Chapter 857
Springtime, Birds of Prey Breeding Season
On this day, Yue Feng took the No. 3 male falcon and the gray falcon to the meadow to release them, training them in circling flight while fostering their bond.
A hapless, silly half-chicken was chased out of the bushes in a panic by the Azure Dragon.
Two eagles, already soaring over eighty meters in the sky, saw their prey being roused and swooped down, folding their wings together.
The male second-generation White Spear reacted faster than the Gray Falcon, so it launched its attack first.
The silly half-chicken is a tiny creature with extremely weak flying ability. It has no chance of fighting back against a gyrfalcon that is diving at high speed.
With a sharp crack, the silly half-chicken that had taken off at low altitude was kicked, and a large number of feathers fell from the sky.
A serious foot injury.
The male gyrfalcon adjusted its direction at low altitude, turned back, grabbed its prize, and then let out excited cawing sounds at the mountain peak below.
The meaning is very simple: Master, I've caught my prey!
Every year during the second-generation gyrfalcon chicks' fledging season, Yue Feng personally trains them.
Combined with the characteristics of dual imprinting, the chicks will regard their owner as one of the same kind as their parents.
Therefore, even if they are kept in cages for most of the year, the chances of second-generation raptors exhibiting anti-sexual behavior are extremely low. With just a slight adjustment to their body condition and proper training to cultivate a bond, they can be highly controllable.
Seeing that the male bird had caught its prey, Yue Feng stretched out his arm and glanced at the time on his wristwatch.
It's still early before we have to go home, so there's no rush to go back now. We can get the prey first and feed the two eagles before heading home.
Just then, the gray falcon, which was a beat too slow to catch the silly half-chicken, responded to the cawing.
Whether it was the female bird's maternal instincts being awakened or the sight of its companion calling at its owner that provoked it, it climbed back up to about fifty meters in the air and began circling overhead.
It flew around in circles, making a series of high-pitched cries that were noticeably different from its usual tone and behavior.
Upon seeing this situation, Yue Feng couldn't help but feel a slight stirring in his heart.
Could it be that this grey falcon was a little impressed by the performance of the third white falcon?
In natural pairings among birds of prey, the male should theoretically take the initiative, sending courtship signals to the female through strategies such as offering food, dancing, and displaying flying skills.
But so far, the male falcon hasn't done anything wrong, but the female grey falcon seems to be behaving strangely.
Realizing this, Yue Feng did not rush to approach the fallen male falcon to take its prey, but stayed where he was and quietly watched what happened next.
The third white falcon quickly noticed the gray falcon's circling and calling behavior in the sky. A moment of hesitation flashed through its little brain, and a few seconds later it grabbed the silly half-chicken on the ground and flew towards the gray falcon in the sky.
Well, this third white falcon isn't stupid; it knows to climb up the pole if the female gives it a grip.
When the grey falcon saw the white falcon flying towards it again with its prey in hand, its cawing became even louder. The two falcons played in the air for a while, then the third white falcon suddenly soared up and dropped its prey into the air.
Seeing this, the grey falcon swooped down, snatched the 'love token', and continued circling and squawking loudly.
Fortunately, this time they caught a small, silly chicken. The two falcons carried it with little effort. If they had caught a pheasant or something, these two eagles wouldn't have been able to perform the handover ceremony.
Yue Feng looked up at the two eagles in the sky with great surprise, and his heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled down.
Looking again at the two eagles in the sky, after flying for a while with the token in their beaks, they also folded their wings and landed less than ten meters away from Yue Feng.
The gray falcon kept plucking feathers and eating while stepping on the silly half-chicken, while the number three white falcon, like a victorious general, stood tall and proud beside it, quietly watching its girlfriend eat.
"Damn it, after more than a month of hard work, it's finally done!" Yue Feng looked up quietly from the side, feeling incredibly moved.
When it comes to technical work like raptor breeding and hybridization, if both the male and female are pure breeding birds with dual markings, pairing them is very easy. As long as the process and methods are correct and the two birds do not resist each other, they can be paired together in a high probability.
To put it even more dramatically, even without pairing up with males, as long as the breeding birds reach maturity and show signs of estrus, artificial insemination and artificial sperm collection can be used to complete the preparations for reproduction with a little guidance.
However, now that the breeding pair is a wild Altai falcon, the difficulty is much greater.
After failing with the first two male birds, Yue Feng had given up hope for the third one, but unexpectedly, the other two turned out to be successful.
And so, Yue Feng quietly watched as the gray falcon ate most of the food that the third white falcon had given him, and then Yue Feng blew his whistle to bring the two hawks back.
