Thoughts on Training

There's one things I never took into consideration when planning on training young birds...getting them to fly.

I received the birds a little older than I had planned (loft building delays, etc.) and their general experience of me is injecting them with needles and shoving pills down their throat. I fear they will never truly be "handleable" or tame. I also don't have very much time to spend with them other than the loft cleaning/feeding time. So I am the "scary person with the loud scraper."

I imagined that I would open the door to the loft/aviary and they would take off soaring. Nope. I have to round them up (very stressful) and toss them out. Usually, they land on the roof and hang out. The only way to get them to fly is to slightly startle them by waving a flag or throwing a tennis ball in the air (in the air, not at them). A few birds might take to the air and loop around the house for a few minutes, but most simply move to a neighbor's roof or a nearby telephone pole.

It's so rudimentary, books don't even mention how to make birds fly. It's simply implied that they do. Duh.

I'm going to require the help of someone more experienced than me. I wish I had the time to join a club.