My first PetForum thread about my Birds!

[GreenFeather]

Afternoon folks! Many of you may have seen my introduction thread and have read that I have a big family of animals, I would like to introduce you all to my birds!

First of all there are my Harris Hawks!

Harris hawks are the most common bird of prey used in falconry due to thier very high levels of intelegence and thier ability to learn and be trained qucikly and easily. They have extreamly good temperments and when trained correctly and regularily they make wonderful companions and working animals. They are used for many things such as Hunting, Education, Display and Pest Control.

And Because of thier skill, temperment and intelegence they are favoured by begginers in falconry, I am by no means a beginner nor an expert, but I do favour the harris hawk as a companion. What people must be aware of is that owning and caring for birds of prey is a full time LIFESTYLE not a HOBBY. The responsability of owning birds or prey is enourmous and should never be taken lightly! Insurance and vets bills are Sky high as these are speciality animals who need specialist care !

Never take on a bird of Prey unless you have trained for YEARS before hand and also have a highly experienced falconer to call upon for guidance.

I trained for 1 1/2 years before getting my First bird who was a Barn owl and I have many experienced and trained falconers who ae there when I need advice or help with my birds.

My First Bird was a Barn owl, who once trained, was passed of to a new owner, I then took on a Kestrel whom I hand reared from day 1, When my Kessie went missing (assumed stolen) We searched for her for nearly a year, all the right authorities where informed but we never foudn her again. I gave up falconry for a little while I was heart broken about my little Kessie. But then 8 months down the line, A Bird came along who needed help, he was no longer wanted my his breeder and so I took him on at 26 weeks old, I trained him myself from scratch, with a little Help from a close friend, and he is now 2 years old and is the best bird I have ever trained/owned/cared for!

I would liek you to meet Jakk! My 2 Year Old Harris Hawk, he has been considered by many fellow falconers to be a very small hawk for his sex and species but hes perfect for me! He flies loose, responds well to 3 different types or Lure, does flying displays, educational visits and handling sessions! We have been to both Secondry schools and collages along with universitys, Scouts, Cubs, Beavers, Explorers and Network groups.

He's a real star but is definatley a Mummies Boy and he doesnt liek to be handled by anyone but myself, he occasionally can be handled by my Partner Luke and My close Friend Ian, but not very often.

He is scared of Dogs and large livestock, we have no idea why, he may have had a traumatic experience as a youngster with dogs as we cannot get him used to them at all, but we can get him to settle with livestock.


Now bare with me, I have to figure out how to attach images ...

This is Jakk after a rough landing on a windy day!



And this is Jakk doing what he does best!



I will post many more photos of Jakk but for now I am just doing introductions!


Now Jakk isnt my only Harris hawk, I also have Jedd, Jedd has a very sad storey, I have had him about a year now and with the help of my Friend Ian he is finally starting to make a recovery!

Jedd is a Rescue Harris Hawk, He is much older and darker than Jakk, we have guessed he would now be about 5 years old, maybe older!

This is Jedd...






Jedd was unwanted by his originaly owner because "He's useless" - The words used my his previosu owner when we contacted him to say we found his Bird. Jedd was found on a very wet and rainy day, sat in a ladys garden, he had wounds on his face and feat, his beak was split, his talons where over grown, his leather kit was so old and hard and rough that it had rubbed sores into his scales on his legs. When he was collected he was soaked through to the bone and freezing cold. He stayed in an aviary by himself for nearly 3 months while we tracked his owner.

After being infuriated by Jedds Owner and his lack of giving a damn, I spoke with my Boss and Jedd came home with me the following day, it took about an hour to replace his leather kit with softer new kit, clean all his wounds out, trim his talons and repai his beak as best I could, on top of that it took 2 months to get him back to a health looking state, were he was a healthy weight, his wounds had healed and his beak grown out.
During these two months we unfortunatley made the discovery that Jedd was abused in his previosu home, his reactions and behaviour to certain movements and actions showed this clearly, and it was even worse if women where involved. So Jedd has gone to stay with my Friend Ian, whom he favours and is very much attached to, he now leads a very happy and full life, and he stays with me on a regular basis when Ian goes away on holiday.

[GreenFeather]

So my second lot of birds I will be writing about are my very loyal Chickens! We have had many many chickens pass through our hoem since we first started keeping them 3 years ago!

