social imprinting

[Trigger]

I have only ever fullly imprinted owls or trained parent reared Hawks and falcons but I quite fancy socialy imprinting a Kestrel this year. I only have a vague idea on what to do and I know it is easy to do wrong and ruin a bied. I understand that it involves socializing the young bird but not allowing it to see you feeding it. is this correct? tried readin up but gettin a bit confused! :?

[IAmTheWeasel]

Make the bird only move away from you for food and never towards you during initial training. I have been told this can aid in preventing screaming alot......Never imprinted a bird so I'm not speaking from experience though.
:toimonst:

[Shaun Byrne]

Just live with the bird 24/7, NEVER let it see you with food and like W says always take it to its food and allow it to fly/hop/walk away from you to it. Just be ready for the tantrums at breeding time!!

[IAmTheWeasel]

In my opinion there aren't many birds that sound worse than an imprint Kestrel....I had one.....for a day....and that was too long......kakakakakakakakaka.............kakakakak akakakakakakaka.........ka............kakakaka.... ...kakakakakakakakakakaka........ka............... ....kakakakakakaka....that about sums it up.....

[Sparrow Hawker]

Hi Trigger,

Have you seen "Imprint Goshawk" by Dave Jones very interesting and takes you through the imprinting stage. As i'm led to believe I think the basic guideline and like you said; is not to let the bird see you take food to it or you can take the bird to the the food. Like H4wka says living and socialising with it 24/7.

I'd be very interested to here any other comments, suggestions and tips as I'm new to this as well and hoping to give it a go later in the year.

All The Best,

HH

[Wightwings]

inprinted a gy/saker falcon and just treated him as a part of the family, as he just did with us. never fed him direct and he always found his food and always somewhere diff. some times we were around some times not.
he turned out to be a superb bird and did initially go through a noisy faze during training to the lure as we still had to drop his weight a little.

once going he was the best falcon we ever had and a complete character. out flying his first trick was to find a stone "kill" it by jumping on it squeeling at it and would even retreive it if we took it of him and threw it away. once bored with that he would fly until he dropped and even after chasing kessies about ( he HATED them ) would come back and stooge around us for ages.

great experience i have to say and can be very rewarding

[Bubo]

awwwwww that is amazing and sounds brill!!
bubo

[FalconerUK]

ALL FALCONS VOCALIZE IN SOCIAL SITUATIONS SCREAMING IN IMPRINTS IS OFTEN LINKED TO RECOGNITION OF THE FALCONER & NOT NECESSARILY FOOD RELATED,FOOD SHOULD BE PLENTIFULL & HOODING WITHOUT BRACING SHOULD BE CARRIED OUT FROM 3 TO 4 WEEKS CONSTANT CONPANIONSHIP & SOCIALIZING WILL GREATLY REDUCE SCREAMING.IMPRINTS INVOLVE LOTS OF TIME BUT THE END RESULTS ARE GREAT .
DEVELOPMENT & TRAINING IMPRINTED FALCON PLAN.
0-2 weeks develops bonding,socialization,trust,eating food from dish.
3-4 weeks learns hood,feeds from lure,introduced to dog,car etc & being approached.
5-6 weeks looks for lure,interacts with people,attach jesses & block train.
7-9 weeks meals scheduled fed of lure,short flights,blocked out.
10-12 weeks longer flights learns its area falcon may be hacked.
12 kite training,wait on & gain condition

[Finnish]

I would have to agree with you weasel i would not bother,sorry.I have 2 kestrel,s and there both parent reared.

[FalconerUK]

WIGHTWINGS SOUNDS LIKE GOOD BIRD IMPRINTS ARE CHARACTERS LIKE YOU SAY I TRAINED TWO MALE GYR SAKERS (IMPRINTS ) TAME HACKED THEM THE SAME. ONE IS SILENT & OTHER IS A LITTLE NOISEY IM HOPING GETS OUT OF THIS WHEN ENTERS ON QUARRY.

[Wightwings]

as you can see he was a character

[Wightwings]

as you can see he was a character

[Wightwings]

one more...........blummin heck they uploaded must be me current camera then

[FalconerUK]

VERY NICE MATE WOULD SEND U PICS BUT NOT VERY GOOD ON COMPUTER

[Darren]

make intresting reading.....how much do you feed the chick when it is young, when u say spend 24hrs 7 days a week with it...does it sleep at night?

[FalconerUK]

from 2 weeks old will eat four to 6 meals a day from around 6.00 am to 10.oo pm 4 to 6 weeks goes down to three ,6 to 10 weeks are 2 meals a day after this stage a single meal should always have much to eat this will help prevent screaming & mantling you will no when a meal can be dropped through falcons appetite change.feed in diffrent places.

