Hi, I train goshawks inside until they start eating on the glove, jump on the glove from the bar and then just outside. Socializing inside the TV - lots of pictures and lots of sounds and fire in the fireplace. Everything is as Ben said with the transition from inside to outside. Have a nice day.
Wow this topic is great. I have been training a lot more indoors or at the very least spending much more time indoors than “usual” with a bird and its amazing the personality difference and different things I have learned from it
Another good one .... Thank you Ben ..... I always acclimate my Hawk indoors and out..... Never had any problems .... and always ended up with a calm , non aggressive animal. Never found any denting of hunting instinct either.
Great video Ben It’s a no brainer to start inside Bonding eating of glove jumping to glove eating of lure jumping at lure all done with out the push of time , then outside
I have a MHH, and I bring him in for some bonding time each day. Other than having to lay down paper and occasionally having to clean up a miss from an exceptionally powerful slice, it really seems to help with our bonding. I also put the hood on him each time I take him back outside to keep him comfortable with that. At first he really resented the hood, and it would take several minutes to put it on, but now he knows when it comes off that he's going to be back in his space in his mew. Now its just part of his ritual without the avoidance. The last few days we've had some really cold temperatures here so he's been inside a bit more than usual to avoid risk of frostbite and edema.
Hiya Ben.. as always, great content. You've done a lot of vids on husbandry, training, mind set.. I'd really love to see you do some on what we're all here for in the first place. Hunting. With various birds in various situations. It doesn't have to be stellar quality, but I'd love to see you actually bringing it all together in the field if possible. Thanks as always!
Thanks for another great video Ben! Could you please do a video on the trade off and different techniques? Specifically for passage red tails if you have anything in particular that may help with them. Have recently tried to go from catching one squirrel and trading off for a days worth of meat, to trying to catch multiples each hunt and trading off for less meat each time. Got our first triple this weekend! But had some difficulty with the trade offs. Wanted to know your thoughts on this. Would greatly appreciate it!
Nice vid Ben. I think the only thing I would add is that a lot of the effectiveness of either method is dependent on the bird itself, and the level of experience of the falconer. My first bird was a female prairie. It took me 28 days before I dared let her fly free. My second female prairie was on the wing in 14 days. Both passage birds trapped during the same time of the year from within a couple hundred yards of each other. When I look back on it now, the difference in the birds was me, not them. I did vary indoor and outdoor training, but the difference with the second was I worked on a lot of the socializing stuff (dogs, kids, vehicles) at the same time that I was flying her and letting her do what she was born to do. Once I could make in on her, it was time to roll. Now, the risks I take doing that are that, if the bird isn’t ready, she may just fly away. It’s an entirely different from the risk I might be taking with a gos or coopers who might try to crawl up my leg and take my eyes out, vs. flee.
Ben, thank you for another great, informative video. I’m just getting started and was wondering about keeping a red tail in the mews but bringing him/her inside for training. Hooded or giant hood to transport to and from. Thanks.
Hey Ben! love the video, It was entertaining and answered quite a few of the questions I had, But do you know anything about Kestrel housing? I'm thinking about getting into the sport and I want to make sure I can care for it properly, I'm not exactly sure where to start with housing a kestrel so If you have any ideas on it please let me know. :)
Question for you Ben.... don't they tend to start calling out for food if you train them indoors? can't they associate your house to "feeding time" or "feeding location"?
Short answer is yes they can. Absolutely. The longer answer would be to go through species by species and age by age. If they come to think of the indoors as their territory, or more dangerous Lee if they are very young and they come to think of the indoors as their nest, then this can lead them to becoming very vocal. But for me if I am training a first-year passage bird, doing the first several steps indoors, has never lead to any vocalization. Because then I swiftly transition them to hunting and flying outdoors once the basics are learned. And then after that moving forward I basically never feed them indoors. If I have them indoors it is just for non-food associated social time, or just to weigh them on the scale. But even a passage bird, if it was always fed inside, can absolutely become vocal. Thank you for bringing up this question in this point. It is a very pertinent and good point to have here in the discussion for everybody. I appreciate it.
