I've been doing a lot of research, and been pretty interested. I'm thinking of waiting until I get out of college and then getting my apprenticeship after building a good mews. Definitely going to start with a red-tailed hawk. I have good amounts of hunting land so I think I could get a sponsor for my apprenticeship fairly easy.

Anyone else into this? It's becoming more and more common.

Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falconry
More Info: http://www.themodernapprentice.com/

Red-tailed Hawk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-tailed_Hawk

It seems you're already on the right track for success.

I've, very casually, looked at some information about it, but would not have ample grounds for the bird to be successful.

Keep us informed of how all of this plays out.

Thanks, and by the way I like your signature. I've actually heard of some people using owls in Falconry, it's just harder because they prefer to hunt at night.

Bump

O.o

Explain some more. What would you do?

Do you actually "train" the red-tail to hunt - if so, what do you hunt

You don't really train it to hunt, it does that instinctually. The real training is getting it used to people and living with them.

Hunting with them you make them wear a hood, which is a mask that covers it's eyes. This mask keeps them calm as they are not receiving any visual stimuli. Then when you are ready you take the hood off and let the bird take off. Then you assist by flushing out small prey on the ground, this can be accomplished by walking through the brush, using a dog, or shooting marbles with a slingshot to scare small game up. Once the hawk sees something it will go straight for it, and they usually kill it pretty fast. Then you have to get to the bird and take it's kill and feed it some of your own meat and kind of trade with it.

The interesting thing is when you let these hawks go they are free to leave if they want. However, hawks are smart enough to realize that you give them regular food and shelter and that having a human help them hunt is beneficial. So the hawk will continue to come back. Some hawks have been known to leave in the colder months, only to come back and find their human companion next spring.

Hawks prey on small game, but if you ever get to the point that you can own a Golden or Bald Eagle they can take out foxes, sheep, small hogs and anything else around that size.

sounds complicated.. but would be interesting to do

haha cool. i dunno why you'd wanna trade it with other meat though just let it hunt every meal and keep what it earns while providing shelter for it would be good (if i ever owned one )

do you live in an area open enough to let it hunt and all? what about in the winter?

You have to trade the meat in the training to get it used to relying on food from you.

I have family ranches in Georgia, Florida, and Texas. So yes I have tons of land. We actually have Bald Eagles on our Florida Ranch.

In the winter you can keep hunting if the weather is good enough. If not you can just fly the bird without actually hunting and feed it from it's usual meat supply.

oh i see, its like disciplining them/ letting them be dependent on you so they come back


IMO capture a bald eagle and train it hahah (j/k it would probably rip somebody's scalp off and feast on the gooeys inside )