Sourland
12 posts
Apr 01, 2005
8:55 AM
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My resident Coopers hen is gone;therefore, I decided to introduce my first kit of young birds to the sky. You know the drill-bring the first egg into the house so that it doesn't get chilled.turn it daily,etc.,etc. Lots of effort expended on these babies. They've been "whistle fed" from the start, in the settling cage and trap trained. Wednesday was their release day. Everything went fine until I went to whistle them back in. As I approached the kit loft, a young Coopers hit the landing board, and my 19 babies went in 19 different directions. I went out an hour before dusk to check on the damage, and 5 had trapped. You all know the sick in the gut feeling. I started whistling, and here they came-from under the loft out of the pines, out of the brush onto the landing board and through the trap. When all was said and done 17 had trapped. Last night at dusk number 18 returned and was spotted walking around the breeding loft. I rushed to the kit loft, opened the trap, started whistling-and within 30 seconds that baby had trapped. Not too bad for babies spooked on their first outing! A lesson well learned for me--trap and whistle train your babies. Geo.
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