Chapter 10: Preparing Food, calling far!
Catching such a perfect Da Qing Yao, if you continue to let it fly while tethered, it's safe, but this act is like making a hawk dance with a chain.
To quickly bring out the full potential of the Da Qing Yao, untethering it and letting it fly freely is the ultimate answer.
To untether the hawk and let it fly freely, the hawk's familiarity with humans is basically sufficient; all that's needed is to establish the calling far conditioned reflex.
What is calling far? It's the operation where the hawk is placed in one spot, the Hawk Keeper holds meat dozens of meters away, and calls the hawk back to his hand by shouting a command or blowing a whistle.
Yue Feng's original plan was to slowly cultivate affinity and familiarity through practical hunting, and only consider untethering and calling far after the hawk was completely accustomed to flying while tethered.
Now, the training plan has to be moved up.
Having made up his mind, Yue Feng didn't let the hawk eat its fill of Eurasian Turtle Dove meat; instead, he let it eat until it was about 30% full, then hid the Eurasian Turtle Dove.
At this moment, the Da Qing Yao's crop was slightly bulging, having expended considerable energy in several consecutive hunts. Standing steady on Yue Feng's hand, the young hawk began twisting its neck to push the food down into its lower crop.
Yue Feng held the young hawk and rested for a while, then turned and walked towards home.
Today's hunting training is over. He'll head home to rest, soak the hawk food for today upon arrival, and aim to master jumping to the fist and calling far within two days.
When Yue Feng walked back to the entrance of the village store with the hawk, he happened to run into a few women from the village.
"Oh! Xiao Feng, where did you catch a hawk? It looks quite big!" Li Yinhua, the owner of the village store, looked the hawk over in Yue Feng's hand and greeted him seemingly enthusiastically.
Yue Feng pursed his lips slightly and replied, "Aunt Li, Aunt Zhao, Sister-in-law Liu, are you all hanging out here? I picked this up on my land. I'll keep it for a few days for fun!"
Yue Feng had experienced the village gossips in his previous life. This was not a place to linger. After a brief exchange, Yue Feng quickly made his escape.
After Yue Feng had walked away, Li Yinhua, who had just been smiling, pouted and grumbled, "The second son of the Yue Family is really clueless. Hawks eat meat, and people can't even afford meat now, yet he's raising a hawk for fun?"
Another woman echoed, "I heard that a few days ago, Yue Feng went to work at the Forest Farm and was beaten back. He had a big lump on his head and was unconscious on the bed for several days before waking up! Could he have been hit in the head and gone crazy? Carrying a hawk and walking a dog, he thinks he's a prince or a lord!"
...
Facing this kind of backbiting and criticism, Yue Feng simply ignored it. How could these old women with long hair and short minds know that he wasn't just training the hawk for fun? He was using this young hawk to accumulate strength and break free from the fate of a lifetime of mediocrity in his previous life!
Carrying the hawk back home, Yue Feng lifted his hand and tethered the young hawk to the back of a chair inside the house. Then, carrying his satchel, he went to the outer room and took out the two live Sand Grouse the hawk had caught, handing them to his mother who was preparing lunch.
"The hawk caught them! Caught three this morning, one Eurasian Turtle Dove and two Sand Grouse. I stripped the meat from the Eurasian Turtle Dove to feed the hawk. Clean these two chickens up, and we'll stew them with potatoes for lunch! Once the hawk flies a bit more smoothly, I'll go catch Flying Dragons at the foot of the mountain!" Yue Feng proudly told his mother about his haul.
Initially, the family's attitude towards Yue Feng raising a hawk was basically neutral; they didn't encourage it, but they didn't oppose it either.
However, after Yue Feng gradually showed results, his mother's reaction was clearly more approving of her son's actions.
"Oh, they're still alive? These two Sand Grouse are quite plump!" his mother, Meng Yulan, said happily, holding Yue Feng's morning spoils.
"Yeah, after catching them, I swapped them out with a dead Eurasian Turtle Dove! Mom, do we still have any worn-out socks that can't be worn anymore? If I catch more later, I plan to sell them in the city!"
"Yes, I've kept all the socks that were worn out over the years and couldn't be mended; I couldn't bear to throw them away! I'll find them for you in a bit!"
"Okay!" Yue Feng replied, took an empty bowl from the cupboard by the stove, and walked out the north door carrying the leftover Eurasian Turtle Dove.
He plucked the feathers, cleaned it up simply, and then Yue Feng divided the remaining Eurasian Turtle Dove meat into seven or eight pieces. He discarded the large feathers he had plucked but kept the soft down.
In the jargon of Falconry, this step is called 'preparing food,' which means processing the food used for feeding the hawk.
For a Hawk Keeper to control the hawk's condition as much as possible, preparing food is essential. When reducing weight, feed watery food; when gaining weight, feed blood food. A Hawk Keeper, a Hawk Keeper, controls with a mouthful of food.
Whether it's a Great Eagle or a young hawk, the goal is always a full crop and clear gut.
A full crop means the hawk has ample physical strength, and a clear gut means the hawk is energetic and full of fighting spirit when hunting.
Achieving this requires a high level of skill from the Hawk Keeper, who must make subtle adjustments based on performance in practical hunts. Yue Feng had flown hawks for over ten years in his previous life, so he was completely familiar with the intricacies of this.
To train calling far, the Hawk Keeper must have food in his hand, and preferably blood food.
Yue Feng cut the meat from the Eurasian Turtle Dove's breast into small cubes, then hid two pieces in his palm and returned to the courtyard with the hawk perched on his arm.
He placed the hawk on the wooden perch at the base of the south wall, ensuring it was tethered to prevent accidents. After preparing, Yue Feng put two layers of thickened gloves on his right hand, then turned his back slightly and extended his right arm, holding a piece of meat between his thumb and forefinger, standing about half a meter in front of the hawk.
"Hey!!!" Yue Feng let out a low growl, showing the young hawk the meat in his hand.
This "Hey!" was the feeding command to establish the conditioned reflex. The young hawk didn't know what was happening at first, but after seeing the meat in Yue Feng's hand, the little fellow decisively jumped from the wooden perch onto Yue Feng's right palm. With its two sharp, dagger-like talons, it landed on the meat and began tearing into it.
While the hawk was eating, Yue Feng would shout "Hey! Hey! Hey!" every few seconds to help the hawk initially adapt to the command.
After the hawk finished eating a piece of meat, Yue Feng placed the hawk back on the wooden perch. This time, he increased the distance between himself and the hawk from half a meter to two meters.
Standing still, Yue Feng seemingly magically produced another piece of meat in his hand.
Hey!
The next second, the young hawk, hearing the call, flew to Yue Feng's right hand again without hesitation and continued eating the meat with its head down.
At the distance of half a meter just now, it was at most called jumping to the fist, which means jumping from a standing position onto the Hawk Keeper's fist. The second time, at a distance of two meters, could be considered elementary calling far.
Yue Feng allowed the young hawk to finish the second piece of meat, then repeated the previous steps.
This time, the distance was increased to eight meters. Yue Feng took another piece of meat, hid it in his palm, and continued calling far.
The high-intensity carrying, food control, and getting-used-to-the-face training from the previous days played a decisive role at this moment. Even at a distance of eight meters, the moment the meat was revealed, after the command, the Northern Goshawk flew straight towards Yue Feng again.