The initial work of bridging the gap and pulling the fiber is complete. Next, we need to continue investing in it. Since even this kind of pairing with a low success rate has been successful, the subsequent details are not a problem.
Upon returning to the breeding farm that afternoon, Yue Feng immediately began adjusting the cages for the grey falcon and the third white falcon.
After feeding and watering the two falcons and putting their crops on their heads, Yue Feng put them in a separate cage and kept them together to observe their behavior.
There's a reason for feeding the two eagles their crops before putting them in the same cage.
Even if two eagles show signs of pairing in the wild, it's still uncertain whether they will succeed in their cages.
If things go wrong, the two falcons could start fighting. These birds have sharp claws and fang-like beaks that are as sharp as knives. If they do fight, the female bird could easily kill the male.
In this situation, once both eagles have eaten and drunk their fill and eliminated the risk of hunger, the likelihood of them fighting again is much lower.
At this moment, Yue Feng was like a lecherous old man eavesdropping, squatting quietly outside the cage, ready to intervene at any time if anything unexpected happened.
The actual situation was much better than the worst-case scenario feared. The two eagles, which showed signs of successfully pairing during the day, were very quiet after being put into the cage. They just squatted on the platform under the eaves, relaxing and preening their feathers.
After a while, the third white falcon cheekily approached the gray falcon and then fluffed up its fur and snuggled closer to it.
The grey falcon also took a liking to the male falcon, which had good hunting skills, and soon the two falcons came together and stood on a not-so-spacious platform.
Yue Feng secretly peeked out a few times and, seeing the state of the two falcons, completely relaxed.
After the cage test, it's highly likely that these two falcons have successfully paired up!
For the next few days, whenever Yue Feng had nothing else to do, he would take the two falcons to the hunting grounds every day, doing his best to facilitate a successful pairing and strengthen their bond.
After a week of continuous effort, the two falcons are getting better and better.
According to Master Zhao Dashan, before dawn, the two falcons started cawing and making a ruckus in their cage.
The 'married' life of successfully paired birds is clearly different from that of breeding birds in other cages.
Time continued to move forward unnoticed, and for most of spring, Yue Feng had focused his attention on the birds of prey on the mountain.
The breeding season is around the same time as the pair of big black hawks and little white hawks at home. In late February, after the gray falcon and the third white falcon successfully paired up and were put into the same cage, they began to collect pebbles, twigs and other nesting materials in the cage to build a nest.
On February 27th, during his routine morning patrol, Yue Feng discovered the first hybrid eagle egg produced by the two eagles.
Over the next period, an average of one new egg was added per day. The gray falcon performed very well, laying as many as six eggs on its first day of laying.
Even if the first egg doesn't hatch, there are still five fertilized eggs left, which already exceeds the number of eggs produced by the family's first black eagle raising its young.
The newlywed couple on the mountain began incubating their eggs and entered a relatively stable period. The big black eagle and little white spear at home also started breeding their third brood of chicks a few days later.
Compared to the enormous effort invested in raising newlyweds, breeding the old birds at home is much less of a worry for Yue Feng.
All he needs to do is provide clean, fresh food, and when he has free time, let the two eagles fly around in the yard to conserve their energy.
Every few days, clean the barns and eagle enclosures, and you don't need to worry about anything else.
In early March, the Great Black Eagle also laid five eagle eggs.
Two consecutive years of stable egg production, hatching, and breeding gave Yue Feng great confidence.
This year, he plans to seize the opportunity to "extract eggs to promote production"!
The so-called "egg extraction to induce production" is very common in the artificial breeding of raptors abroad, and the technology is very mature.
It's just that Yue Feng's understanding of his eagles' breeding habits was relatively conservative in the past two years, so he didn't dare to do this.
If this provokes the two breeding birds to abandon the nest and give up breeding, it would be a case of losing more than you gain.
This year is different. After another year of growth, the black eagle has developed a very deep bond with its owner and home. Even if it is let out to roam freely and left to its own devices, it will know to come home for the night after it has had its fill of play.
In addition, the grey falcon and the third white falcon successfully bred, so Yue Feng's chick earnings for this year are already guaranteed, which is why he has become bolder.
On this day, Yue Feng timed it perfectly. It was the day after the black eagle had just laid five eggs (it had stopped laying eggs, which meant that the egg-laying plan had been temporarily completed; normally, breeding birds lay one egg a day).
Taking advantage of the darkness of dusk, Yue Feng went to the cage and stole two eggs from the great black eagle.
