harris hawk problems advice please

[coney clucky 93]

my harris female which ive flown two seasons as suddenly turned aggresive she was left to moult and was took out of her flight two weeks ago and manning was going well her behaviour was after two or three days was calm and she was settling down to the routine of manning her weight had come down from 2 13 to 2 8oz over the next few days she was calm and steady and feeding of fist she was manned both in and outside and alwas well her weight is now 2 4 1/2 oz and she was steady unttill to day she was coming on the creance 15 ft no bother i gave her her food as normal returned her to her bow perch and then all hell broke loose she footed me with both feet and she was screaming and biting my hand untill this happened she was the model of calmness she ws flown at 2 4 last year and 2 3 the first year she as never done owt like this before and any advice would be great this as rocked me a bit as she as punctured my hand and made a mess of my finger as i had put her away and was giving her the normal stroke which she always got

[CityHunter.uK 12]

I would try nudging the weight up a little and see if she goes back to being calm. The bird may have been having a bad day you never know they are only obedient for food after all. Also I have had mine hand cuff me when it mistook my hand for having food in it when I was in the avairy in low light

[j j m 6,485]

you might of brought her weight down a bit quick mate

[grovsey 74]

you might of brought her weight down a bit quick mate

was thinking the same also maybe to low ,you say she started the season at 2.4 last yr what weight did she end the season at ??????????

Edited September 8, 2011 by grovsey

[j j m 6,485]

thats another good point there bud

[coney clucky 93]

her fat weight at the start of this season was 2lb 12 1/2 oz she was flown at 2lb 5 3/4 at the end of her last season and would still come to fist at 2lb 6 1/2 oz but was slow to come and wasnt hunting at that weight just to fist

[jasper65 6]

seen this before coney, they put on alot of fat reserves when put down to moult which needs to come off, this is a process of enseaming a Hawk. what we all tend to do is just drop them without the same care and attention used in the initial manning process when she was first taken up, basically she may well be down in weight but if she wasn't handled much in the process she will still be pretty arse. I'm not saying this is the case just somthing to think about .

 

You could try bringing her weight up again to bring her down again, but while doing this feed her up each time on the fist until she shows signs of being over weight and then drop gher again to get that edge back, if you have taken her up pretty high near her top weight just miss a whole day with food and then start to bring her down as normal until she starts to come into condition again.

 

some agression is shown around the bow mainly because they become quite territorial around that area, getting her out in the field and flying her somehwere different would probably help matters by getting her away from her territory....

 

Jasp

[grovsey 74]

her fat weight at the start of this season was 2lb 12 1/2 oz she was flown at 2lb 5 3/4 at the end of her last season and would still come to fist at 2lb 6 1/2 oz but was slow to come and wasnt hunting at that weight just to fist

thats only 3/4 ox over a season thats nothing as id expect a bird flown well to but on a couple or oz of good muscle and going of ur 2 5 3/4 if would expepect the bird to be around 2-7 1/2 ish at the end

this is a superior harris and whats fat weight on pulling this yr mate