Chapter 865
'The Mad Falcon Chick'
Yue Feng didn't inform Grandpa Liu beforehand about coming to Beijing, so his arrival with Li Fulin today was somewhat presumptuous.
The two of them carried a large bag of mountain produce to Xiao Ying Liu's yard. They knocked on the door and called out a few times, but Xiao Ying Liu wasn't home; only his aunt was there.
"Oh, it's Old Li and Xiao Feng! Come in quickly!!" The old lady warmly invited the two into the house.
"Auntie, where's my uncle? He's not home."
The old woman said, "I went to the bird market to sell the hawks! I caught a few baby hawks in the first half of the month, and I kept a few that were of good quality for myself! I'm going to see if I can find someone who knows their value to sell them to! I'll be back in a little while, by ten o'clock at the latest! I'll boil some water for you, have some tea first!"
"Alright, don't bother, we'll wait for my uncle! These are some mountain products I brought from Northeast China, mushrooms, wood ear fungus and the like, please keep them!" Yue Feng handed the carefully selected mountain products, which he had brought as a gift, to the old lady.
"This is really good stuff! Your uncle and I ate the ones you gave us last time so many times. They taste completely different from what we buy at the market here! I won't be polite with you then!" the old lady said highly.
"Hehe, I'm glad you like it. Eat as much as you want, and let me know when you're done, and I'll send you more! You might not know this, but I'm in the Northeast, and there's a mountain produce collection station in my village. Wild vegetables and the like are hard to transport, so it's a lot of work to get them here! But sending dried vegetables and mountain produce like mushrooms and wood ear fungus is no problem at all!"
"That's great! I'll boil some water for you, it'll be ready in a bit. Old Li, why don't you and Xiao Feng sit down for a while?!"
"You're busy, don't worry about us, let's go check on Little Eagle in the north room!"
"Row!"
……
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Yue Feng and Li Fulin went to the north room, to the cage of the pair of white mutated grey-backed falcons.
The eagles at Yuefeng's house have all been released and have finished breeding, and the grey-backed falcons at Grandpa Liu's house have also finished breeding this year.
All four eggs have hatched this year, and the birds haven't been separated from their parents yet. When they saw people coming in, both the large and small grey-backed falcons stood on the high platform, staring at the two people who entered the room.
Yue Feng glanced at the new chicks this year: three Peach Blossoms (subadult males are called Peach Blossoms), one Malian (subadult females are called Malian), and the four eaglets were all in good condition and as nimble as ever. It was clear that this was the style of Grandpa Liu raising eagles.
"Tsk tsk, three peach blossom brats this year!" Li Fulin said with a chuckle.
"From a breeding perspective, peach blossoms are more valuable than irises! Where are the puppies my uncle bred last year? Why aren't they in their enclosures!"
Li Fulin replied, "The pair of birds from last year are being raised at the base! I didn't mention it to Young Master Jin; Old Liu took the initiative to bring the birds to the club's premises!"
Yue Feng was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, then smiled and said, "Oh? My Uncle Liu has quite the idea! This thing is a rare find; you can't buy it even if you have the money. How could you bear to bring it to the club!"
"I asked Lao Liu about this, and he told me that since I received shares from the club, I should at least make some contribution within my capacity."
Besides his daily work of caring for birds of prey, the only thing he can boast about is the albino stump at home!
Whether or not they're useful to the club's operations, having a pair of pups being raised at the base at least adds to the club's prestige!
After Li Fulin's explanation, Yue Feng began to have great respect for Grandpa Liu.
The men of Beijing are meticulous in their work; if you get along with them, they're reliable!
"Alright, this is a good thing. To those in the know, this large, albino mound is indeed quite intimidating!"
……
The two chatted and watched the eagles for a while in the breeding cage in the north room. Soon, there was a commotion at the gate of the yard. Little Eagle Liu was carrying a short crossbar and a satchel, returning from the bird market.
"Old Liu, Xiao Feng and Old Li are here to see you! The kids brought us a bunch of mountain produce!" The old lady hurriedly took the things from the old man's hands and said softly.
"Xiaofeng's here! Why didn't you go to the bird market to call me? This year wasn't bad either; the two eaglets we kept sold for a good price. Let's make some good dishes for lunch, and Lao Li and I will have a drink with Xiaofeng!" Grandpa Liu handed the things to the old lady and also took out the money from selling the eaglets from his pocket and gave it to her.
"Grandpa, you're back!" Yue Feng also came out of the north room and stood in front of Grandpa Liu.
"You silly child, you didn't even let me know you were coming! I was waiting for you at home, when were you coming?"
