# Owl vs Chickens



## BlackWillowFarm (Mar 24, 2008)

The other morning we were up before sunrise sitting on the porch. My husband spotted a Great Horned Owl sitting on the peak of our small barn. It was right where my chickens gather.

I have a large flock of free range birds and I don't count them that often. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35 hens. I noticed my egg count was down and started counting the birds and I can only come up with 20 or so hens. Because they're loose it's hard to get an accurate count. I also have a group of hen raised youngsters about six weeks old. Started out with 13 and now down to 8. 

Will an owl take a full grown chicken? All this time I've been thinking fox or coyote, but maybe it's been owls instead?

We have plans to pen the birds to keep the four legged predators from killing my birds, but an owl puts a whole new spin on things.


----------



## Energy Rebel (Jan 22, 2011)

:angel:Yes.


----------



## Goatress (Feb 4, 2011)

Oh heck yes they will! They are predators....chickens are food!

You don't say how large a place you have but this is where a good LGD would help keep owls off. But you'd have to train it to guard chickens - not an easy task as they are too tempted as pups to play with them - and it is a huge commitment. You might start thinking about putting them up at night, and placing fladry around or some kind of netting above where they roost at night. Or sitting out there with the .22....?


----------



## harrisjnet (Jul 13, 2006)

If you have a large owl with a couple years experience hunting, they can take off with a full grown Turkey! Owls don't only hunt for food, they hunt for the fun of it. I had one get in my chicken house that housed Pigeons, chickens and ducks. That owl was pulling heads off right and left and never stopped to take a bite.


----------



## JasoninMN (Feb 24, 2006)

Since horned owls are primarily nocturnal if you shut your chickens in at night and let them out late morning that will most solve your problem. Now keep in mind that horned owls will also eat skunks, possum, mice, rats, hawks and other owls in their territory. They can be very beneficial to have around and easily dealt with.


----------



## BlackWillowFarm (Mar 24, 2008)

JasoninMN said:


> Since horned owls are primarily nocturnal if you shut your chickens in at night and let them out late morning that will most solve your problem. Now keep in mind that horned owls will also eat skunks, possum, mice, rats, hawks and other owls in their territory. They can be very beneficial to have around and easily dealt with.


They have a coop they sleep in at night, but I leave the door open so they can come and go freely. I'll start closing them in and see if that helps.


----------



## mitchell3006 (Apr 1, 2010)

If the owl has learned that your flock is an easy food source then you will probably have no choice. SSS


----------



## Rusty'sDog (Oct 14, 2010)

Yeah. Somebody once told me owls were a protected species. My response was "Yeah, so are my chickens!"


----------



## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

Yep we lost a whole bunch of guinea fowl with nothing left behind and the great horned owls went from 2 to 6 over 2 years. We have successfully reintroduced a thriving population of great horned owls. It just cost about 2 dozen guinea fowl and the occasional chicken. Not that I minded the owls too much. I think they have a place in this world and they are usually only an issue at night so only the dumb guinea fowl who refused to roost in the coop were at risk most of the time unless prey was really scarce. With a good population of wild rabbit the owls rarely bothered us during the day. Plus predatory birds only kill what they need so you just lose a bird here or there. Ground predators will wipe out the whole flock in a day and eat 1. We may have lost 2 dozen guinea fowl to owls over several years but we replaced most or all of our flock of 30 or 40 several times including twice in one year because of foxes, raccoons, humans, fisher cat....


----------



## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

When we rented a farm house out in the country, I heard a commotion outside one night. I made it to the window in time to see a Great Horned Owl fly off one way and a feral cat run off the other. I suspect some of the farm cats we lost we lost to the owls. That cat we managed to catch, tame and quite enjoy as a pet, he was a good sized cat (older kitten). I'm sure they'd happily take chickens.


----------



## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

Chickens are too big for most owls, but a Great Horned Owl is enormous. Since they hunt at night, close the chickens in. Problem solved.

I'd protect the chickens and be glad the owl is there because he is eating a lot of mice, voles, and rabbits. He's saving you a lot of $ damage to your veggie garden.

Actually, I have got an enormous Great Horned Owl that likes the telephone pole at the corner of my property. He's never taken any of my birds or small dogs, because I make sure they aren't set out on the free buffet for him.

I hear him often and always look, hoping to see him.

No threat to livestock, but I used to have a pair of fist sized owls that followed right behind my dogs everywhere when we were out in the pasture at dusk. They'd fly just above the dog's tails. I finally figured out they were eating the bugs that the dogs stirred up.


----------



## Real Hawkeye (Jul 5, 2005)

BlackWillowFarm said:


> They have a coop they sleep in at night, but I leave the door open so they can come and go freely. I'll start closing them in and see if that helps.


