Hope to build a couple of barn owl boxes this year.

“Today farmers are finding that the barn owl’s cry is the sound of death to rodents. Barn owls are helping to win the war against rodents in the fields.

Barn owls and their descendents have been around for the last 26 million years and their importance to agriculture in California is just coming to the forefront.

One barn owl will eat on the average of 155 gophers per year or 53 pounds of gophers. If you had a mere 48 barn owls in your area, they would consume 7,440 gophers or 1.3 tons of gophers per year.

Image courtesy of Glenn County Resource Conservation District

By putting up a barn owl nest box, you will provide a place for the owls to roost when the leaves drop off the trees in the fall and a safe place for them to nest and raise their family of owlets (5 to 7 per box) in the spring. They, in turn, will provide you with 365 nights a year of killing rodents in your fields. They never call in sick or demand a raise, you don’t have to pay workman’s compensation or have to worry about any liability if they get injured on the job. The only maintenance you have to perform for the owls once the box is installed is to clean it out once a year.”

Text courtesy of Steve Simmons