classicpony
491 posts
Oct 26, 2007
11:50 AM
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WoW!! That was fast! Today flying my birds, a cooper came out of no where and like a bullet flew though my birds that were landing on the loft and got one! Scaring the kit, they just scattered in the sky. I stayed around for about 45 minutes, only a few had come back in and trapped. I could see none in the sky. Now it just a game of hurry up and wait.
HOW LONG should I lock down to get the cooper to move on??
I hope that cooper chocks on the bird he took today.
Jim
Illinois
@thebirdhouse
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155
56 posts
Oct 26, 2007
12:07 PM
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Well I heared from my friend out here in Arizona his name is Joe Bowers that he loses 1 bird to the copper and 3 or 4 to the falcon this is a every day thing and he changes schedule of his birds and it still doesnt help he just told me that today....
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Electric-man
736 posts
Oct 26, 2007
12:36 PM
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I've had pretty good luck waiting a week! I lock up after the first attack this year, no exceptions! Last year I was too generous and would wait till I was attacked 2 or 3 times! They would have set up shop by then and they got to counting on that easy meal!
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Val
"Site Moderator"
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Tony Chavarria
Site Publisher
1806 posts
Oct 26, 2007
12:59 PM
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Hey Jim, I would lock down for as long as you can go without wanting to fly the birds. A day or a few weeks. You take the losses, you have to decide when it is right for you to risk your rollers to the next exposure to the wild. Good Luck!
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FLY ON! Tony Chavarria
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Ragin Rollers
20 posts
Oct 26, 2007
1:15 PM
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Hey, maybe we should start having a decoy kit, u know a kit to fly first to help kept your a team alive, just a thought....
Ragin Rollers.........
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Oldfart
212 posts
Oct 26, 2007
1:39 PM
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You might wish to consider flying in small kits, three of four is really enough to teach the birds to kit properly, but not so many that if a hit occurred you would lose everything. Also it affords the opportunity to observe individual birds in action.
Thom
Last Edited by on Oct 26, 2007 1:40 PM
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classicpony
494 posts
Oct 26, 2007
4:40 PM
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Great idea's guys. Now the bird that took my bird was all brown and very fast, like a bullet. I was guessing it was a cooper.
Jim
Illinois
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bman
472 posts
Oct 26, 2007
5:40 PM
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Lockdown for a week.Fly before 9:00am or after 4:00pm.
Try and hold the kits down (height) limit fly times to no more than 30 minutes. Have them trapping within 2 or 3 minutes after they land. No sun cages or aviarys.This just part of my ritual and have been flying since March 1st.
Flew three kits this week and haven't lossed a bird.
A couple of warnings,flying after 4:00 pm can cause an overfly if you get hit.That is why you have to have the kit on a tight leash.Shorter fly times and quick trapping.
If that bird came in low you are probably dealing with an adult cooper who knows how to catch pigeons since it was successfull on tis first try. LOCK THEM DOWN FOR ONE WEEK AT LEAST. You can fly around these sob's(coopers).
It works for me......I am still flying and everyone around here is lockdowned. I hope this helps.
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Ron
Borderline lofts
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Gregg
209 posts
Oct 26, 2007
6:03 PM
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Ragin,
Maybe you want to feed the little b......., I don't. I want them to starve if it comes to survival or my rollers. Having a kit to fly, such as a B team to test the skies with is one thing. But to put up a kit in the face of the BOP and feed it doesn't always work the way you want.
The migration hit me big time today. I had a young gos fly a bird to the ground, but the bird ducked behind a neighbors flower pot. Neighbor told me where to find my bird as he saw it happen. At that time I didn't know it was a gos but I suspected it because my birds are pretty Cooper's "savy" and I have never seen a cooper's fly a bird to the ground like a gos does. If you haven't seen it happen, consider yourself lucky. That was on release. The kit skied out on me, out of sight. They started coming down about an hour later. Still didn't see a BOP. Cleaning feeders, rinsing them with the hose outside the loft and a little lavender self comes down to land and the gos snatched her. I followed, and here comes a mature red tail that tries to take the bird away from the young gos. Didn't happen, but now that the gos has headed for the woods, it's clear sailing for the cooper's. I got thirty four of thirty six birds back, I consider myself fortunate. It is lockdown time until the SOB's move on. I can fly around my resident cooper's, but I can't fly around migrating gos's and a handfull of cooper's. As I said, I was fortunate. If they had all got lucky and got a meal, they'd dang well be back tomorrow. That gos will be back, but she is only going to see rollers through twelve gauge welded galvanized 1"x1" wire.
Gregg.
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classicpony
495 posts
Oct 29, 2007
6:09 PM
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I now have both kits on lock down. I plan on going 2 weeks in that mode. That gives me time to review my operation, and birds in the breeding loft. Today I added 4 birds to the kitbox from the loft. Guess it time to baton down the hatch and get everything ready for winter here. While on lock down.
Jim
Illinois
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