How do you attache your bells ?

[Midge]

I saw bells attached to the legs of a bird , .......with small cable ties .
Now calm down a second , when i inspected this further it was a brilliant idea .the cable tie was inside the casing of some stripped copper wire(electrical cable) , it was one of those wee tiny cable ties and it was loose around the leg with the tail cut well close so that the bird couldn't pull it any more around its leg.
whats your views ?

[AmateurAustringer]

Wouldnt use it myself, tail mount with less leg clutter the better.

[BrianM]

risk of snagging id have thought

[Cobra]

I saw bells attached to the legs of a bird , .......with small cable ties .
Now calm down a second , when i inspected this further it was a brilliant idea .the cable tie was inside the casing of some stripped copper wire(electrical cable) , it was one of those wee tiny cable ties and it was loose around the leg with the tail cut well close so that the bird couldn't pull it any more around its leg.
whats your views ?

I have tried it with some success, the "outer casing" will go hard / brittle in the ( cold) winter and have a "shrinking effect", So be vigalant.
Also No matter how tight you trim the loose end a bird will always manage to tighten it, a drop of rapid epoxy or super glue should stop this.

[Harris]

I use a similar method as described, the cable tie goes through a length of thin flexible plastic tube (medical stuff), when the tie pulls up it forms a sort of elongated egg shape, which keeps the bell away from the leg, this isn't on a Hunting bird though, but to be honest he gets into some rediculous positions in trees, and anything small enough to poke through the small loop will break as soon as he moves.

[Red-Devil]

try bewitts

[Hacker]

If you attach the bell when flying you can tie it to the anklet eyelet.
Some people use velcro fixed bewits, good thing with this is that if the bird dissapears then they will eventually fall off and not hinder the bird.

[Dean]

I saw bells attached to the legs of a bird , .......with small cable ties .
Now calm down a second , when i inspected this further it was a brilliant idea .the cable tie was inside the casing of some stripped copper wire(electrical cable) , it was one of those wee tiny cable ties and it was loose around the leg with the tail cut well close so that the bird couldn't pull it any more around its leg.
whats your views ?
KANGAROO BEWITS ONLY!!!!!

[Sprout]

Following a tourniquet being applied it takes approx 20 minutes for soft tissue damage to occur, not much longer than this then vascular compromise can be permanent leading to loss of a limb. I understand your precautions and the risk of the tie pulling tighter is probably small but it is still a small chance so why risk it? If you need to put bells on legs use a bewitt - whats the worst case scenario with a bewitt?? the leather rots/is weak and the bell falls off!! Better the bell fall off than the leg.

[MickeyDredd]

Following a tourniquet being applied it takes approx 20 minutes for soft tissue damage to occur, not much longer than this then vascular compromise can be permanent leading to loss of a limb.

I love it when you talk dirty :lol:

[Phill Gibbons]

Hi In my oppinion there is only one safe way to attach a bell to a raptors leg and that is by the means of a proper bewit sorry call me old fashend if u want but i think a better name is the wise.... cheers All
Funky..:)

[RedNoseK9]

one advantage with using a cableb tie you can take it off after every flying session and put on next time so its quieter and less around leg in mews but easy to hear when out hunting obviously this would accompany a tail bell.

the cable tie is through a hole in the anklet not around the leg

[Midge]

sprout , I see where your coming from , i thought of this myself and the fella says he's had no bother with them tightening although he did say they DO get hard and brittle.
I DO use leather bewits that I made myself (and am quite proud of myself too !) they're working well and I'll replace them for this season with .................NEW BEWITS .
Thanks guys.

[Tasha55403]

Personally, I prefer and use a leather bewit. But, I will say, we are required in the State of Minnesota to band ALL birds, wild or captive bred. And the bands are simply black cable ties with a number printed on it. A piece of plastic hose keeps the cable tie from overtightening. They give us a one size fits all band-same for a sharpie or a redtail:roll: While I wish we didn't have to band the small birds, I haven't had one come to harm from it, yet (knocking on wood).

[Hacker]

Tasha,
we used to have rings like that here as well.

[Tasha55403]

Captive bred birds get a nice seamless band, but wild taken birds get the black cable tie:roll: We're really high tech over here you know:rolleyes:

[Tim Laycock]

Used to cable tie bells to the eyelet in an aylmeri :rolleyes:

Seemed fine at the time.

[Harris]

Its physically impossible for the cabeltie to pull any tighter than the plastic tube it is fed through, so the tourneque effect is eradicated. I do prefer bewits and will be using them for my hunting hawk, but the method I described above is extremely quick to do, and can be put on the bird one handed whilst sat on the fist, and simply snipped off before putting back in the mews. :yawinkle:

[Osiris]

Stick with a tailmount for a bell or a bewit on the leg, and you can't really go wrong.

[Gary.B]

I used the cable tie method at the beginning of last season, the birds leg became sore so I changed to a smaller bell on a tail mount.

[EddieT]

I used a cable tie inside medical tubing as a last resort on a basket case of a female pere/saker who had shred her deck feathers when the bell was put on her tail and was then destroying leather bewits on her leg at least once a day. To avoid any risk of the cable tie pulling tighter than required i s****ed flat all the 'teeth' on the inside of the cable tie closer in than where I wanted the cable tie to fasten to. Sizing the length of tubing used correctly also prevented any discomfort. I hope I have described this correctly.

This set up was indestructable and she eventually learned not to pull at it. (Also, once entered she had a better vent for her considerable attitude and many of her other 'issues' subsided!).

In future I will continue with tail mounting bells and would always recomend leather bewits for leg mounting, as I said, the above was a last resort solution for a very problematic individual.

[FoxHunter]

Following a tourniquet being applied it takes approx 20 minutes for soft tissue damage to occur, not much longer than this then vascular compromise can be permanent leading to loss of a limb. I understand your precautions and the risk of the tie pulling tighter is probably small but it is still a small chance so why risk it? If you need to put bells on legs use a bewitt - whats the worst case scenario with a bewitt?? the leather rots/is weak and the bell falls off!! Better the bell fall off than the leg.
I agree;the above is good advice and should be heeded.

[GregMik]

Tail mount....

http://www.falconryforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14254

If not then a traditional bewitt bell. IF you have a hole for the cable tie in the anklet....that will work also...




Greg