New to Falconry!

[Guest RONAN]

Falconry is awesome. I have hunted all my life, be it with dogs ferrets or the old trusty snare. I have bi-passed falconry on every website until I clicked on this one. Reading the quotes from you guys have now got me falconry crazy. I'm serving in Liberia, west Africa, at the moment and see huge raptors on a minute to minute basis, forget daily! After logging onto this site about a month ago, every time I see a kite or fish eagle I'm thinking to myself, I could have one of these flying to the glove for me. I have taken a hours of free time reading about goshawks and harris hawks, jotting in my journal all there is to know as once I finish my tour I'm getting my house with a ......"mews"....grin......out the back! Big question, what do I need if I'm starting from scratch. Both documentation wise, and housing wise. I can find no info about weekly cost to feed a harris hawk, and also I know Goshawks can be hard to keep. But if I can hump an 80lb pack for thirty miles in 40 degrees heat I'm sure having a goshawk as a first time bird is an accomplishable task! INFO GUYS! I NEED INFO!

[IanB 0]

Jasper is the man to ask ronan

[jasper65 6]

Hello Ronan

 

Forget taking on a Gos as a first bird, its temperament/Atitude and ease of dyeing through stress or not being conditioned properly could well put you off Falconry for life , there's plenty of lads on this site who have walked the walk with other birds who can turn their hand to training/manning anything blindfolded! but I'm sure they will all tell you the same, stay away from a accipter until you've had some hands on experience for a season or two.

 

I copied and pasted this from a earlier post, things may well vary a bit depending on what country you're in but in the UK this might help a bit .

 

Take Care

 

Tony

 

 

For starters a good falconry course could well set you back £200-400 unless you know somone who can teach you and spend some time with handling birds and flying birds, a good starter books would also be of benefit which will put you through stages of building weatherings and perhaps aviary building and basic equipment, a falconry course should certainly do that too! always do your homework set up a weathering and get your equipment in advance of getting a bird, equipment won't set you back any more than say £150 for things like a: bow perch/Glove/leashes/Bells/anklets/jesses/swivel/ and perhaps a hood but this is personal preferance for alot of birds but I would always hood a P/R Gos or Falcon.

 

You can get everything you want off these two sites:

 

http://www.falconiformes.co.uk/wip_falconiformes_001.htm

 

http://www.benlongfalconry.com/index.html

 

 

also there is the consideration of food, this is the site I order all my food from, during the breeding season I litterally go through 3000 chicks and 250 quail every 6 weeks , but then having 7 breeding Gos, Peregrines, Harrishawks, Hybreds, Sparrowhawks you can't wonder at it .

 

http://www.honeybrookfarm.com/

 

 

Normally a trainned bird won't cost you anymore than a bird fresh out of the aviary, the thing you have to take into account is how gennuine is the trainned bird? what bad vices has it picked up? why is it for sale if its that good? how was it reared?, personaly I won't touch a trainned bird from a flying point of view, but have brought them in for breeding stock, if you take a bird fresh out of the aviary Its totally Fresh for Manning and Trainning! the balls in your court as to how this bird turns out, if you have done your homework the bird should turn out fine but any mistakes made by the handler will be down to you, once you have taken up your charge and took it through all the Manning/Trainning process and finally get the bird Entered and Hunting its one of the most rewarding sports available, its nice to be able to stand back and pat yourself on the back sometimes as to what you have just acheived.

 

All in all its like any sport. you can cheap skate on equipment or you can go out and buy to best available but it won't make you a better falconer! I'm a DIY cheap skate who beleives you can still have quality at half the expense and make a huge saving on Equipment/Aviaries/Weatherings..

 

Hope this helps a bit

 

Tony

[muppet 0]

Hello Ronan

Any local falconry clubs in your area would probably be of great help(when you get home that is) but until then try and buy a copy of Emma Ford Falconry Art and Practice or get some one you know to buy one for you and send it to you.This book is a godsend for anyone starting off with articles on all types of falconry,birds,housing,keeping and training an excellent preparation before buying your first bird.

If it helps check out my website at

http://harrishawking.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/

All my contact details are on there if there,s anything i can help with drop me an e/mail

TTFN

harrishawker