training chickens for voluntary flight

[Oven Ready]

Quote:
Sorry, I missed this bit of your post.

We don't do it but a lot of people here do. They say you should clip both wings to retain the balance and give some ability to fly to evade predators, even two or three feet of vertical flight up a tree is enough to get away from a dog or cat, a single clipped wing will result in a total inability to fly at all.

This is a guide to clipping but promotes the one wing clipping technique contrary to what I have said above - the choice is obviously yours. Wing Clipping Guide

 

[centrarchid]

Oven Ready,

The reward system in use demands Eduardo fly to get his eats. He is starting to learn that cheating by making multiple short flights or walking does not get him anything. He is also insisting on bigger rewards. Holding feed container gets him going when sight of single mealworm does not.

I am banking that on a open short grass football field he is going to feel vulnerable and might even commit to flight just to reach cover. This based in part on my inability to walk a flock across an open field. When I attempt to walk them across field, they either cut back into fence row behind me or flush into flight across field to next available cover (fence row or building).

During winter with birds in woodlot, my birds if pushed / flushed would also power flight up through trees (> 80 feet) and transition to horizontal flight back to barn which was almost always not in line-of-sight making any accurate estimates on actual distance covered and time difficult. It takes them a couple hundred feet horizontal distance to get above trees but from my perspective it looked almost vertical.


Estimating flight speed will require distance and time for me. Part of reason for using football field since it has marks. Based on experience with these guys when I was a kid, trimmed out flight speed is in range of 25 to 40 miles per hour. Cross winds likely pushed for higher end of that range. Stall speed is at lower end of range. I might be able to borrow radar from campus police (office is next to football field).

"Startler" in end will be used to get really long flights which should be much better than voluntary performances. Startler must not be recognizable as being me. Also do not want to get in trouble with causing undo stress on Eduardo in eyes of some observers. I will be doing some of this in a very public setting. Startler will be addressed later. Got any ideas on how it would look / work? Giant owl face?

Flight weight is an issue here. Best flying birds I had as kid possessed muscle bound breast and abdomen was firm and tight. Mentallity of Eduardo may also be like that of a hawk trained for falconry, a little lean makes for more effort on the wing.

 

[centrarchid]

This is my first attempt using YouTube.

Video clip linked below shows Eduardo flying horizontally approximately 13 feet from staircase newel to my hand (not 15 feet as in video title since I stood on that marker). Lighting poor making it look like he is barely flapping wings. Will use better camera next time and from different angle so distance appears as is.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

The video of Eduardo is awesome! Well done! I don't know if this would work to startle your birds, but when I was a kid I had a kite that was made of clear plastic and on that clear plastic was a realistic image of a hawk. We used to fly that kite over the barnyard just to see all the birds go crazy. Maybe something like that on a long stick. I don't know, my birds hide when they see a hawk so the startle cue might need to be specific to what triggers that flight-startle response, e.g. what Oven Ready describes.

 

[centrarchid]

Something I noticed while uploading video to YouTube is that Eduardo got all excited and ran over to camcorder every time part where he started to eat played. When he gets into the mealworm cup he makes a particular sound that I think is "tidbitting" that gets his siblings to come a running. He may not recognize his own voice. I might play simillar trick when prepping him for startling into flight. First have him listen to cackle for ground predator then play escape flight cackle when I want him to launch.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Oh, that's smart. Use his innate tendencies to respond to vocalizations in particular ways to your advantage.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
It might just work. I hope the proper alarm can be recorded and played back as needed with an Ipod. Folks I know use similar method to attract wild birds.

Tonight will be last indoor training session and it will be recorded. Tommorrow Eduardo and siblings will be introduced to free range flock. He will get more regular workouts chasing prey and siblings in the woodlot. May also get first exposure to real predator, hopefully without getting consumed.

He will be hand fed daily to keep trained up and easy to handle. Once he starts crowing in about eight weeks I will take him to the stadium or soccer fields after work. He must reliably fly to my arm on call before going into strange environs. No interest here in chasing a chicken through bleachers every night.

 

[grandmaof5]

I've been reading this thread and I keep thinking about the old WKRP episode where the radio station was doing the promotion by giving away turkeys. Does anyone else remember this?

http://www.kewego.com/video/iLyROoafYtDe.html

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Yes! That is why flight to be voluntary from ground up versus being pushed from a helicopter or other high point. Also the birds being used for this project are flight worthy, Les Nesmon's and/or Herb's turkeys were not.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Yes! That is why flight to be voluntary from ground up versus being pushed from a helicopter or other high point. Also the birds being used for this project are flight worthy, Les Nesmon's and/or Herb's turkeys were not.

I remember that! That was pretty funny, if not quite a bit morbid.