Once the Barn Owl lays eggs, what happens next?

The barn owl typically lays a clutch of 4-6 eggs, which are small white eggs, about 2/3rds the size of a chicken’s egg. The eggs are laid one by one at intervals of around 2-3 days per egg. Between laying each egg, the female will sit on the eggs to keep them warm as close to her body temperature as possible.

The female Barn Owl sits on her eggs for an average of 30 days, rarely leaving them unattended for more than a few minutes to take a short flight and comfort break. Her mate is her only visitor over the 30 days she sits on the eggs, bringing her occasional voles and other rodents during the night. 

At around 30 days, the female Barn Owl will hear the chick ‘peep’ from inside the shell. A soft chittering by the female is usually given in response. Research shows that the chick is able to pick up it’s mothers vocalisations. The peeps inside the egg signify to the mother that hatching is imminent, and the chick is about to start breaking out of the shell. 

Inside the egg, the chick uses a small, temporary projection on its beak called an ‘egg tooth’ to break into the air sac located at the rounded end of the egg. This enables the chick to take its first breaths to expand its lungs. It is once the chick is able to breathe in the air sac that it emits its first ‘peep’. 

The chick is now able to start breaking out of the shell, a process known as ‘pipping’. The process can take several hours, and it isn’t unknown for it to take all day. Over several hours, the chick unzips the egg by using its egg tooth to create a crack around the egg, enabling the chick to force its way out. 

In the final stages of emerging from the shell, the mother can often be seen ‘nibbling’ to free the final bits of shell. Once the chick is free, the eggshell is discarded close to the mother. 

The owlet is now free and able to breathe the air around it. To ensure all the airways have time to inflate properly, the owlet isn’t usually initially fed, but tiny morsels of prey are generally offered after a couple of hours. 

Barn Owl eggs will generally hatch in the same order they were laid and at a similar interval to the laying process, so that an egg will hatch around every 2-3 days, provided it is a viable egg.

The owlet has completed the hard task of emerging into the world. The work of the mother and her mate is about to begin in earnest. Over the next three months, their whole purpose for existence is to transform this blind, helpless, and naked owlet into a young adult Barn Owl capable of surviving alone in the wild.