Hens and eggs are still on our minds. We are constantly protecting them from black snakes that like to swallow the eggs, foxes which will grab one and carry it to the woods for their dinners, raccoons who will kill several just for the joy of doing so and then only eat one, and possums who like to eat the head, neck, and shoulders but will not bother with the rest of the body since it is too furry. We have developed an effective strategy for all of these critters, and, in general, our hens stay safe from all of them. However, we may have met our match with a Great Horned Owl who showed up in January.
In early January, we began to find hens dead inside the chicken house. The hens go in and out of the house at will through what is called a pop-hole, a rectangular opening about 15 inches wide by 18 inches tall. They all reenter at sunset to safely roost inside the house. We close the pop-hole so possums and raccoons cannot sneak in and capture them in the dark. Currently, we have the timer set to open and close based on sunrise and sunset; however, last winter, we neglected to change a setting with the result that the pop-hole was not closing and something was getting in to kill them.
We were almost sure it was a possum except the heads were neatly severed from the body, and no part of the hen had been eaten. So, instead of resetting the timer, we decided to wait a few days to see if we could identify the critter, and I began to check the chicken house a couple to times during the night.
Chickens fall asleep in the dark and, because they are so somnolent, almost no ability to resist a predator until it is immediately upon them. Thus, a nighttime predator can wipe out several without the flock raising an alarm. As I approached the house, I heard a noise inside and a bit of squawking. I rushed in and turned on the light. Inside I discovered the owl who had already beheaded two hens, and who was now marauding, frightened by the light and my arrival.
The hens and their few guardian roosters began to stir and fearing mass chaos, I turned off the light. The chickens immediately settled down, and it was clear that the owl had flown over to the chicken roosting area. I called the staffer who is in charge of the chickens, and, while I waited for him to arrive, I periodically aimed my cell phone toward the roosting area and was able to snap this picture of the owl.
A friend who is a naturalist identified it as a female Great Horned Owl.
She is actually as big as a chicken. The chickens in the front look larger because they are in the foreground and considerably closer to me. Believe me, I was not spending time trying to get a good shot.
Next Episode: Return of the Owl,
Wishing you healthy, delicious, and safe eating,
Judy for all the farmers at Harland's Creek Farm.
