THIRTY-SIX STAGES FOR THE FLYING TIPPLER NOVICE

By E W MATTHEWS

TRAINING

1. 1. When the youngsters are five weeks old, they should be removed from their parents and placed in a loft by themselves.
2. 2. For the first two days or so, food and water will be left for them at will. This ensures that they can fend for themselves.
3. 3. Then they should be fed by hand and the water trough withdrawn and only offered after feeding.
4. 4. It would now be an advantage to introduce the dropper. This should be a white cross-bred Fantail, either a hen or a youngster. This bird should remain in the loft with the young Tipplers at this stage.
5. 5. The object is to impress the young Tippler that the Fantail is part of home. When the youngsters are about six weeks old, they should be fed once a day only (I will deal with the food later) and encouraged to chase about after their food. The dropper will soon take the lead for they are usually greedy. Now we can remove the dropper from the youngsters' loft, and only introduce it during times of feeding.
6. 6. So up to now the mind of the Tippler is that the Fantail is always associated with food. The Fantail is a white bird used as a decoy. Almost any white bird would do.
7. 7. That completes stage one.
8. 8. The youngsters should now have the opportunity of seeing the outside surroundings of the loft and to do this the loft should have an open wire netting enclosure, either at the side or, preferably, on the loft top. They should spend some time, say afternoon, outside so that when evening falls they can be called in, introducing the dropper, and fed and watered.
9. 9. Now you will be wondering when should the birds have their liberty. Well, always remember, a good Tippler youngster is stronger on the wings than in the head. Bearing this in mind, I find that the best time to let them out is when the eye colour has changed. This is an indication of better reasoning powers of the bird. They might now be eight weeks old. So, with the dropper out on the loft top, chasing about after grains of food, open this wire enclosure door and allow the young Tipplers to follow the Fantail chasing after the grain. By throwing grain first outside and then inside the pen, the young bird will soon learn its way in and out of the loft. After a short lesson, call them in and feed and water, carrying on this procedure each evening until the young birds start to take to flight. It is a good plan to have more droppers available now and they should be kept on the move whilst the young Tipplers are airborne.
10. 10. Assuming that the Tipplers have been up and down for a few evenings, the next stage is to liberate the kit, without the dropper. When the birds have been flying for 10 or 15 minutes, liberate the dropper. The young Tipplers will now see the dropper, and associating dropper with food and home they will come down. They should be then called in and fed.
11. 11. This procedure is carried out henceforth, each time allowing the kit to fly longer before putting out the dropper. (By longer I do not mean many hours - only two or three.)
12. 12. Up to now we have been drilling the young Tippler to do what is required of him - fly until he is summoned to alight. This, of course, is simply mental drill, and the next stage is to equip for physical endurance. This, I find the most fascinating part, for it depends on my judgment whether it succeeds or not.
13. 13. Now to refer to analogy. Suppose I had a motor car whose petrol capacity would allow me to drive non-stop for 300 miles. At the commencement of the journey, the car would be at its greatest weight because of the full tank. Another point, the car would have to be in good condition, so as to be trouble-free throughout the journey. So we must have our Tippler with his tanks full and he must be thoroughly fit on the selected day when he is put to test for long-time flying. We can follow the analogy. When first he is liberated his weight may be 10 oz. and at the end of the day he will have used up his fuel and would weigh six to seven ounces. Now suppose I wished to use the same motor car to make a journey of only 10 miles, surely I would not want the tank filling up for this short journey.
14. 14. So I would make it with only a small amount of fuel and, of course, I would be carrying less weight. So if we want our Tippler to fly only for three to four hours we make sure his tank is not full. Now do not take this analogy too much for granted. I do not wish to convey that all we have to do is to fill up and fatten a Tippler and he will fly all day; far from it, for he has to be trained physically in stages like any other athlete. Now imagine that the Tippler is liberated, say at 4 am. and has flown 14 hours. He will have consumed most of his fuel and will be much lighter in weight. This is conspicuous when seen flying, for he will alter his style as the day progresses, for later in the evening he will be seen to be gliding instead of batting his wings like he did when fresh and full tank in the morning.

This article continues in the April 2008 issue of Feathered World including an introduction by Jim Mullan