiting for this owl to come down as i did leave the rest of the carcass in the pen,but it sat in its nest jus stalking me and waiting for me to leave,even though i tried to stay hidden. maybe ill look into the heavier duty netting

 

[cmom]

I had an issue with an owl going through some netting. I have my pens covered but ran short and bought some crappy netting online. It wasn't what I thought it was but put it up anyway thinking it would still deter aerial predators. I moved the birds to another coop and pen after the owl had killed some. I put a camera up in the pen and got a picture of it going through the netting. Each time it went through I put another piece of netting up replacing the net the owl went through. I bought some good netting and put it up. The owl tried again but this time got stuck in the netting. We managed to get it into a cage and called a wildlife rescue. They came and got it. They said they had a release area so it shouldn't be back.

This is the good netting. This is like the original netting I put up. Very strong. I have seen and heard owls but so far so good.

 

[ackie]

I dont know if this is feasible for your run, but what about replacing the netting with chicken wire?

 

[Rldad1]

Is it possible to cover it with a solid roof? Pics might help.

 

[M Brennen]

I have three layers of barriers on the top of my coop. I first put a small 1/4” netting. Then I put a larger 1/2” plastic fencing type on top of that. Finally I put a layer of 1” chicken wire on top of that. It seems pretty secure.

 

[bobbi-j]

I have 2”x4” welded wire covering my run. It will keep out all aerial predators and larger critters like raccoons. Mink could get through, though.

 

[M Brennen]

I have 2”x4” welded wire covering my run. It will keep out all aerial predators and larger critters like raccoons. Mink could get through, though.

I was concerned about smaller creatures as well as big ones so I layered different sizes and different materials.

 

[bobbi-j]

I was concerned about smaller creatures as well as big ones so I layered different sizes and different materials.

I have the welded wire as my run walls as well, with 1/2” hardware cloth around the bottom 24”. I also have an electric fence attached to my run so anything climbing up the HC should get shocked before it gets into the welded wire.