[PeregrinesUK]

when it comes to training do you do the same with the lure add chick, rat whatever then bring the falcon in the room to 'find it' or is it ok to throw it out for the bird or it this part one and part two if you know what i mean and what about feeding on the fist or again is this like with goshawks some thing you would introduce later on.

[LeighJauncey]

I started my female peregrine on the lure at about 4 weeks and used to hide it under flowerpots and things, set her down on a perch of some sort and then pull the lure out on a longish line. She eventually cottoned on to the fact that I was doing it but, although she can be quite vocal, she's not a screamer and only makes a noise when she thinks I'm not paying her enough attention. She still spends the night on a block in the kitchen where she assured of lots of attention from the rest of the family. She has a brilliantly gentle character and 'shows off' like anything, dancing round, catching leaves and looking upside down at everything, when she meets someone new.

[PeregrinesUK]

do you have any advice on rasing the falcon ive orderd a female peregrine ive just got the nick fox videos and am watching them now but any practical advice would be great. The bird will be with me all day everyday in van at work flown at gulls crows etc - your bird is beautiful who bred her is she peregrinus peregrinus what type of weight does she make

[LeighJauncey]

I based everything I did on the Nick Fox video. It's hard to say what one does right - much easier to know what you've done wrong! I know I screwed up the hooding process - I didn't have one anything like the right size at the right time - she's not shy of the hood - just hates wearing it and will even bate with it on (about the only time she ever bates!) So I'm afraid I very rarely hood her but as she is my only bird it's not too much of a problem - she travels happily in the car stood on the back seat looking out between the two front ones - when she was a few months old she would happily lie down and go to sleep on a longish journey. As everyone else has said - lots of time - lots of touching and stroking too and exposure to everything! She came from a breeder in Sussex who was something to do with the Skybrids set up she's 1/8 Barbary though you wouldn't know to look at her and flies at anything between 1lb 15oz and 2lb 3oz depending on how keen/dependent or independent I want her!
If you want to see some more pics of her development the check out my website http://www.leighjauncey.ukonline.co.uk and follow the falconry link on the first page.

[PeregrinesUK]

excellent pics mate, ive ordered mine from chris southern www.southowramfalcons.co.uk he has some beautiful falcons as well i hope hoodings the only problem i face although i should be alright i must have about 30 hoods of varous size i bought over the years. ill watch the other videos and see if i can come up with some more q's regards mike

[Martin]

excellent pics mate, ive ordered mine from chris southern www.southowramfalcons.co.uk he has some beautiful falcons as well i hope hoodings the only problem i face although i should be alright i must have about 30 hoods of varous size i bought over the years. ill watch the other videos and see if i can come up with some more q's regards mike

Hope you get one mate, he doesn't seem to breed much now days, especially now he works for rip off Garland, :lol:

didn't breed hardly any birds last year, so best of luck :(

[MattSpar]

I've had quite a bit to do with LeighJauncey's peregrine, she's boarded with me once & I'd just like to say in my opinion he's done a damn good job of social imprinting her, hooding aside. She's an advertisement for the process in fact.

[Hawkmaster]

MattSpar where do you live?

[LeighJauncey]

He doesn't live in Torquay, unfortunately! We go way back to our school days - it was him that got me back into falconry after a long lay off - he's way more experienced than me - I wouldn't have trusted my peregrine to anyone else whilst I was in hospital

[Jastreb]

How big box any of you use for imprinting sparrowhawk?
I will use carton box with plexyglass on the front page, same like L J.

[OutFlying]

Jastreb,
I used a imprint tube made from a shatterproof plastic. 26" in diameter and 24" high. Easy to clean, imprint can see all around. When you want to access the young hawk for whatever, just lift the tube off (can also clean it now without disturbing chick), leaving the base and chick as was. Now it is easy to hold, handle or whatever with the chick without towering over it as per a box.
OF.

something similar here -

http://www.123webit.co.uk/raptorbox/inprint%20tank%20for%20falcons%20or%20goss.jpg

[Jastreb]

Thanks, nice and easy!
Did you made that imp. pen alone or did you bought it?

[OutFlying]

Jastrab,
that picture is from the manufacture (not mine), I just rolled a piece of polyplex and bolted it into shape. For the base I used something similar to a large hawk bath.
OF

[ShaunRoach]

hi their i am just trying to social imprint a female harris hawk to prove all my friends that it can be done with out the constant screeming wish me luck

[Goldie]

ok shaun, I wish you luck :lol: