Training Questions

[chainsaw]

Hi,
Thanks for the valuable info on training young birds.

Ours (primarily white homers) have been released from the loft several times in past three weeks. Until yesterday they showed little interest in flying, except for some to fly around our house a time or two.

Yesterday, after sitting on the roof for two minutes after released, boom, they all flew up and started circling quite high (over the 50 ft tree tops). Our home is in an opening in a woods. While flying, the birds went out of sight, back in, back out etc for about 10 minutes. They were not flying as a group, but individually wherever they pleased.

I have two questions.

1. must the birds be flying as one unit, circling together before we can proceed to train with the crate/cage at 100 feet?

2. should we wait for them to range away from home for longer periods before beginning with the crate training at 100 yds?

We did lose two yesterday. Shortly after they landed on the roof, I saw a hawk land in a nearby tree. Moments later is when they all took off. I don't know if his presence can account for the unexpected flying show. At any rate, we had a little runt bird flying and he and another stronger bird never returned.

My husband is really hesitant to let them out today

Thanks so much for all of your help.