Template:A Replacement Barn Owl Box
A Ready-made Owl Box
Sadly, after six years our original owl box rotted and dropped out of the tree. Using the owl box camera I could see that it was occupied when it fell out of the tree. Luckily it fell onto a huge thicket of brambles which broke its fall and enabled the owl to escape the box!
I checked the box first thing the next morning and it was empty, no owls and no sign of nesting activity - phew!
Now, the first priority was to get another owl box back up the tree quickly, otherwise we might not get the owls back. Building another box from scratch was not possible due to the timescale so I looked for a good quality ready-made owl box. In the end I settled for the flat-packed Secrets Barn Owl Nest Box from Amazon UK - £157.00 March 2024
I'm glad I chose this owl box. It turned up in a few days and was simple to assemble. Based on what we had seen from the camera I made a small modification to the box. I enlarged the platform to almost double the size to make plenty of room for both owls at the same time. I also added a 2cm x 2cm strip along the leading edge as this seemed to make it easier for them to grip when landing. A cross-member was bolted to the back of the box so it could hang between two branches and a bottom strut bolted to the base to hold the box away from the tree at the angle the owls had been used to!.
The very next evening, the pair of barn owls were back in the box. 💜
-
-
Back in the new owl box as if nothing had changed!
