Broken feathers

[Sokoly]

Hi mates, I have one peregrine falcon that broke most of it's primaries of her left wing. She has been well manned. The first primary had follen and its coming back. The rest of the primaries are still there but broken the half lenth, so there is no support for the first one that is comming out. I am affraid that she might broke it again. What do you suggest? Imping is out of the question since there are 5 feathers in a row that should be impinned.

[Tim Laycock]

My advice is to imp the broken shafts with anything!
Pigeon, crow, even tail feathers! :shock:
Support for the new feathers while they are in the blood is essential otherwise your next season does not look too good to me!

Imping the broken shafts is a must in my opinion

[Barry]

Sokoly,

Imping is never out of the question if you have anything of the old feather shafts left in place. I totally agree with Blackbird, you have to imp your peregrine or likely never have feather perfect status again, and worse you'll see some blood from newly developing feathers if you don't imp.

Barry.

[Sokoly]

Luckilli I still have the broken feathers. I will try to fix'em laiter. I just wander if they will hold because its 5 feathers in a row. I have never done it with 5 feathers. I have impinned one or two but never 5 consecutive feathers.

O.K. Thanks I see that the only way to have a fully feathered bird for the next season is imping.

[Tim Laycock]

If the quality of your adhesive is good the repairs will hold, you wont be flying by the sound of it anyway.
Use an epoxy adhesive such as "Araldite Rapid", dont be tempted to use superglue, this wont last long at all!

I once had to imp two full wings and a full tail into an aquaintance's common buzzard, they lasted until it moulted the next year

[Parahawker]

Get some goose secondarys, the shaft will be large enough to slide over the remaining stumps which if too short can not be pined without *****ing the cuticle core
filed with glue the bond should be hard

the goose feathers are hard waring & will give more support than any other type of feather

Put the bird in a seclusion chamber lined with perspex or tight polythene
With a block no more than 2 foot high in the centre
Do not put the bird on a screen perch teatherd or unteathered
as the falcon limbers up (winging) it will catch the blood feathers on the perch either side of her
she should also not be able to hang off the roof

Good luck,

[Tim Laycock]

Instead of ****ing around searching for goose feathers I would just get it sorted :rolleyes:
Totaly valid advice however.