Owls :(

[turtlehead]

Well we have given an owl or family of owls a big fat feast

I had two litters aged 9 and 11 weeks that I was going to butcher this weekend or next and OVERNIGHT last Wednesday they were ALL gone.

PLUS I had a litter of kits in a burrow that were late in making an appearance and I haven't seen hide nor hair of them either. They'd be almost five weeks old by now so I know they're gone too.

There are no signs of dig-out, no evidence of digging at the fence or climbing on it from the outside, the scare wire is hot and functioning properly. There is no blood or fur in the colony, no signs of struggle, no NOTHING. It's as if all 15 or so kits were just beamed to the mother ship without leaving any trace. GRRR! The only thing we can figure is it must have been an owl or owls. We have plenty, and we hear them all the time.

I spent some time putting up bird netting over most of the colony today. There is some un-netted part near the back but it's got a pretty good tree canopy so hopefully the owls wont' try to swoop in the back. It'd be pretty hard for me to net that part of the colony.

Man, I'm irritated. That was a LOT of kits! And they were just ready to butcher. Ugh.

The three senor does and the senior buck are fine as paint. They loll about as if nothing ever happened.

[Terry W]

It is owl breeding season-- about now is when the rehabbers get the "orphaned" babies in after a tree gets cut down, the wind blows one down, etc..

yeah-- amazing how noisy those predators are at night!!!!!

umm, Better net that back section-- owls can manuever into some pretty tight spaces-- and you will find yourself with an adult owl "trapped' under your covering.

[MaggieJ]

What a horrid thing to have happen, Turtlehead. Could there really be that many owls around? Even if they are feeding young and gorging themselves... two litters in one night seems excessive. Especially with no sign of blood, fur etc.

Any chance your "predator" is human?

[quietstar]

Tough luck man!..I've followed your set-up progress and feel sorta like I've suffered the loss along with you. Hope you stick it out because you are breaking new ground some of us plan to learn from...Glen

[rabbitgal]

*Sigh* we found a great horned owl trapped under the back of one of our quail tractors last spring. (There's an overhanging shelf with a tarp covering it that nearly drapes the ground.) The owl was rather surprised, but flew away when we got too close.

[KSALguy]

OH SNAP, yeah i would cover as much of the pen as you can with Bird netting at least, if not something made of sterner stuff, owls and other birds of prey can slip in and tear through alot of stuff,
as to the litter underground no telling what happend to them, have you seen any other signs? is it warm enough where you are to have the snakes wakeing up?

if it is owls you have a VERY helthy population of them, and they found a very good larder to come and shop anytime they want if you dont cover them out

[turtlehead]

TerryW, rabbitgal, and KSALguy,
As always, thanks for your excellent advice and wisdom gained through experience. I'll get out there and net the back portion this evening. I thought an owl wouldn't try to maneuver into a tight spot (between the tree limbs) but I'm apparently wrong. You've saved me from another frustrating experience.

MaggieJ, my husband says he thinks it was over two nights, but no matter. We have a LOT of owls here. We have at least one huge white owl (probably a barn owl) and several great horned owls. We also have lots of little guys that go after mice. And we have hoot owls. There may be more but we've seen/heard the ones I named.

I don't think the predator was human because we're 1/3 mile off the road down a long steep gravel drive. When a car comes down the drive the dogs usually (always?) go nuts. Plus the young rabbits are pretty danged hard to catch, because they run into their burrows, while the older rabbits come over to say hello. The older rabbits were the only ones left. Could have been human, but I doubt it.

Glen, thanks for the encouragement. We're not giving up at all. We're just going to mark it as another lesson learned and keep on keeping on.

KSALguy, regarding the litter underground, I'm keeping a close eye on the entrance to that burrow, to see if this little piece of straw moves. I should know by tomorrow if the burrow is getting messed with.

The snakes might be waking up, I hadn't thought of that. We haven't seen any yet but it's in the high 60's in the daytime (low 70's today!!!). Still in the high 20's sometimes at night.

[KSALguy]

well its still too cold for snakes to be a problem with rabbits, and depending on what kind you have in your area maybe no problem at all,
its probably the owls as any other preditor would have gone after the adults as well, but the young ones are just in the owls range for easy items to catch,

i would go around the pen makein it more secure any way you can, just to be on the safe side. but it sounds like you have it coverd pretty well so you should be ok

[turtlehead]

Well the burrow with the bit of straw in front of it is not getting used right now, so those kits are definitely gone. I was pretty sure they were - we should have seen them by now. I bet they were the first to go. I never even saw one of them. Bummer.

Good thing rabbits have kits so often.
Good thing we're in a "let's learn about this" mode instead of a "let's make money" or "we have to have this food" mode.