Frozen Food

[muttley94 74]

Hi guys,

 

just wondering how long people leave food in the freezer for as a maximum? It going to be a fair while before I can get a bird, but I do a fair bit of shooting with an air rifle and was wondering if its worth chucking anything in a deep freeze?

 

obviously wouldnt feed anything thats got a pellet in, 95% of the time its headshots so the area with a pellet in can easily be removed, does anyone else do something similar or is it not really a done thing?

 

atb Muttley

[sean goshawk 189]

Around a year it can be stored in the freezer before it gets Frost bit .and use steel pellets as my mate use them in the rifle and will not harm the birds when feeding them it.

[muttley94 74]

okay so not much point starting too early! thanks! oh thats a good point, will look into those

[j j m 6,533]

as above thats the longest i leave it

[muttley94 74]

I've had that happen to some pigeon breasts I left in the freezer as I forgot they were there and didn't notice them but does the same apply if you were to put something in that was not fully treated, say I gutted a rabbit but left the fur on do you think that would increase the time it could stay in for?

[pointer 543]

Hawks eat very little food even in the moult, I freeze rabbits down and defrost for the dogs and ferrets all year and my large chest freezer will be rammed with stuff by the end of the season. The rabbits mainly go to the ferrets as I can keep my hawk fed on the pheasants, squirrels, moorhens and the odd hare and duck that's in there through the five month moult. You may not even need to freeze much down for a single hawk as if your like me lads will be constantly dropping you off rabbits, day old chicks, chickens, pigeons etc etc that are either from domestic stock or taken by dogs just on a walk. My ferrets eat far more than my hawk and I only really keep a chest freezer to help feed them and the dogs plus keep fishing bait in. I think I could easily feed my Harris hawk a good fresh diet through the moult.

[muttley94 74]

Hawks eat very little food even in the moult, I freeze rabbits down and defrost for the dogs and ferrets all year and my large chest freezer will be rammed with stuff by the end of the season. The rabbits mainly go to the ferrets as I can keep my hawk fed on the pheasants, squirrels, moorhens and the odd hare and duck that's in there through the five month moult. You may not even need to freeze much down for a single hawk as if your like me lads will be constantly dropping you off rabbits, day old chicks, chickens, pigeons etc etc that are either from domestic stock or taken by dogs just on a walk. My ferrets eat far more than my hawk and I only really keep a chest freezer to help feed them and the dogs plus keep fishing bait in. I think I could easily feed my Harris hawk a good fresh diet through the moult.

Okay thanks pointer, seems like theres little point me trying to save anything then- I may as well just eat it all myself

[pointer 543]

I know when I got my hawk I skinned, gutted and jointed as much stuff as possible to maximise the freezers space but realised a month into the moult that two hundred rabbits and another fifty various species was too much for one hawk.

The dogs helped empty it by the start of the next season, the German pointers can eat two rabbits a day lol.

[muttley94 74]

so you find that the hawk pretty much feeds itself in terms of how much it catches to how much it eats? I wish I didnt have to wait so long, already been doing a lot of reading and research for about 2 years, dont think theres much more I can read haha, just gotta wait until I finish Uni and happy days (only another year and a half but im sure it will be worth the wait )

[pointer 543]

I'm having a terrible season with the weather and even when I have been able to go out she's soaked after a couple of flights and I've mostly just done single kills this season but yeah I feed her mostly from her kills through the moult. We don't get many pheasants but one of them will feed a hawk for several days. I've never thought about it because I defrost stuff then after feeding the hawk the rest goes to the ferrets or a dog but a big hill rabbit would last my hawk about four days.

I read the books on and off for twenty years and later joined the Internet forums for severel years before obtaining my hawk. You end up just learning as you go along and do what feels right. I used to say that nobody needs a mentor or experience with Hawks to fly a Harris but after someone I vaguely know lost a hawk recently I think some people do need help.

[muttley94 74]

Okay thanks, well thats good to know about the food

 

Oh wow thats quite a while! I've been getting some flying experience with someone who has kindly agreed to take me out every now and again but thats been flying peregrines, I absolutely love seeing them fly and he thinks I could go straight into a peregrine- as its not like I'd be doing it alone, but I dont know if thats what I'd want yet, I still have a massive pull towards a harris or a gos! My dad used to fly a Harris so he will be able to help me with the training and basics too which is good

[pointer 543]

I waited all that time because although from the beginning of getting interested in hunting I wanted to fly a hawk I started with terriers, then lurchers then hounds etc. I figured a long time ago I could hunt with a hawk and do ok but it wasn't possible as I had dogs and couldn't have done everything. Only when I had no terriers and one old lurcher could I finally obtain my Harris hawk. That was three years ago. With work commitments, available land and quarry I think I can only fly a single Harris hawk but others in similar circumstances are flying gosses or multiple Harris Hawks. Personally I find with weather, work and the odd injury ( in that order) that getting out enough with my hawk is a challenge. The actual hunting with the hawk and getting her enough flights when we get to go out is the easy part, being off work on the days when the weather is OK is the skilful bit lol.

[muttley94 74]

Ah I see, that makes sense! I dont have any working dogs, I only shoot and fish so don't have anything hunting wise which I have to do, a rod or gun can be sat in its case for a few months and it doesn't matter!

haha yes its always the way though, lovely weather when you are stuck inside and then the day you want to be out doing something its tipping it down and blowing a gale!

[pointer 543]

Yeah guns and rods can be put away for months and it doesn't matter. Flying a hawk has allowed me to do a lot more fishing in the summer months. I still have two pointers and an ancient lurcher to look after but they just need a walk each day, when I had terriers and lurchers I felt they should be taken hunting all year round even if it was just to kill a few rats every week. We all know that Britain is experiencing more wind and rain than it has for many years and on parts of the Durham dales I get to hunt over the rabbit population is very low compared to what it was a few years ago. This makes flying a hawk more difficult than it should be but I don't want to do anything else so I'm happy enough.

[muttley94 74]

yes from what I've seen a lot of people aren't having a great time of it this year!

 

from my understanding a benefit of the harris is that it doesn't need as much time as some of the other birds so might not be as bad as if it were a different species? obviously fitness will suffer but in terms of manning and the actual flying from what I've read and heard you can have real problems with a gos if you don't fly her often enough which you wouldn't necessarily get with the Harris?