@Ben Woodruff thanks to you!! Great channel you have. In Spain capturing passage birds is not allowed, and this is where the big difference is. A passage bird is more mature than a new one that was born in captivity and knows what a human is. This type of birds are very likely to end up being VERY vocal. Cheers!!!
@@benwoodrufffalconry I have a passage red tail that I trapped late season and I decided to keep him over the molt. During the molt I became lazy on too many late and rainy days and fed him on his normal perch indoors and after a few months he started becoming vocal. I now only feed him outdoors or at least never on that perch. While that has helped there is no going back or “un-training” so now that is always there to some extent with this bird. Very interesting to note though how much more exaggerated this small mistake could be when translating to accipiters
More mews time and more hunting helps a lot but his “territory” is ultimately that perch and because I consistently have him with me and spend a good amount of time with him he is very manned down and used to my presence. Has the manners of my female kestrel I had
Ben...question... What about pooping while in the house? Obviously you clean it up but isnt that a HUGE mess to clean every time? Or is there only a particular time of day that they do that? Do they only go after they eat? Anything "pooping " words of wisdom? Lol.
The setup all depends on the species. But falconers use a wide range of perch setups indoors that keep the poop localized and easy to clean. There are shelf perch setups for Falcons, I usually use upright pole perch setups for merlins and kestrels. But I never just have the birds free range. I have them tethered in a perch setup that works well for their species.
@@benwoodrufffalconry Appreciate the response and im learning a lot from your videos! Do you have any videos on what hawk os best for what environment? Example, Harris hawk is for the hotter states, red tails anywhere.. etc...? (Obviously more specific)
Wood love to watch a video on mews setup ( difference between falcons/ hawks) and especially free loft vs tethered.
Thanks for the great vids
Hi, I train goshawks inside until they start eating on the glove, jump on the glove from the bar and then just outside. Socializing inside the TV - lots of pictures and lots of sounds and fire in the fireplace. Everything is as Ben said with the transition from inside to outside.
Have a nice day.
Wow this topic is great. I have been training a lot more indoors or at the very least spending much more time indoors than “usual” with a bird and its amazing the personality difference and different things I have learned from it
Another good one .... Thank you Ben ..... I always acclimate my Hawk indoors and out..... Never had any problems .... and always ended up with a calm , non aggressive animal. Never found any denting of hunting instinct either.
Great video Ben
It’s a no brainer to start inside Bonding eating of glove jumping to glove eating of lure jumping at lure all done with out the push of time , then outside
Well done Ben another good video mate. Let's keep that hawk psychology and training coming 👍really enjoy theses .
I have a MHH, and I bring him in for some bonding time each day. Other than having to lay down paper and occasionally having to clean up a miss from an exceptionally powerful slice, it really seems to help with our bonding. I also put the hood on him each time I take him back outside to keep him comfortable with that. At first he really resented the hood, and it would take several minutes to put it on, but now he knows when it comes off that he's going to be back in his space in his mew. Now its just part of his ritual without the avoidance. The last few days we've had some really cold temperatures here so he's been inside a bit more than usual to avoid risk of frostbite and edema.
Hiya Ben.. as always, great content. You've done a lot of vids on husbandry, training, mind set.. I'd really love to see you do some on what we're all here for in the first place. Hunting. With various birds in various situations. It doesn't have to be stellar quality, but I'd love to see you actually bringing it all together in the field if possible.
Thanks as always!
Thanks for another great video Ben!
Could you please do a video on the trade off and different techniques? Specifically for passage red tails if you have anything in particular that may help with them. Have recently tried to go from catching one squirrel and trading off for a days worth of meat, to trying to catch multiples each hunt and trading off for less meat each time. Got our first triple this weekend! But had some difficulty with the trade offs. Wanted to know your thoughts on this.
Would greatly appreciate it!