"I got off the bus yesterday evening! My aunt told me that you went to the bird market to sell baby eagles. This spring has been warm with little rain and wind, so there should be quite a few baby eagles!"
"There were indeed a lot of hawks this year. I caught three clean-feathered hawks and sold them all at high prices! Now that the hawk-catching season is over, we won't be able to catch hawks again until autumn! Come inside and have some tea!"
"Hey!"
The three people went inside and quickly brewed tea and started chatting.
This spring, during the eaglet season, Little Eagle Liu really basked in the limelight.
The small car tripping I learned from Yue Feng and the new eagle hat design all became rare items sought after by regular customers in the bird market.
Especially the beautiful and practical car tripping, which retails for five yuan a pair, is still in short supply! The goldfish-eye screw eagle hat made of vegetable tanned leather that has been thinned and sewn is even more expensive, selling for fifty yuan a piece.
It's fair to say that among his peers, Little Eagle Liu, who was already at the top level, has seen his prestige skyrocket again because of these new gadgets.
When old men with shared interests sit together, they seem to have endless things to talk about. The three of them drink tea and chat, and before they know it, the morning has passed.
The old lady prepared some snacks to go with the drinks, and the three of them had lunch at Grandpa Liu's house. They drank and chatted, enjoying themselves until Jinlong arrived at 12:30 in his car, and that's when the meal ended.
Thinking about the club's location in the afternoon, none of them drank too much at noon. After Jinlong arrived, the four of them got in the car and headed straight for the club's location, Dayakeng in the south of the city.
Compared to the pristine state of the kiln pits last winter, Yue Feng felt completely different when he revisited the place this summer.
First of all, the production road leading to the club has been widened and leveled. The potholes and waterlogged areas have been paved with cinders, making the road much smoother.
When they arrived at the kiln pit site, the changes were even more dramatic.
Located on the north side above the kiln pit, a row of new brick and tile houses has sprung up, with at least several dozen rooms.
In the original woods on the high ground to the west of the kiln pit, only a portion of the locust trees were preserved. After the large area was leveled, raptor cages with red bricks and wire mesh structures were built.
The area below the kiln pit and its surroundings have also been leveled. After the winter wheat harvest, corn has been planted. Standing on top and looking down, you see a lush, vibrant green landscape.
The gentle slope and weedy area on the east side of the pit bottom have been repaired to some extent. Some of the small terrain and native vegetation have been preserved, and the gullies and other features that were washed out by rainwater have been artificially restored to some extent.
The entire perimeter of the playing area is enclosed by a high-standard barbed wire fence, with an 80-centimeter red brick base and a 2.5-meter-high barbed wire fence on top. If a competition were held on this current site, there would be absolutely no chance of a rabbit escaping through a gap in the fence.
As Yue Feng and his three companions got out of the car, they stood on a high point and looked out over the field. Xiao Dong and Ming Kai waved from a distance at the southeast corner of the enclosure area.
During the spring and summer, there wasn't much other work to do at the club during the infrastructure construction period, so Li Fulin and Xiao Ying Liu did not stay at the club permanently.
The workers were led by brothers Xiao Dong and Ming Kai. Because they were often exposed to the sun, their skin was tanned dark, completely unlike their fair and tender skin last winter.
"Young Master Long, Brother Feng! Uncle Li, Grandpa Liu! You've arrived!!" Xiao Dong walked up quickly and greeted them very warmly.
"Not bad, Xiao Dong, you've gotten quite tanned!" Yue Feng greeted him with a smile and a nod.
Xiao Dong grinned, revealing his exceptionally white front teeth: "Who says otherwise? Leading the workers to work and build around the club, even though I don't have to do the work myself, I still have to keep an eye on things and can't leave them unattended!"
"Brother Feng, I'm so glad you've finally arrived! Help!"
"What the heck? What's wrong?"
When Yue Feng heard Xiao Dong change the subject, his curiosity was immediately piqued.
"What danger could there be in getting a tan while doing construction work?" Judging from the implication, Xiao Dong seemed very upset.
"Those three nests of falcon chicks that Brother Jun asked someone to bring back are driving Mingkai and me crazy with noise!" Xiao Dong said with a bitter face.
Seemingly wanting Yue Feng and the others to experience the 'noise' attack of a fledgling eagle, Ming Kai, standing nearby, picked up the iron whistle hanging around his neck and blew it sharply.
Whoosh whoosh~~~
The loud whistle immediately resounded around the Kiln Pit Club.
The next second, a cacophony of piercing cacophony came from the raptor enclosure area in the southeast corner, which had already been completed and occupied.
