| Training Belle Mead Tumblers |
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| Now, here comes the fun part of raising these young Irani Tumblers! At about 5 1/2 to 6 weeks old, I take the young birds out of the loft and toss them from about 3' towards the loft opening. They fly (or at least flap their wings) to the ledge, walk on the ledge eating some seeds I've placed there, and in a bit, hop in the opening. I repeat this process for about a week, walking back just a bit farther each day. By the end of the week I'm tossing from about 100'. Sometimes during this process, the young ones will circle the yard once or twice before landing. During the 7th to 8th week they are ready to fly on thier own. I usually start them by flying with some of my younger fliers, just to get them used to the loft returning routes and seeing the others tumble. They'll fly for 10-15 minutes or so, try some very loose beginning tumbles and then come down. After just a few times of flying with these slightly older birds, it's amazing how they just start to tumble, both more frequently and with tighter tumbles. Some of them will try double tumbles, too! It's now time to start to fly them alone. They'll fly for 15-30 minutes or so in the beginning and after about 10 days of flying they're staying up about an hour. During this period of time they have begun to tumble with ease. It's no longer work for them, but just playing in the sky! So, at about 8 1/2 - 10 weeks old I introduce them back to the other fliers, who keep them flying much longer and take them much higher. It's funny how they seem to know exactly how high they should be at what age. If the others are going too high in the beginning, they'll just come down and try again the next time. By the 10th week and beyond they're keeping up with the fliers which usually stay up on weekend days for 2-5 hours, just flying and playing way up in sky. And then: New young ones to train all over again! |
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