hoods

[grovsey 74]

well im going to start a thread regarding hoods and the use of them or lack of it in falconry now days,people will always hood a falcon but hardly any will hood a hawk ,is this due to lack of knowlage or experiance for the benifits of hooding a bird during manning process and then into the rest of its times you got the bird also,i was a hood maker until i was unable to sit at my bench to make hoods anymore due to serious back issues .here is some of my work and the dutch hoods where made on ron rollins blocks ,alot of my influance has come from ken hook ,steve tait ,ron rollins among others .hope you like my work

[saxonmaster 74]

i like the peacock patterns mate

[EskdaleHawks 8]

Grovsey, Very nice hoods, Sorry to hear that you nolonger make them. I hood all my birds including Harris's. These days people say there is no reason to hood a Harris. I have yet to hear a good reason not to. Hoods have been around for nearly the same time as falconry has been practiced. The hood is there for a reason. It keeps the bird calm. The bird does not get excited at the sight of game. It stops the bird bateing if frieghtend by a sudden movement. It reduces stress. A hood allows the bird to be handled in a reasonabley safe manner for dressing, imping and copeing with the minimum of fuss. If a bird is not 'trained to the hood' then in my opinion it is not fully trained. For instance suppose there are several birds at a hawking meet and two are hooded and the rest aren't. The birds that aren't will bate at flushed quarry every time, while the hooded birds remain calm. The hood 're-sets' the bird after a successful flight, so no energy is lost with un-necessary bateing.

[Parabuteos lad 878]

i agree with eskdale, i hood my gyr x saker and my harris, my harris is scared of cars and streetlights and in the winter it's usually dark when coming home and in-turn there are streetlights so the hood is beneficial. i too have never heard a bad reason for hooding a harris

[grovsey 74]

Grovsey, Very nice hoods, Sorry to hear that you nolonger make them. I hood all my birds including Harris's. These days people say there is no reason to hood a Harris. I have yet to hear a good reason not to. Hoods have been around for nearly the same time as falconry has been practiced. The hood is there for a reason. It keeps the bird calm. The bird does not get excited at the sight of game. It stops the bird bateing if frieghtend by a sudden movement. It reduces stress. A hood allows the bird to be handled in a reasonabley safe manner for dressing, imping and copeing with the minimum of fuss. If a bird is not 'trained to the hood' then in my opinion it is not fully trained. For instance suppose there are several birds at a hawking meet and two are hooded and the rest aren't. The birds that aren't will bate at flushed quarry every time, while the hooded birds remain calm. The hood 're-sets' the bird after a successful flight, so no energy is lost with un-necessary bateing.

well said that man

[grovsey 74]

i like the peacock patterns mate

there more for show as u can guess but do look nice one a pere ect

[grovsey 74]

its funny people will go out and pay £90 for a giant hood and not go out and buy a good fitting hood instead which is cheaper ,more benificial ,got more uses ect and takes up a hell of alot less space

[EskdaleHawks 8]

Giant hoods (America) or Hawk boxes as they are more commonly known here do have a place alongside the traditional hood. If a bird is boxed in the back of a car, it is out of sight of the general public and wouldbe thieves. It also keeps the bird safe from other birds. Birds that are hooded and left in close proxcimity to each other on a gadge are in danger from being grabbed by the bird they are next to. Also if a bird manages to get its hood off, then the hooded bird is in very real danger of being seriously injured and at the very worst, killed. There is an american pattern for a 'Giant hood'. The box looks narrow, unlike any that I have seen on the UK market. It is tall to give the bird enough head room as well as deep with the perch is towards the front of the box so that the bird has enough tail room. My own box is a twin version based on this pattern and works very well. Only cost was time. Made from off-cuts of ply and painted.

[EskdaleHawks 8]

Grovsey, Very nice hoods, Sorry to hear that you nolonger make them. I hood all my birds including Harris's. These days people say there is no reason to hood a Harris. I have yet to hear a good reason not to. Hoods have been around for nearly the same time as falconry has been practiced. The hood is there for a reason. It keeps the bird calm. The bird does not get excited at the sight of game. It stops the bird bateing if frieghtend by a sudden movement. It reduces stress. A hood allows the bird to be handled in a reasonabley safe manner for dressing, imping and copeing with the minimum of fuss. If a bird is not 'trained to the hood' then in my opinion it is not fully trained. For instance suppose there are several birds at a hawking meet and two are hooded and the rest aren't. The birds that aren't will bate at flushed quarry every time, while the hooded birds remain calm. The hood 're-sets' the bird after a successful flight, so no energy is lost with un-necessary bateing.

well said that man

Thankyou!