At this point, the fertilized eggs have not yet begun to hatch. As long as the temperature does not fluctuate and damage the eggs, temporarily storing them indoors will not affect the subsequent hatching process.
Having done something wrong, Yue Feng took the two stolen eggs back to his room and put them away. Then, as if nothing had happened, he observed the reactions of the Black Eagle and the White Spear couple.
The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, the cawing of the big black eagle and the little white spear eagle as they mated could be heard from the barn eagle's shed.
Hearing the noise, Yue Feng turned over, got out of bed, put on his clothes, and got off the kang (a heated brick bed).
I peeked out the window into the storeroom and saw that the big black eagle had woken up to find its eggs missing and was urging the little white spear to mate again and lay more eggs.
Two days later, five more eggs were laid. While cleaning, Yue Feng observed the newly laid eggs and found that they were almost identical to the previous ones.
Although the technology for egg retrieval and induction of fertility is quite mature in foreign breeding farms, it still carries some risks.
For example, if it happens too often, it will affect the female bird's confidence in reproduction. Continuous egg laying will cause the parent birds to lose extra calcium and other problems. If the breeding birds are old and do this, they are also more likely to lay unfertilized eggs or even deformed offspring.
In short, this operation is possible, but the extent of it must be carefully controlled.
Yue Feng wasn't greedy. After the black eagle filled all five eggs, Yue Feng quietly put the two stolen eggs back into the nest.
Now, there are seven eggs in the nest, a new record compared to previous years!
The big black eagle seemed to have a very limited understanding of addition and subtraction. It didn't notice the two extra eggs and continued to incubate them diligently, waiting for the chicks to hatch.
Both broods of breeding birds are now breeding normally.
Yue Feng spent the rest of his time conducting routine spring training exercises for the other unmated second-generation gyrfalcons at the mountain breeding farm.
These birds haven't shown signs of breeding or mating yet, and they'll probably need another year before they start mating. In other seasons, Yuefeng might have a lot of other things to do, but he'll be relatively free in the spring, which also involves molting. So, training these birds of prey will be on the agenda.
The remaining birds should be kept in good condition and trained for a hunting trip every other day.
The meadow I used to frequent, where the population of pheasants, ducks, half-grown chickens, grouse, and other prey has decreased significantly due to the continued presence of these top birds of prey.
With sustained effort, the results are quite noticeable.
Although the remaining second-generation breeding birds did not successfully mate and mate, under Yue Feng's training, they became plump and strong, and had a very high level of affinity.
By mid-March, these birds had begun to molt and sprout new feathers, and their overall activity level was quite good.
When the gray falcon and the third white falcon on the mountain had been laying eggs for 35 days and had begun incubation, Yue Feng heard the chicks pecking at their shells during his routine morning patrol.
Yue Feng cautiously approached the nest and took a look. There were fragments around the eggshell, but the top cover had not yet been removed. He could already hear the chirping of the chicks inside the eggshell.
Having prior breeding experience, Yue Feng immediately left the breeding eagle enclosure and then informed Zhao Dashan in advance to prepare food for the chicks that had not yet hatched.
Under normal circumstances, the eaglets will hatch completely 12-24 hours after they start pecking at the shell. Once they have absorbed the last of the nutrients from the yolk on their rear ends, their parents will start feeding them shredded meat and blood.
The pair of parent birds, Big Black Eagle and Little White Spear, hardly needed Yue Feng to worry about their chicks after they hatched. As long as the ventilation door of the storage room was opened, Little White Spear would go out hunting to find food for the chicks and feed his wife and children.
However, Yue Feng lacked confidence in the second-generation breeding birds on the mountain.
After all, there are risks involved in letting breeding birds go out to hunt. Yue Feng has not actually tested the nesting behavior of these two newlyweds. In addition, the third white falcon was born in a cage at the breeding farm, and its hunting and foraging skills in the wild are far inferior to those of the wild white hawk at home.
Taking all these factors into consideration, Yue Feng decided to personally provide the blood and food for the fledgling eagles to grow, in order to avoid potential risks.
For a hunter with a gun, finding blood and goat food for fledgling eagles to grow in the mountains is practically effortless.
For the next two weeks or so, Yue Feng or Zhao Dashan would take a shotgun loaded with bird bullets and wander around the nearby ponds or river forks every few days, and they could catch enough birds and other prey.
Feeding the breeding birds and chicks at home is no problem at all.
Once it's May and time to harvest pine nuts, we won't have to worry about it so much.
The falconry team at home collects enough birds and other prey from their daily falconry runs to feed the birds of prey and sables at the breeding farm. (End of Chapter)