Having a hoot: Brood of adorable baby owlets take up residency in SA farmer’s shed

A brood of baby owlets have hatched in a rural grain shed, with an SA farmer documenting their rapid growth from baby chicks to full grown adolescents. See the pictures.

A Mallee sheep farmer has documented the upbringing of an adorable brood of barn owlets, who were discovered nesting in a rural grain shed.

Sheep stud breeder Katelyn Boughen, 34, first discovered a pair of owls together in a grain shed on her family’s Sandalwood property, about 175km east of Adelaide.

“We were using the grain to feed our ewes and lambs and we noticed a couple of owls around the farm … one day in late April we noticed they were regularly spotted in the grain shed together,” Ms Boughen said.

“My dad noticed some white things, which were their eggs, in the very corner of the shed on top of the grain. From that day on we stopped using the grain so we wouldn’t disturb the eggs.

“Then I started to take photos to track their development and friends seemed to really enjoy the updates.”

One of the barn owl parents sitting on the nest. Picture: Katelyn Boughen

The baby owlets soon hatched. Picture: Katelyn Boughen

Ms Boughen captured weekly snaps of the five baby owlets after they hatched, regularly posting them to social media and documenting their rapid growth.

The baby owlets were tiny at first. Picture: Katelyn Boughen

But they soon began to grow. Picture: Katelyn Boughen

And grow. Picture: Katelyn Boughen

Soon they started to get close to the same size as their parents. Picture: Katelyn Boughen

Barn owls leave their nest from approximately six to eight weeks of age, with Ms Boughen expecting the owlets, which are now almost fully grown, to “leave the nest soon”.

“They are very well looked after given there are plenty of mice around for them to eat with the grain sitting in the shed untouched,” she said.

“I stood within two metres from them this afternoon and they didn’t look like flying away.”

Barn owls generally don’t construct their own nests, preferring to take up residence in structures and have been known to inhabit barns for 25 years or more.

Ms Boughen said the growing family had attracted plenty of admirers online.

“We just took our sheep to the Australian Sheep & Wool Show in Bendigo over the weekend and all many of our sheep breeding friends wanted to talk about was the owls and how they were going,” she said.

“The mice have destroyed the grain in the shed so we have lost out feeding this to our sheep, but it’s not every day you have a shed full of owls.”

The owlets are now almost fully grown. Picture: Facebook

And ready to leave their nests. Picture: Facebook