Upon hearing the commotion, Yue Feng knew what had happened.
The fledgling eagle cries for food!
Three broods of saker falcon chicks, totaling 14, both male and female, would all emit a howling call upon hearing the whistle signaling feeding; their sonic attack was truly remarkable.
Yue Feng scratched his head a little embarrassedly, grinned, and said somewhat guiltily, "I forgot to tell you the details about feeding the eaglets beforehand! The eaglets are crying for food!"
Mingkai asked, "What should we do, Feng-ge? Since these little guys came back, we two brothers haven't slacked off for a single day. We've been taking better care of them than we would our own father!"
They've all left the nest and are flying quite well now, and they're pretty controllable, but they're so noisy it's giving me a headache. Is there any way to make them all shut up?
"Let's go take a look first. Don't worry, it's not a big problem!" Yue Feng called out and strode straight towards the enclosure where the fledgling eagles were located.
All six of them arrived at the cage area. Yue Feng stood at the cage entrance and observed inside for a while.
The size and other details of the cages were all planned in advance by Yue Feng, and the area was quite spacious.
At this moment, the three broods of chicks are living in three separate cages, with four to five chicks in each cage. Before they pair up, they are in a semi-free-range state. According to the plan, they will wait until they are close to sexual maturity and observe their free pairing before deciding how to separate them into different cages.
These fledglings, now fully feathered and capable of flight, still retain a youthful innocence and possess remarkably clear eyes.
When it saw people coming, it fluffed up its feathers, spread its wings, and drooped its head as if carrying a knife, desperately opening its mouth and squawking loudly to beg for food.
Seeing the expected howling chicks, Yue Feng breathed a sigh of relief.
Strictly speaking, howling for food isn't a major problem.
Even birds of prey that breed in the wild will have a four- to six-week period of howling during their molting period.
It's just that in artificial breeding environments, many conditioned reflexes are not consciously cultivated, and this state is left unchecked.
Through simple visual observation, Yue Feng initially determined that the condition of these dozen or so chicks was not pathological, which gave him enough room to maneuver.
"You've kept the feeding and daily management logs for the raptor chicks that I asked you to keep, right? Where are the logs? Let me take a look!" Yue Feng asked, staring at Xiao Dong.
Xiao Dong nodded: "It's all written down, including details like the eagle's condition, weight, and diet. It was recorded daily before it could fly, and weekly after it could fly! I'll give you the logbook!"
Soon, Xiao Dong took out a thick kraft paper logbook from the office area next to the cage.
Yue Feng took a look and quickly gained a clear understanding of the various information about the raptor through the notes.
Overall, apart from the problem of howling for food, the other operations were very standardized and were carried out in accordance with the feeding procedures given by Yuefeng last time, without any deviation.
"Brother Feng, can it be changed? Will Mingkai and I ruin these three broods of chicks?" Xiao Dong asked, a little unsure.
Yue Feng shook his head: "It's not that bad! Howling for food is a normal physiological behavior of sub-adult birds of prey!"
However, after they left the nest, you continued to feed them using the same methods as when they were chicks, interspersed with conditioned reflex training through whistling and calling them to travel further, without giving them a chance to change their habits!
After saying this, Yue Feng handed the log back to Xiao Dong: "Not bad, you wrote the log quite carefully, you didn't slack off!"
"Hehe, Mingkai and I both love this stuff. If we have the chance to raise them ourselves, we definitely can't be lazy!"
"You still haven't told us how to correct the eagle's habit of howling for food!" Xiao Dong continued to press.
"Simple. Just stop whistling while feeding it for a while. It should only keep howling for food when it hears the whistle and sees people, right?"
"Yes! That's right! It sometimes makes noise when no one is around, or when birds fly by overhead! But it makes the loudest noise in front of people!"
Yue Feng nodded: "Let's temporarily stop the conditioned reflex of feeding by whistle! As long as the eagle cries, we won't show the food. Let's correct this conditioned reflex of feeding by whistle first!"
"Will it work?" Mingkai asked, a little uncertain.
"Take it one step at a time!"
If you feed an eagle immediately after it cries out for food, you're essentially reinforcing that behavior, teaching it that crying out gets it food! The longer you raise it, the better it cries out for food!
Conversely, if it continues to howl and doesn't get food, its voice will gradually become softer and the frequency will slow down!
After a period of calm, the frequency and intensity of howling for food will decrease significantly!
Once the howling reflex has mostly stopped, the second phase of adjustment should be initiated, and this should largely resolve the issue!
"There's a second phase? What about the second phase?" (End of Chapter)