# Barn owl pair laid eggs :D



## gaz0123 (Aug 19, 2008)

went to feed my pair of barn owls today and noticed that ollivia my female barn owl hadn't flown to me for food for a while so opened up there nest box and saw her guarding to eggs  i's so excited about it but I have never bred barn owls before, i know the basic's but when they hatch should i remove the adult male? etc etc.

im going to be leaving them alone only going in the aviary to feed and water but any advice would be great

thanks gaz


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## LoveForLizards (Apr 20, 2008)

How are you planning on raising them?

You don't need to remove the male. He will help the female, generally. Can't leave the chicks in there forever (i.e. until fledging), though.

And keep records of the female's laying dates, hatching, any eggs broken, and so on, and make sure her diet has plenty of calcium to allow for eggs. 

I'd recommend thinking long and hard about whether you really want these to incubate. The market is flooded with barn owls and it isn't getting any better. People are struggling to give them away at the moment, and often the people looking for them are chavs who want something new and 'cool'.

: victory:


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## gaz0123 (Aug 19, 2008)

I'm planning on keeping them in there until the fledge then take them out, I've already started my records and both eggs look fine. I'm planning on keeping them as I love barn owls, I'm going to interact with them a lot when they are old enough as family love seeing them, I said when I got them I'm not going to try and breed them but if they do lay I will keep them

How do I go about getting them rung? Ring the ibr tell them how many hatched and give the parents ring number to them?


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## LoveForLizards (Apr 20, 2008)

gaz0123 said:


> I'm planning on keeping them in there until the fledge then take them out, I've already started my records and both eggs look fine. I'm planning on keeping them as I love barn owls, I'm going to interact with them a lot when they are old enough as family love seeing them, I said when I got them I'm not going to try and breed them but if they do lay I will keep them
> 
> How do I go about getting them rung? Ring the ibr tell them how many hatched and give the parents ring number to them?


Don't expect to be able to interact with them too much if you're allowing the parents to rear. There's a very, very good reason people imprint, and some go so far as to say it's abusive to attempt to man down a parent reared owl such as the barn owl. If you want friendly, calm, happy barn owls without stress for both you and them, imprint all the way.

You can find all of the info for IBR breeder rings on the website, and you can order the application forms and rings from there.

You may also want to inform Animal Health. Whilst we were told this year that animals not being exported, imported or used for 'entertainment' (i.e. in a public facility or in displays) wouldn't need A10s and separate rings, you may want to call up and talk to them just in case.


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## gaz0123 (Aug 19, 2008)

tonight she has just laid her 3rd egg


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## rosy boa mad (Aug 17, 2008)

congrats good luck :2thumb:


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## corvid2e1 (Jan 21, 2007)

Mark the Eggs as she is laying them. We had one female who layed 11 in one clutch, and you do not want that many, so need to be removing eggs once she has layed the number you want. don't forget she is already incubating the first ones so by the time the last is layed, the first could be very close to hatching, hence the need to know which is which when destroying them! Would definetly recomend hand rearing. many other species you can socialise parent reared birds later on, but realy doesn't work well with owls. you are likely to end up with wild, scatty birds flying around your aviary that you can do nothing with. If you ever plan on doing anything with them in the future (bear in mind future is the next 20 odd years, the rest of their lifespan) i.e selling, breeding to sell, showing to public etc, then they will need an A10 and preferably a closed ring, which needs to be fitted very young. Also, completly agree with Loveforlizards. The market is saturated already, and Barn Owls can very easily produce large numbers of chicks. Breed one or two to keep yourself if you want to, but be very careful about producing too many that you can't find good homes for. For future clutches that you don't want to hatch, don't just constantly remove eggs as she will just lay more, and this is a masive drain on her body. Remove a couple and hard boil them, then give them back, or replace with dummy pigeon eggs and allow her to sit to get it out of her system.


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## Takora (Feb 29, 2012)

Please, please listen to others advice on here, they are absolutely correct. Do you have enough aviary space for approximately 11 'wild', solitary, barn owls? Are there enough homes out there for 11 barn owls when there are soooooo many looking at the moment? I hope you've put dummy eggs in, and you'll be taking the the owlets out at the age between 1week old and 3weeks old, or expect permanent nerve damage to your hands and face 

Owls have a small and specialised brain, which means under no circumstances can you tame a parent reared owl once their fear response kicks in... this is usually around 4-5weeks old. They are extremely instinctive, so once something in their environment changes, they really struggle to adapt, which is why its so important to handrear.

I wish you luck, please let us know how you get on.

All the best!


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## gaz0123 (Aug 19, 2008)

Takora said:


> Please, please listen to others advice on here, they are absolutely correct. Do you have enough aviary space for approximately 11 'wild', solitary, barn owls? Are there enough homes out there for 11 barn owls when there are soooooo many looking at the moment? I hope you've put dummy eggs in, and you'll be taking the the owlets out at the age between 1week old and 3weeks old, or expect permanent nerve damage to your hands and face
> 
> Owls have a small and specialised brain, which means under no circumstances can you tame a parent reared owl once their fear response kicks in... this is usually around 4-5weeks old. They are extremely instinctive, so once something in their environment changes, they really struggle to adapt, which is why its so important to handrear.
> 
> ...


this will probably be the only clutch i let her hatch, i will be keeping 3 of them and will be ordering aviaries in the next few days ready, the 4th one will be going to a friend of mine who also keeps BOPS, also i will be taking them out at around 2 weeks so might get to keep one of my hands lol

thanks for the concern about this guys and girls, i wouldnt let her hatch them if i didnt know if i had the room etc for them  will post when they hatch and how they get on


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## aidey07 (Nov 16, 2008)

congrats:2thumb:


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