Chapter 32: Bold

Yue Feng pointed at the distinct patterns on the kite’s abdomen and said, “Look at these patterns. Other places have vertical patterns, but here they are horizontal! These are the feathers of a sub-adult bird that accidentally fell off, and then grew new adult feathers!
Look at the tail feathers, two of them are darker in color! This is also the result of shedding the fetal hair and replacing it with adult feathers!

The eagle had just left the nest for a few months, so it was impossible for it to molt naturally! It was 100% due to external interference that caused the eagle to lose its feathers and grow mature feathers again!
Think about it, when will an eagle accidentally shed its feathers?” Yue Feng asked the three of them.

Xiaowen, who had been silent the whole time, guessed uncertainly, “Could he have been injured while hunting?”

Yue Feng nodded: “Yes! I was slightly injured while fighting with the prey!

If it was other parts of the eagle that were molting, it would be uncertain, but the damage to the abdomen and tail feathers can be inferred that the prey caught by this eagle must be a big one! When fighting with the prey, the eagle’s abdomen feathers and tail were accidentally damaged!”

As if to verify Yue Feng’s guess, Yue Feng soon discovered new details at the position of the third claw on the eagle’s left claw.

There is an old wound on the side claw of the eagle’s left claw and there is no eagle nail.

The eagle’s nail is a weapon made from bone. It has a curved tip, a slightly thin edge, and a groove on the inside, shaped like a bleeding groove on a dagger. If you magnify it, it looks like an alien dagger growing on the finger.

The eagle’s claws are divided into four fingers, three in front and one in the back. Starting from the shortest finger on one side, they are called the big ring, middle finger, side claw, and back claw.

The big ring is like a human thumb, the shortest, but the strongest and most powerful, and the eagle’s nails are also the longest. Most of the damage caused by the eagle’s claws to its prey is due to the nails on the big ring.

The middle finger is the longest and has moderate strength, which can expand the range of the eagle’s grasp.

The side claw is like a person’s little finger, it has the least strength and the shortest nail tip.

The back finger is as important as the big ring and is the second most powerful finger in the eagle’s claw.

Now the nail on the left claw of this kite is gone, which indirectly verifies Yue Feng’s previous judgment that this eagle has done great work before.

“Having done big jobs doesn’t necessarily mean you have outstanding abilities, right?” Xiao Tao continued to ask.

Yue Feng nodded: “That’s true, being brave doesn’t mean being strong.

An eagle that is strong enough will not have any injuries on its body.

As the saying goes, those who are good at fighting do not have to achieve great success!
For example, this Great Green Harrier had no damage from beginning to end! Even when it attacked pheasants and weasels last time, it was not injured!
However, other skills can be trained, but courage is innate and can only be encountered by chance. This is its preciousness!

The best falcon is the one that is brave and smart enough to subdue its prey without getting hurt!

We’ll keep this kite as well! Leave the net here, take the cage and the bait away, and I’ll come back tomorrow morning! If we’re lucky, we should be able to catch all the hawks tomorrow morning!”

“Row!”

After making plans, Yue Feng went down the mountain and went home with everyone else, taking today’s results.

A purple kite and a red kite, two eagles were handed over to the father Yue Lei. The old man happened to be at home, fiddling with one in each hand. The staggered time actually improved efficiency. The father naturally supported his son unconditionally when he wanted to do something serious.

That night, Yue Lei lit an oil lamp and beat the two eagles. During the beating, apart from untying the eagles’ coats to let the birds poop (when eagles poop, the poop is ejected from their bodies, and after it hits the ground, the traces are like white stripes, so eagle poop is called beating!), he did not slack off and kept up until after eleven o’clock in the middle of the night before going to bed to rest.

The next morning, as soon as the cocks crowed, Yue Feng and Yue Lei both got up. Yue Lei, leaning on his crutches, held the hawk and went to the yard to “look at the sky”, while Yue Feng took the rolling cage from the barn and went to the grove outside the door to set the bait in the riding cage.

It must be said that morning is indeed the golden time for birds of prey to forage. Yue Feng strolled at the foot of the mountain by the river until around eight o’clock when he went to inspect the nets. All three nets were filled with food.

An old slender-breasted sparrowhawk (adult male sparrowhawk) with red eyes and two well-behaved khaki kites.

Lao Xi’s chest was small, and it could only catch prey the size of sparrows, gray magpies, and quails. They were not Yue Feng’s target eagle species. In addition, the eagle’s eyes were red, and it must be an eagle at least five or six years old, so Yue Feng decisively let it go.

The remaining two kites are of average appearance, with no major advantages to be found in them, but there are no obvious defects either.

At this point, the five main falcons of the Yue Family Falconry Team have all returned to their positions, and the five people, including Uncle Li, each have a falcon.

Yue Feng put away the hawk-catching net, and then returned home with the two new kites in the net.

When the eagle arrives home, there are also some rules for how to place it. If it is just a eagle, Yue Feng only needs to tie it to the back of a chair when he goes to bed at night.

But there are five sparrowhawks and one pine hawk at home. With so many hawks together, we can’t be vague.

Birds of prey will fight with each other, and eagles will occasionally struggle after being tied up. They cannot be simply tied to a horizontal bar and left alone, so Yue Feng dug a hole and buried three pine stakes, two vertical and one horizontal, in a sunny position outside the window of the main house in the yard.

Two vertical stakes were buried and fixed, and a horizontal beam with native pine bark was hung under the wood. A curtain stretched with sack pieces was hung to completely fill the space below.

If a tied eagle struggles, it may get hung on the bottom and unable to return to the bar. The sack piece can ensure that the eagle will not turn on the bar. If it accidentally gets “hanged”, its claws can use the sack piece for leverage and then get back on the bar and stand upright.

In the next few days, the Yue family became busy.

Dad Yue Lei and Li Wentong were in charge of handling these live eagles, Yue Feng took the main battle kite up the mountain every day, and the other three apprentices went up the mountain with Yue Feng to drive the sticks. On average, they caught about ten prey every day. After deducting some prey to feed the eagles, the rest was taken to the city every two days to continue supplying Niu Fusheng.

Five days later, Yue Feng and his son had adjusted the four newly caught kites to their desired condition.

The eagle was aroused, so Yue Feng directly took the sand chicken he caught in the mountains the day before and tied it to the open space under the tree outside the yard to give the new eagle a chance to successfully hunt.

After the prey that is tied to the eagle has rolled over several times, the new eagle has completed the stage of becoming an eagle. It only needs to be hung on the string and released for a few days. When the eagle is comfortable in the air, the training work is over.
The entire training process of the new eagle lasted eight days, and the last new eagle was trained by Yue Feng.

Four new eagles were distributed to Xiao Tao, Xiao Wen and others who had graduated from the Yuefeng Mountain practical training. Thus, the five members of the Falcon Brigade officially began the journey of making money by flying eagles.

The test water promotion station is here, and the first round of recommendations will be launched next week. Thank you to all the brothers who support me! Please vote, muah!
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(End of this chapter)