Whens the best time?

[Washington_Falconry]

When is the best time to remove parent reared hh's for hard penning?
Thanks becky

[Spring]

Why do you want to remove them ?

[Graham Stuart]

What are you doing with the young, if your selling them then wait till the buyer comes and catch them up and fit anklets and jesses there and then and the buyers will know they are parent reared birds...Graham

[Washington_Falconry]

What are you doing with the young, if your selling them then wait till the buyer comes and catch them up and fit anklets and jesses there and then and the buyers will know they are parent reared birds...Graham


Well its really just reserch. i dont breed birds myself, but if i was to buy one, i would want to know they where not coming out too early or too late for me to train them.

Thanks becky :)

[Graham Stuart]

If your buying then as above go see the birds and watch the breeder catch up the young, you will know if they are parent reared then as they will be mad as a brush, i would say between 12-16 weeks but this is only my opinion....Graham

[Washington_Falconry]

If your buying then as above go see the birds and watch the breeder catch up the young, you will know if they are parent reared then as they will be mad as a brush, i would say between 12-16 weeks but this is only my opinion....Graham


cheers mate big help :)

thanks! becky

[FalconGriff]

Within sense and reason the longer you can persuade the breeder to keep them with the parents the better. Harris probably go on imprinting for longer than any other breed (along with Red Tails) If you take them too early and they start to scream because of late imprinting on you, you will have a Dickins of a job stopping them. I would use 16 weeks as a minimum to be safe.

[SSL]

When is the best time to remove parent reared hh's for hard penning?
Thanks becky

Hard penning is when the blood recedes from the feather shafts and the shafts harden off meaning the feathers are no longer 'in blood' and have finished growing.

The hawks should not be move untill this point as theres a risk of feathers breaking, this will happen at around 10 weeks of age. There is no reason why a hawk cannot be caught up at this point and trained and flown at quarry but most prefer to leave the birds to get fat for another couple of weeks of months, so that they have more weight to get off the bird to train it - dont make sense to me :lol:

[Jack]

Here in the US it is the most common practice to wait until 16 weeks or more. Never younger than 16 weeks. I have to say that I seldom ever see a vocal Harris hawk here, which speaks well for that practice. I personally feel that 20 to 24 weeks would be better. That is the average age of most passage HH we would trap I believe. Or very close to that.


Jack

[Raseni]

I would say about 14-16weeks, but if they are older, I think that might be even better.
I got my male at 14 weeks, he is totally silent, and just a charm on the fist, and very agressive on quarry.


cheers
Rasmus

[claw]

22 weeks might be a bit harder to man but les chance of being vocal

[SSL]

Unless flown hard more than two days a week with success any Harris will be vocal whether taken at 12 weeks 22 week or 52 weeks.

Once penned just fly it at quarry (everyday if you can) and it will be silent.