At what stage do you freeloft your bird in the Aviary?
My HH has now been flying free for 1 month and has made two kills anf he follows on ok
When is the time right? He was parent reared in a free lofterd aviary. Is it time to let loose? I hate to see BOP tethered in Aviaries but i would rather that than them go wild to early.
WHEN THE 'EAGLES' ARE SILENT THE 'PARROTS' BEGIN TO JABBER! SIR W.CHURCHILL
believe it or not my bird which is passage has basically been free lofted from day one. train started with her coming to me for food then jumping to the fist for food then sitting to eat. at which point I the tethered her to come in for sociallising. But she has alwaysbeen free lofted. If you think the time is right go for it. Remeber you have an HH they are social birds and preferr company so bring her in as much as possible if you want free loft her she wont go wild just from being free lofted ( perhaps from bordom from being out alone but thats why you bring her in.
My standard theory with a passage bird is to wait to free loft until they are out hunting.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines "Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; give him a religion................ and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish."
I am with weasel on this, although i used to see it differently. My first year and i think second year i freelofted as soon as the bird was hopping to the glove, but now i think that it set back training. Now I wouldn't free loft until the bird is hunting.
Falcon Boy Apprentice Falconry Administrator
Ethics make the individual, not the other way around.
I agree with FB in that free lofting too soon will slow down training. I don't wait till we're hunting but judge it on the birds response. Typically if your flying on the creance with good response, you can free loft without affecting the time frame to start hunting. Actually if your getting good response on the creance you should probably be getting after some real game. All in all it's a judgment call. Try letting the bird loose in the mew and monitor it's behavior from outside the mew. If it's bouncing off the walls, tether it, if it sits calmly, your probably safe to free loft.
Ok so while you're in training mode and not freelofting what do you do the bird in the following two scenarios:
During the day giant hood OR tethered indoors OR in mews? During the night giant hood OR tethered indoors OR in mews?
Tethered with a short leash to a screen perch in a safe, semi darkened area. ie. inclosed mew with doors and windows closed, corner of the garage with tarps hung to form a small room. The idea is to keep them calm and don't show them anything worth bating for. I don't like to use the gaint hood for any thing except traveling or emergencies.
Ok so while you're in training mode and not freelofting what do you do the bird in the following two scenarios:
During the day giant hood OR tethered indoors OR in mews? During the night giant hood OR tethered indoors OR in mews?
Personally i keep them in the giant hood until they hop to the fist for food, then teather outdoors in the mews.
I do the same as FB. I now, when manning a new bird, make sure that the only time the bird has a visual stimulus is when it is on my fist for the first few weeks. After the bird it flying to the glove and has settled down a bit, I will begin teathering it to a perch for small portions of the day while it is supervised. As time goes on, you can leave the bird to teather in a secure area for the day as long as it's "behaving". They I will attempt to freeloft as soon as the bird is hunting. When I begin freelofting, I will do it just as night is approaching to be safe in case the bird freaks out, it won't take long for it to become dark to recover the bird. Placing the bird in the mews for several nights to allow for adjustment works really well as I have found with my RT's. Both Harris's I have free lofted have done nothing but sit on the front perch with their foot up within minutes of entering the mews for the first time. I think it is the more wild nature of the RT that causes them to "pinball" around the mews so much. My first RT had to be teathered in the mews permanently as she simply would NOT settle down in the mews at all. It got so bad at one point that she actually cut her feet open hitting the ceiling so hard with her feet. Thankfully the vet said that with a little care, they cuts would heal OK without causing Bumblefoot. My next RT I tried a few things different. I added more perches and the mew was much bigger in size. One perch I added was a natural perch from a post oak tree. This seemed like a good idea as I had seen it in many other mews as well with no problems. Well, one day, I went to the mews and my RT was sitting on the perch with her beak open like she was winded pretty good. I went inside to find out what was going on and there where bloody foot prints all over the perches. What it turns out she was doind was flying back and forth from the front perch at the window to the natural bark branch in the back corner. When the bird turned on the NP, she was effectively giving herself "rugburn" for lack of a better term. This continued until the blisters broke and began to bleed. Back to the vet and he fixed her up. I discussed the issue with several falconers and came to the conclusion that I needed soft perches. I padded the perches in the mew and removed the natural perch....Never had that issue again.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines "Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; give him a religion................ and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish."
I have Heard from one person that freelofting a RT is a bad Idea because they will become more used to the freedom and go wild... I haven't heard anything about any other birds... Are there any birds that shouldn't be free lofted? Thanx for all the information!!!
If there are any new hawkers in norther or middle indiana hit me up with a pm, i can point you in the direction of reat sponsors and hawkers.
my parent reared frt is permantly free lofted regardless of flying weight. the only time she's on a bow is when i take her on holiday or to a show, had no problems with her over the 14yrs ive had her