Harness

[M'sBabies]

I have not gotten my little guy yet but I want to get him an Aviator harness and start working with him as soon as I feel he is settled and comfortable in his new home. My question is since he is a baby (Timneh) which size should I get for him? Also, when you have your birds outside how do you deal with the issue of large wild birds? We have a lot of hawks and such and I have a fear of taking him out but I know how important it is.

 

On a side note I truly love this site and have been reading and enjoying everyone's stories and pictures. Everyone has been soo nice.

[Luvparrots]

I have a timneh and have a small aviator harness for her. The small is for birds that weigh between 190-425 grams which Ana Grey does.

 

As for protection against hawks, etc., you do need to keep your eyes open and be alert as hawks, etc. have been know to scoop down and nab birds off of an owner's shoulder or close proximity.

[judygram]

Janet is right about the size of the harness and the sooner you introduce your baby to one the better as they will accept it more readily, we have lots of hawks here also so you do need to be extra careful of having him outside, you need to keep your eyes glued to the sky on the lookout for them for they can be fast and quick to snap up an unsuspecting victim.

[SRSeedBurners]

We have a hawk problem here as well. They nab my chickens every so often and sit around hunting here a lot. I take Greycie and my other birds out but we never leave them outside of arms reach (and of course fully harnessed). I have gotten used to Greycie's body language that there is a hawk in the area as she's a LOT better at spotting them than I am.

 

The thing about the hawks here is they know us and we know them. They'll literally fly into our backyard to try and nab a chick off our lawn knowing full well we're sitting under the porch. But if we're too close they won't try. So we keep our high-value birds on us all the time. They won't try if the bird they're after is to near us OR if my dogs are around. Our dogs have learned to hunt the hawks and have nearly scored a few times. My wife got her hands on a hawk once and was too frightened to make him pay. Too bad it wasn't me.

 

And if you're still reading...this one's good. A hawk flew into our backyard and nabbed a 3 week old chick right in front of my wife. She instantly threw a plate at it and missed. She chased the hawk down to the barn and thought all was lost. 5 minutes later she heard a baby cheeping on the neighbors property and she called to it. It came running back to her. Three puncture wounds to the chest but the chick lived. They're pretty brazen around here.

[Timbersmom]

Wow, I'm surprised you got the chick back! I love a story with a happy ending. My mom used to keep a broom by the back porch door for hawks and the occasional owl that would try to get a chick or a kitten. She wasn't always successful, but she gave it her best shot!

[SRSeedBurners]

We've had a lot more unhappy endings than happy endings. About 5 miles from us there is a raptor rescue center. The joke around here is while being rehabilitated at the rescue, the patients are given our address for local meal options. We live in the burbs so we can't figure out why we have such a bad hawk/owl problem.

 

Here's the other happy ending story that recently happened:

I had 12 chickens at one point and was planning on getting some more. One day I had a hawk attack my adult chickens, which is rare that they go after a full sized adults. Result - one chicken missing and one with some weird disorientation disorder. I'm assuming she was picked up and dropped on her head or something. She sat in the corner of an isolation cage for two weeks barely able to move as I kept her syringe fed and watered hoping for the best. As I would feed daily I would try to do a head count....11 one day...12 the next...11 the next. Chickens are hard to count so I figured I had them all but the one that got taken. So about 3-4 weeks later I go to feed and hear some baby sparrows in my barn. I count 11 chickens and then go for a look at the baby sparrows. Turns out they are baby chickens hidden away in an old plastic water barrel...and there's my missing 12th chicken. She had been brooding eggs without my permission or knowledge and hatched out 8 babies. That explains why one day I would get 11 and one day 12 because she would occasionally sneak out for feeding time. She was probably brooding before the hawk attack, it's just that I was not counting beaks until that day of the attack.

 

As for the chicken with the disorder, she has nearly recovered but you can still tell she is a little lopsided. We now call her dizzy chick.

[M'sBabies]

Aww, love those stories. I went to let my dog out one day, he's a toy and only weighed two lbs. at the time. I open the door and right there sitting on the fence was a red tail hawk staring right into our back yard. In went baby and mommy and the wee wee pads came out. That hawk stayed there for hours. Scary.

[Timbersmom]

Yeah for the hen and chicks! Cool story.

 

We have one that sits in the backyard overlooking my outside bird feeder. He will come around, leave for a few weeks until the birds become unwary again, then return to "visit."

[murfchck]

We live in the burbs so we can't figure out why we have such a bad hawk/owl problem.

 

We said the same thing, where have they all come from? There is even a mated pair that fly over us. ( we assume they are mated anyway since they are always together.) Wonder if there have always been that many but we never noticed until we got birds and had to look out for them.