re: I have the entire afternoon to go chase things with my hawk. Wish me luck.

There's an 8 page thread that discusses just about every aspect of this here:

Teague's Hawk Thread

But basically, no he follows me around while I act like the beagle flushing game for him. He kills it. I trade him a pre-cut piece of food for the kill.

Yep.

I am sure the answer is in the other thread but I am hoping for a quick answer.

How long do you keep the hawks for? How often do they just leave and not come back? How long does it take to train a hawk? Human with bare hands vs a hawk?

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How long do you keep the hawks for? How often do they just leave and not come back? How long does it take to train a hawk? Human with bare hands vs a hawk?

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You keep them as long as you want. Some people trap a new one every year. Others keep them 20+ years. It's a little different with hawks that are bought and not trapped. Most of those can't be released into the wild and have to be transferred to another falconer if you don't want to keep them.

Some species are more prone to losing than others, but a red tail, like mine, is pretty difficult to lose as long as you manage his weight properly. Basically, make sure he's hungry when you go hunting. Otherwise, they WILL just fly off.

It takes 2-4 weeks usually to train a red tail well enough to take hunting. They get better with time.

Human vs. Hawk = human with holes punched through him.

Pretty cool. Wanna make a kick arse vid? Mount a contour or gopro to the hawk

Thank you for the answers. I remember reading the other thread a while back and being amazed.