So our first 4 Hens where -

Buffy - Buff Sussex
Gladys - Wheaten Marrans
Hatty - Crested Cream Legbar
Shirley - Partridge Wyandotte

and a few weeks later we got another two Hens -

Daisy - Marsh Daisy
Morag - Scotts Dumpy

We had these hens for about a year and we decided we wanted a few chickies running round for the summer, so instead of getting a cockerel we bought various breeds of fertile hatching eggs! And Three of our hens brooded and reared the eggs/hatchlings.

Out of our hatchlings we kept several of our hatchlings -

Luna (loopy Luna) - White Sussex
Babs (Barbara) - Marans/legbar Hybrid
Dotty (Dorothy) - Speckled Sussex

And then only about 9 months ago, a Neighbour came to me, she was very upset, she had bought two hens a few years ago, and one had just died, and teh other was very lonly and was plucking her feathers and generally being very lonely and un happy, she had also stopped laying eggs, so she asked if we would put her in with our girls! Certainly! So the next day Poppy arrived, she is also a hybrid!

And so now we had a nice big group of 10 hens, with 9/10 eggs a day ! and eventaully Poppy after two weeks also started laying eggs again!

Sadly, about 2 months ago, we lost our Buff sussex (Buffy) to Organ failure, and as heart broken as we where, we had to say goodbye :'(

And due to the loss of Buffy, we decided to have more babys and currently have 7 gorgeous chickies running round the garden! We do intend on keeping any and all that turn out to be hens, and rehome any cockerels!

6 of the chicks are large fowl hens, and 1 is a little Serama Bantam, she was the only one out of 6 to hatch, her name is Mo short for Gizmo! And as she was on her own, and is far to small to be with teh otehr chicks, she has turned into my totally hand reared, imprinted ghost! I just hope taht we are right and she turns out to be a hen! And if she does, then I shall go out and buy her another two hens for companionship

I'll post photos off all our hens, and lots of our babys very shortly, but first I need to find them all!

I hope you like them x

[poohdog]

A couple of guys including a mod (Hawksport) are bird of prey nuts....You will enjoy a chat with them if they spot you....

[pheebus]

Originally Posted by GreenFeather

So my second lot of birds I will be writing about are my very loyal Chickens! We have had many many chickens pass through our hoem since we first started keeping them 3 years ago!

So our first 4 Hens where -

Buffy - Buff Sussex
Gladys - Wheaten Marrans
Hatty - Crested Cream Legbar
Shirley - Partridge Wyandotte

and a few weeks later we got another two Hens -

Daisy - Marsh Daisy
Morag - Scotts Dumpy

We had these hens for about a year and we decided we wanted a few chickies running round for the summer, so instead of getting a cockerel we bought various breeds of fertile hatching eggs! And Three of our hens brooded and reared the eggs/hatchlings.

Out of our hatchlings we kept several of our hatchlings -

Luna (loopy Luna) - White Sussex
Babs (Barbara) - Marans/legbar Hybrid
Dotty (Dorothy) - Speckled Sussex

And then only about 9 months ago, a Neighbour came to me, she was very upset, she had bought two hens a few years ago, and one had just died, and teh other was very lonly and was plucking her feathers and generally being very lonely and un happy, she had also stopped laying eggs, so she asked if we would put her in with our girls! Certainly! So the next day Poppy arrived, she is also a hybrid!

And so now we had a nice big group of 10 hens, with 9/10 eggs a day ! and eventaully Poppy after two weeks also started laying eggs again!

Sadly, about 2 months ago, we lost our Buff sussex (Buffy) to Organ failure, and as heart broken as we where, we had to say goodbye :'(

And due to the loss of Buffy, we decided to have more babys and currently have 7 gorgeous chickies running round the garden! We do intend on keeping any and all that turn out to be hens, and rehome any cockerels!

6 of the chicks are large fowl hens, and 1 is a little Serama Bantam, she was the only one out of 6 to hatch, her name is Mo short for Gizmo! And as she was on her own, and is far to small to be with teh otehr chicks, she has turned into my totally hand reared, imprinted ghost! I just hope taht we are right and she turns out to be a hen! And if she does, then I shall go out and buy her another two hens for companionship

I'll post photos off all our hens, and lots of our babys very shortly, but first I need to find them all!

I hope you like them x

N'awwwww! Your Harris Hawks are so cute! x Loved the pictures, I'll be waiting for the others! x