Jeremy
Guest
Mar 06, 2004
8:09 PM
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HI,
IM 19 YEARS OLD AND I JUST STATED RAISING ROLLERS I HAVE SEVEN OF THEM NOW, BUT MY QUESTION IS HOW DO I TRAIN THEM TO FLY TOGETHER. BECAUSE WHEN I LET THEM FLY THEY ALL GO DIFFERENT WAYS AND I DONT REALLY KNOW WHY. IF YOU CAN COULD YOU PLEASE RESPOND.
THANKS ALOT
JEREMY
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MCCORMICKLOFTS
34 posts
Mar 06, 2004
9:00 PM
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Hi Jeremy, welcome to the roller world. It is instinctual for rollers to want to fly together (kit). I am going to assume you have young birds? If you have just started flying them, it might take them a week or so to start flying together. Ultimately you will want to take squeakers away from their parents when they are just starting to close up the gaps under their wings. Put them in a kit box that is approximately 3x3x3 or so. Keeping them in the kit box teaches them to associate with their teammates, they form sort of a bond and feel safe together. We don't teach them this, but allow for the natural instincts to develop much easier this way. Once we get them homed in to the kit box and have a hold of their appetite the are allowed to fly. Most of my young birds the first time on the wing won't start to kit for about three our four days with a few stragglers taking a little longer to figure it out. If your birds are older and you are working on homing them in, then yes, the will run all over the place until the get comfortable with your surroundings. Once they are acclimated, if they are good rollers, they will start to kit again. The first rule you must learn when raising and flying rollers is to be PATIENT. Sometimes it's hard to do, but over time you'll start to understand the roller quirks and it will come natural to you. Good luck and again, welcome to the roller world. Have fun.
Brian.
Last Edited by MCCORMICKLOFTS on Mar 06, 2004 9:01 PM
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highroller
1 post
Mar 07, 2004
2:22 PM
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An excellent post by Brian. Your answer should be somewhere in there. I do have a question for you, Jeremy. Are you flying your breeders? Many newcomers to roller breeding/flying that I have met seem to want to fly ALL of their birds even during breeding season. This opens them up for losses when a parent is taken by the hawk and its young or eggs can not be introduced into another nest. Plus they are short a breeder now. Hang in there and have fun with it.
Dan
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