[grovsey 74]

regarding braces on a hood as much as i love the leather ones i find they slacken ofover time and you end up putting tiny cable ties on or new braces ,by using gortex they keep the same tension and dont give like the leather do

Edited August 14, 2011 by grovsey

[grovsey 74]

Giant hoods (America) or Hawk boxes as they are more commonly known here do have a place alongside the traditional hood. If a bird is boxed in the back of a car, it is out of sight of the general public and wouldbe thieves. It also keeps the bird safe from other birds. Birds that are hooded and left in close proxcimity to each other on a gadge are in danger from being grabbed by the bird they are next to. Also if a bird manages to get its hood off, then the hooded bird is in very real danger of being seriously injured and at the very worst, killed. There is an american pattern for a 'Giant hood'. The box looks narrow, unlike any that I have seen on the UK market. It is tall to give the bird enough head room as well as deep with the perch is towards the front of the box so that the bird has enough tail room. My own box is a twin version based on this pattern and works very well. Only cost was time. Made from off-cuts of ply and painted.

always used a type of cadge but with seperators inbetween each bird just incase the worse happens,as u say the giant hood does have some plus points but i still believe a good fitting hood on a bird out weighs the giant hood plus the benifits of a bird made to the hood

[jasper65 6]

Had many a arguement in the past about Hooding Birds . some of the people who can't recognise the advantage of a Hood and question the benefits certainly show their inexperience.

 

Falcons still seem to be the birds people generaly Hood but why stop there? why not Hood a Gos too or any other Hawk? OK they can be difficult at first but they settle and soon condition themselves to it with a good fitting hood and sensible Hooding, cramming them on their heads like I have seen in the past is a definite No No and a certain way to make the bird loath your aproach. I much prefer the Dutch type when it comes to Hooding Goshawks mainly down to the fact when the Hood is first placed on the birds head its alot harder to shake off however much they try, if they find a way of flicking it off it can be alot of hassle

 

Here's a few homebreds over the past all made to the Hood as per usual.

 

Cracking Hoods by the way Grovsey , do you still make the odd one's? I totaly agree about the leather braces and always end up pinching a couple of small cable ties at the back to tighten them up, I stuck some Gortex one's in some of my old Hoods from a old Hood maker who used to knock some up in wales <Paul Higgins>, still have a few leather jobs but all fitted with cable ties .

 

I have some pretty old one's here dateing back to 1986 and still do the job perfect, I'll get some pic's up soon.

 

Jasp

[grovsey 74]

hi jasp

nice write up mate and totlly agree about putting a dutch on a gos as i have done in the past ,if hooding a hawk i so rather go for a nice fitting anglo due to the shape of the birds head .its amzing people will go out and pay good hard earned money on a bird and its furniture and then go on ebay and buy a hood for a tenner and thencomplain there bird hates it instead of getting quality hood thats made for he bird ,even hood makers dont always get it righ and will make a hood for someone and be a size out as you can only have a guide line to go of .

as u was saying jasp making a bird to the hood at the early stages can be hard work ect but keeping calm and going about it the right way and just putting the hood on the bird at first and not striking the braces and then taking it of ,this gets the brd used to not panicing like they do when the blaces are struck the first time and all hell lets loose.i lust to just pick a bird up ,place hood on the bird ,of the the scales and plae the bird on and u got a nice steady bird sat there and even more so for people that have not got a double door set up in the muse.when out hunting and u are trying and wanting a good slip a hooded bird makes a lot of difference and u dont have it baiting at anything that moves

i remember when i set out making hoods and i was told that the first 30-50 hoods i will make will go in the bin and i laughed thinking 'ya right it cant be that hard'wow how right he was.i think the first anglo i made took me about 6hrs of sweating and cutting my fingers to shreads and ending up with the worsed hood i had ever seen,this went on for a good while as i was learning the art and getting info that is very hard to come buy in hoodmaking as hoodmakers dont often give the patterns and tips away .

then i invested $700 for a set of ron rollins millenium blocks (half a set )but the blocks where worth every penny and i got my money back in a few months ,this was not just cos of the blocks but i had reached a goodenuogh standard where word of mouth got aorund and people where emailing me for goods and they still do but sadly i cant make them due to the sitting issue but will and do tell people tips ect .

that main tip i would give if wanting to get into making hoods its get the right leathers needs ,1.2 kip for main hood,0.7 roo for throught lash or piping and gortex for braces (i made my own on sewing machine )and the tools needs

ian

[brianL84 11]

have u ever seen david masters hoods fox falconry hes called and i think his hoods are superb

[grovsey 74]

have u ever seen david masters hoods fox falconry hes called and i think his hoods are superb

they look like there on rollins blocks mate ,im not keen on his anglo pattern looking at the pic as looks a bit to rounded as though its been blocked ,

Edited August 15, 2011 by grovsey