Nice vid Ben. I think the only thing I would add is that a lot of the effectiveness of either method is dependent on the bird itself, and the level of experience of the falconer. My first bird was a female prairie. It took me 28 days before I dared let her fly free. My second female prairie was on the wing in 14 days. Both passage birds trapped during the same time of the year from within a couple hundred yards of each other. When I look back on it now, the difference in the birds was me, not them. I did vary indoor and outdoor training, but the difference with the second was I worked on a lot of the socializing stuff (dogs, kids, vehicles) at the same time that I was flying her and letting her do what she was born to do. Once I could make in on her, it was time to roll. Now, the risks I take doing that are that, if the bird isn’t ready, she may just fly away. It’s an entirely different from the risk I might be taking with a gos or coopers who might try to crawl up my leg and take my eyes out, vs. flee.
Ben, thank you for another great, informative video. I’m just getting started and was wondering about keeping a red tail in the mews but bringing him/her inside for training. Hooded or giant hood to transport to and from. Thanks.
You are very welcome!
Check out Falconry Pursuit channel on UA-cam. He free lofts his bird from day 1 and trains the the bird in the mews.
Thank you for this channel :)
Hey Ben! love the video, It was entertaining and answered quite a few of the questions I had, But do you know anything about Kestrel housing? I'm thinking about getting into the sport and I want to make sure I can care for it properly, I'm not exactly sure where to start with housing a kestrel so If you have any ideas on it please let me know. :)
Great video.
Thanks for a great video. I never trained inside but may this fall with a passage micro.
I love your terminology.
Oh that's my son from 2 years ago. 😅
Question for you Ben.... don't they tend to start calling out for food if you train them indoors? can't they associate your house to "feeding time" or "feeding location"?
Short answer is yes they can. Absolutely. The longer answer would be to go through species by species and age by age. If they come to think of the indoors as their territory, or more dangerous Lee if they are very young and they come to think of the indoors as their nest, then this can lead them to becoming very vocal. But for me if I am training a first-year passage bird, doing the first several steps indoors, has never lead to any vocalization. Because then I swiftly transition them to hunting and flying outdoors once the basics are learned. And then after that moving forward I basically never feed them indoors. If I have them indoors it is just for non-food associated social time, or just to weigh them on the scale. But even a passage bird, if it was always fed inside, can absolutely become vocal. Thank you for bringing up this question in this point. It is a very pertinent and good point to have here in the discussion for everybody. I appreciate it.
@Ben Woodruff thanks to you!! Great channel you have. In Spain capturing passage birds is not allowed, and this is where the big difference is. A passage bird is more mature than a new one that was born in captivity and knows what a human is. This type of birds are very likely to end up being VERY vocal.
Cheers!!!
@@benwoodrufffalconry I have a passage red tail that I trapped late season and I decided to keep him over the molt. During the molt I became lazy on too many late and rainy days and fed him on his normal perch indoors and after a few months he started becoming vocal. I now only feed him outdoors or at least never on that perch. While that has helped there is no going back or “un-training” so now that is always there to some extent with this bird. Very interesting to note though how much more exaggerated this small mistake could be when translating to accipiters
More mews time and more hunting helps a lot but his “territory” is ultimately that perch and because I consistently have him with me and spend a good amount of time with him he is very manned down and used to my presence. Has the manners of my female kestrel I had
"Killer Puppy" ;-)
How do you swiftly “dispatch” a jackrabbit or other prey animal?
Grip the head with one hand and the back legs with the other. Give a swift, firm yank and internally decapitate.
I heard that!!
How often should a American Kestrel be flown?
Ben...question...
What about pooping while in the house? Obviously you clean it up but isnt that a HUGE mess to clean every time? Or is there only a particular time of day that they do that?
Do they only go after they eat?
Anything "pooping " words of wisdom? Lol.
The setup all depends on the species. But falconers use a wide range of perch setups indoors that keep the poop localized and easy to clean. There are shelf perch setups for Falcons, I usually use upright pole perch setups for merlins and kestrels. But I never just have the birds free range. I have them tethered in a perch setup that works well for their species.
@@benwoodrufffalconry Appreciate the response and im learning a lot from your videos! Do you have any videos on what hawk os best for what environment? Example, Harris hawk is for the hotter states, red tails anywhere.. etc...? (Obviously more specific)
lol my ak part the family ore like parrot is that chilled