This owl wont stop attacking my chickens and ducks!

[RiskyChick]

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?

We built the walls and top with welded wire and chicken wire, buried the fence under the ground out 2 feet and have not had any problems

 

[countryladyNH]

I don't close my pop doors at night. I do have electric wires around the coops, the heavy duty netting covering the pens and concrete under the gate. Since I replaced the crappy netting with some good netting, no more owl issues. I have heard them but they haven't tried to get at the birds. Nothing has. The bobcat outside my chick/grow-out coop. Those pop doors I do shut.

That is a fox, not a bobcat.

 

[SulkyBantam]

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?

Of course it doesn't sound crazy, what do you think BYT is for?!
I would practically have a heart attack if that happened to me!

Wire netting, strong as it comes.

 

[countryladyNH]

then you definitely have a large time window so you wouldnt have to worry about closing it on any chickens

or you can be cheap like me and just manually open the door in the morning and shut it at night.

LOL, us too. Never saw the need for a pop door. We open the little door to the attached run and close every single night. We also always lock the hardware cloth covered door to the run with a carabiner. Nothing could get in, or ever has. I feel better anyway checking on them and shutting little door. Personally, I got in the habit of cleaning the coop every single AM of the year. It only takes 15-20 min or so and I never have any poop, smell, etc. It's worth it to do that and avoid the rank ones that only get cleaned every few months!

 

[cmom]

That is a fox, not a bobcat.

No fox in those pictures there were a couple of Owl pictures, a bobcat and a coyote
Coyote

Bobcat

Fox

 

[cmom]

 

[intrigue899]

We have chicken wire on top and plenty of barred owls to contend with. Never had a problem - our chickens roost in an enclosed coop at night. Sorry to hear about that- I love my chickens too so that would be frightful.

 

[ackie]

LOL, us too. Never saw the need for a pop door. We open the little door to the attached run and close every single night. We also always lock the hardware cloth covered door to the run with a carabiner. Nothing could get in, or ever has. I feel better anyway checking on them and shutting little door. Personally, I got in the habit of cleaning the coop every single AM of the year. It only takes 15-20 min or so and I never have any poop, smell, etc. It's worth it to do that and avoid the rank ones that only get cleaned every few months!

I need your dedication haha

 

[Allthefloofs]

Oh man, I'm so sorry you lost your girls that way! I just posted about a coyote attack, something I thought with our super high walls I wouldn't have to deal with, well, turns out one stretch of wall is juuuust short enough for the coyote to jump. I have to second either the welded chicken wire (hardware cloth) or flexible metal netting, Owls are really big birds if you are talking about the great horned type and with the ripping claws I'm sure they can make easy work of less robust netting.
Finally, don't feel weird about being upset and sad, they were your pets and it's really sad when we love them in an attack! I spent all night last night reviewing footage and feeling really terrible that our Henniken died in a scary event like that. We raised her from a chick in a small group of 3 and knew her every misanthropic quirk, so it was sad for us, and to see the distress of the other girls on the camera footage felt really bad too. Good luck on things. I always have to remind myself not to hate the predator, they have things they have to do too, and easy prey is easy prey. I don't really have any ill will toward the Coyote, but I sure as heck am not going to make it easy for it to get back in.

 

[cmom]

I had a coyote that jumped over a 5' fence several years ago into a pen. It also jumped back out and so did some of the birds. It did kill some before I got a shot off. I had bird shot in the gun so I didn't kill it but pretty sure I hit it and it took off. Now I have electric wires around my pens, concrete under the gates and good heavy duty netting covering the pens. The netting is attached to the coops. So far so good.

The chick/grow-out coop.