Harris hawk

[Guest paul26]

Iam wanting adice about a harris hawk with a couple of broken flight feathers and wondering if they can still be flown and hunted with? as im new at this and dont realy know much yet any advice please. thanks

[midnight 657]

mate it should be in moult at the momentto grow new ones . if they are bad get it moulted and then its the end of the prblem.

 

its not the end of the world if you dont moult it and fly it through but it will be in a terible state in another 12 months time.

 

can you post some pics ?

if not email me them and i wil post them for you

[Guest paul26]

mate it should be in moult at the momentto grow new ones . if they are bad get it moulted and then its the end of the prblem.

 

its not the end of the world if you dont moult it and fly it through but it will be in a terible state in another 12 months time.

 

can you post some pics ?

if not email me them and i wil post them for you

thanks for your reply but i havnt bought the bird yet as i wanted some advice first because somone told me they where no good after breaking the flight feathers. do you think it will be worth buying?

[midnight 657]

there not hard to come buy mate and in a few month there will be all the fresh young birds for sale.

i dont think the bird will be to hard done by with a few taty feathers but i would wait.

 

i dont want to ofend you but i think you should get some reading done mate , make sure you have all the kit and some good advice at the end of the phone or evern better at hand to help.

 

you are only making it harder for yourself tyring to rush and get the bird to soon.

 

i would try to get my telematry and mews built first mate and wile that lots going on read and read and read some more . see if you can find a local club and go through them .

 

i know it sounds boring mate and it will be but not as boring as looking for a lost bird.

 

i am speaking from experiance here and i did it all ass about face and ended up going backwards.

 

in the time between now and the late summer when all the harris hawks are for sale you will be in much better shape to do it all propely and with confidance.

 

also ask yourself why the bird with broken feathers is up for sale?

 

all the best

[midnight 657]

It should be ok as mine was still flying with only 2 full tail feathers.. but when they have broken flight's it put's more pressure on the other's..

Cant you get hold of some similar sized feather's of any species and imp them to the broken flight's..

Millet

a bit advanced for a fist year mate dont you think ? iv been flying birds about 7 years or more and i dont imp that often .

i dont think most birds need it and the results are hard to ge right.

 

you could be right tho millet.

 

but i think a few bad feathers is nothing to be honest as true game hawks fly half moulted and wild stock fly right through the moult , its just not good falconry to carry on with other options.

 

but again i could be wrong

[jasper65 6]

It should be ok as mine was still flying with only 2 full tail feathers.. but when they have broken flight's it put's more pressure on the other's..

Cant you get hold of some similar sized feather's of any species and imp them to the broken flight's..

Millet

 

You're right there mate. break a few feathers and it starts off a whole chain of events with the rest of its tail. Boiling water will perform miracles on kinked bent feathers virtually returning them back to normal, although they may get brittle if you keep it up on the same feather, A neat way to Imp is to match a feather as good as damn it with the one broken, cut the broken feather about a Inch and a half to two inches from the quil end on the bird, cut the new feather the same length to match, a good peg to join the two feathers is a BBQ Kebab stick/scewer, cut about 1 1/2 - 2 inches off and flatten the side to create a key way for the glue and stop it from spinning should it work loose, (this should'nt happen though mate), you can now use arildite or super glue, I prefer super glue it goes off alot quicker, glue one end of the stick half way into the new feather, double check the length is right, its now a case of sticking some glue on the peg and pushing it home into the shaft on the bird, with super glue get it right as you won't get a second chance , Arildite will give you more time, but I'm a miserable b*****d these days with no Patience so super glue suits me fine.

 

Broken feathers on a bird like your's Millet is part and parcel of a gennuine well Hunted bird thats done plenty and had a few bundles along the way, and I know your's saw plenty of front line action once you took it on , having said that its Gos's that normaly take the brunt of broken tail feathers and unusual to see a Harris with a seriouse broken tail unless its lacked something in its diet while being reared or through the moult, this is not your fault mate as the problem would have been in its rearing and irriversable until the next moult, these days you see far too many birds at the end of the season without a feather out of place and totally feather perfect and they have supposed to have taken 100's of head , a good sign of a Bullshitter. Its fair to say if its a big problem with feathers snapping regular on a young bird it could be Nutritional in its up bringing, brittle feathers is a sure sign of poor diet.

 

Don't forget if you ever want any feather PM me and I'll send you a pot full, I pick loads up out of the aviaries you can have, I'm sure you won't need any though mate with the quality food you're firing into your bird through the Moult, her tail will be Bullet proof when you take her up.

 

Cheers

 

Tony

[midnight 657]

millet why you taking the piss mate ?

or have i taken that wrong.

i was trying to not be offensive..

 

iv nothing to prove mate i dont want to be a mod . i was just trying to help the lad .

 

its along time since i had a harris or me first bird and was trying to put myself in his boots .

but i must remeber to lisren to more first years in future as they have all the answers fresh in there minds from all the books they have read.

most lads new to the game dont even know how to cope there birds or fit leg gear (this i know) so imping is somthing your mentor should be about to do.

 

i dont realy like falconry forums as there is allways to much opinion whats best. and lads with harris telling folks they know all about it and whats to be done.

 

im not looking for arguments and im sorry if it took it wrong..

millet lets not fall out mate i like this forum.

[Guest paul26]

Thanks for the advice lads but i think iam going to wait for a younger 1.