All attempts at conditioning my flock to go in by themselves at night have failed. Only two do it on their own. I have to go out after dark and carry all the rest in and put them on their roost, then lock up the hen house till dawn. I've been tempted to let them stay out at night roosting on the fence tops where they like to fall asleep, but people warn be about owls, racoons, opossum, etc., getting them at night. My neighbor leaves his flock out all night with no problems, but they've built a tall outdoor roost for them to get up on. Good protection against land predators, but you'd think they'd be sitting ducks for owls, but they say they haven't lost any. I see huge barred owls at night, too, in this area.


----------



## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

Lock the flock up in the coop for about a week and then let them out only in the afternoon for the first few days so they don't range far from the coop before dark. Make sure the roosts are a comfortable shape, size, and preferable height for your chickens. My standards were happy on 4' high roosts but my japanese bantams would roost at the top of a 16' grain bin converted to coop. When I added some new ones that the others wouldn't let roost with them that high they tried to use the fence about 10' away and roof of the nearby building. I had to lock them all up together until everyone found their nightly spot at the height they wanted and then they went in to the coop every night no problem. When we added guinea fowl I had to start periodically retraining my chickens by locking them up for 5-7days every few months because they'd start copying the guineas and trying to roost outside or lay eggs in the junk pile I couldn't get to instead of the nest boxes. Confine them to the coop for a short time and they'd go back to desirable behaviors again.


----------



## Real Hawkeye (Jul 5, 2005)

akane said:


> Lock the flock up in the coop for about a week and then let them out only in the afternoon for the first few days so they don't range far from the coop before dark. Make sure the roosts are a comfortable shape, size, and preferable height for your chickens. My standards were happy on 4' high roosts but my japanese bantams would roost at the top of a 16' grain bin converted to coop. When I added some new ones that the others wouldn't let roost with them that high they tried to use the fence about 10' away and roof of the nearby building. I had to lock them all up together until everyone found their nightly spot at the height they wanted and then they went in to the coop every night no problem. When we added guinea fowl I had to start periodically retraining my chickens by locking them up for 5-7days every few months because they'd start copying the guineas and trying to roost outside or lay eggs in the junk pile I couldn't get to instead of the nest boxes. Confine them to the coop for a short time and they'd go back to desirable behaviors again.


I tried that a couple of times, and it worked for a week or two. Then one would choose to sleep outside. The next day, two. The next day, three, and so forth. They have three height options in the hen house made of nicely finished 2x2 wood. All could fit on the highest if they wanted to.


----------



## Wilbur (May 7, 2004)

While the scale is tough to determine in this video it shows how an owl hunts...I think a chicken would be pretty easy prey. 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37MNE8tOBG4&feature=player_embedded[/ame]


----------



## Real Hawkeye (Jul 5, 2005)

Wilbur said:


> While the scale is tough to determine in this video it shows how an owl hunts...I think a chicken would be pretty easy prey.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37MNE8tOBG4&feature=player_embedded


I've personally witnessed barred owls hunting and killing rodents. Very impressive. I saw one drop nearly straight down from a tree (talons first) and slam a rat into the grass with his talons, then pick it up and fly away with it. Barred owls are about twice the size of a Rhode Island Red hen. Probably a rooster would be too much for one, but I'd think a hen wouldn't be.


----------



## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

Smaller predatory birds will still kill poultry and eat part of them even if they can't carry them off. Often they remove the heads. Even if a chicken is bigger than the birds you've got around doesn't mean a whole lot.


----------



## bluetick (May 11, 2002)

Wilbur, thanks for the video. What a beautiful creature!


----------



## LittleRedHen (Apr 26, 2006)

I have a great Horned Owl after my birds too. Mine are locked in a run and it has STILL managed to steal a full grown male guinea (it struggled a bit but none the less, it took off with my whole bird) and it has been harassing my broiler chicks the last few weeks and it finally got one out (my fault for using 2 inch wire) just two nights ago. I have seen the Great Horned Owl twice now watching my birds (and in thep rocess of attacking one) so i know without any doubt that it will take your birds. in my case, it seems to be the #1 threat for us.


----------



## sawman65 (Sep 8, 2011)

i have had owls reach in the coops and pull off heads. then eat what it could. i was busy that day and left the dead bird in its broadpen (the site of the killing) and forgot her. the next morning i came out and saw the owl had returned. i got to thinking if they come back to feed maby i could put one of my traps right in front of the dead bird. at dusk the yard went off that owl came back again and was in the trap.
i was allways under the impression that an owl only ate fresh kill, i was wrong and had been blaming the kills on fox skunk **** and the like. they will adapt and do things no one excpets. i lost a lot of birds to that owl.


----------

