Double clutching Harris's

[ChrisMews]

Has anyone got any experience on double clutching Harris's.I have a pair who have three eggs a year they nestbuild,incubate and rear the young till 16 weeks alone.I also have a Goshawk pair (5 years) Every year they build a nest she lays eggs but they are always infertile.This year I thought of double clutching the Harris's and giving the Gos Harris eggs to incubate and rear.However I really don't want to mess things up with the Harris hawks.Till date Ive been given quite allot of advise but it seems 50 % of breeders say leave them alone the other 50 % say feed them extra quality diet and calcuim suppliment and pull the first cluch.I'm not really looking for opinions on double clutching as in normal cicumstances I would not double cluch however it could be helpfull to the goshawk pair. Chris

[Accipitra]

Just pull one of the harris hawk eggs if you dont want to breed a load of harrishawks, problem solved!
The goshawks will get some practice without being overfaced and you wont have a load of extra HHs to home 8-)

[Barbary Boy]

all my harris hawks double clutch themselves! i do nothing, just put good grub in and ring the young. but all 3prs end up laying a second clutch while there are well grown young in with them, the young,(particularly the males) funnily enough share the incubation of the second set of eggs? with there parents. i dont want them to do this, they just do! if you want to double clutch let the 1st clutch have at least a week to 10 days natural incubation before pulling them i would put money on it the pair will recycle about a fortnight later.

[Tim Laycock]

If you dont want them to do this then why do you let them :rolleyes:

[Barbary Boy]

If you dont want them to do this then why do you let them :rolleyes:
what would you do?

[Tim Laycock]

remove the adult male

[Big JoeJoe]

remove the adult male

Good answer Tim :supz:

[Tim Laycock]

It stops most peoples I knows hhs from double clutching :wink:

[ChrisMews]

Rhiannon,
fair point but I feel it's better for the young harris's to grow up together rather than alone especially when they/it is being brought up by a yellow eyed accipiter.Secondly the survival rate is prefferable with more young.Lastly I can deal with the extra young there is still a demand in this neck of the woods. Chris

[Tim Laycock]

Rhiannon,
fair point but I feel it's better for the young harris's to grow up together rather than alone especially when they/it is being brought up by a yellow eyed accipiter.Secondly the survival rate is prefferable with more young.Lastly I can deal with the extra young there is still a demand in this neck of the woods. Chris

Wouldnt have thought it would matter, I know a few singular hhs that have been raised by imprint goshawks, turned out to be quite well ballanced birds

[Pitbull]

Ive seen a gos thats been brought up with HH but would the HH be different in any way from being raised by gosses

[ChrisMews]

Wouldnt have thought it would matter, I know a few singular hhs that have been raised by imprint goshawks, turned out to be quite well ballanced birds

Interesting but did they go on to breed ?

[ChrisMews]

[QUOTE=Barbary Boy]all my harris hawks double clutch themselves! i

Unfortunatly due to the short summer here mine have never laid a second clutch plus I need it to coincide with when the goses lay.Last years clutches were a week apart.

[Red-Devil]

Wouldnt have thought it would matter, I know a few singular hhs that have been raised by imprint goshawks, turned out to be quite well ballanced birds
only they wont breed

[Tim Laycock]

Interesting but did they go on to breed ?

Wouldnt know Chris,the birds are still immature.
I would imagine it wouldnt be a problem though, they fly in groups with other harris hawks without any trouble.
Anyone who says they will not is just sumising, thats for sure:wink: