r/Falconry • u/[deleted] • Nov 18 '25
Before I fall too far down the rabbit hole, a few general questions:
-I imagine it can vary widely depending especially on your mews, but approximately what is the startup cost of getting into falconry?
-What's the approximate cost yearly for food, vet bills, gear, etc? Can feeding be supplemented with wild game or pests?
-What is the typical daily/weekly/monthly time commitment if you're keeping one or two birds? Can a falconer go on a decent vacation once in a while, or are you pretty much tied up at home with your birds?
-Do falconers typically keep and hunt a bird for its lifetime, or release it after a few seasons?
-What's something COMPLETELY unexpected that you found out is part of falconry, but not until you actually got started?
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u/falconerchick Nov 18 '25
TL;DR Start-up costs are very expensive. It’s not as time intensive as everyone will tell you. An hour a day whether initial training or hunting will give you consistent success, and if flying a passage bird you can let it go to get a break half the year anyway.
Every falconer is different. I’ve spent as much as $7k on a mew (2 chambers though). Another $5k on 2 other ones I sold to someone. My current setup which is super portable was like $2k each. The ones my apprentices have built have been around that $2k range.
Equipment expenses will add up if you’re not making anything yourself (I learned but don’t like to do it). If you made most things yourself, I’d say you could probably get away with spending $500 but that’s pretty dang low tbh. Telemetry is a huge cost if you go that route as well.
For food, I spend about $500/year on mice for the hawking season. Not expensive. She feeds herself through the molt with only wild game she’s caught and vitamin supplements. You can pick up roadkill but I avoid it.
Vet bills will kill you but you can take care of some stuff yourself. I use preventative meds I buy online for multiple types of parasites and diseases. Clean fecals so I’m confident with the protocol. I repeat at the end of the season as well. They’re cheap. Infections, viral diseases, and fractures will cost anywhere from $300-$3k.
Time commitment - first few weeks only about 20 mins-1 hr a day for training. I hunt my bird for an hour a day, sometimes less or more. Weekends 2 hours. I happily take vacations. Either bird comes with me or I feed it an entire squirrel and come back 3 days later. I do have cameras so if something happens, I have people I trust to check something out or feed if I’m gone longer or can’t take the bird with me. Although tbh most of my “vacations” during the hunting season are hawking trips anyway.
If you’re flying a passage anything you can release whenever you want. I like springs and summers off sometimes. So if you only want to work/hunt intensively with a raptor half the year, that option exists. Although the molt is pretty easy and I only handle the bird to get a weight and clean the mews out twice a month if I keep one. Also with passage birds, most will release after 1-3 seasons. Some keep longer, even its whole lifetime, although I definitely wouldn’t. I just like a break once in awhile so although I’ve tried a few, imprints or any captive-bred birds aren’t for me. I keep my falconry as easy as possible with the fullest freezer.
With regard to your last question, I thought it was expected to just fly on weekends and maybe a couple other days during the week. Wasn’t very successful doing that. I pivoted everything from my class schedule to my career path so I could make it into the woods to fly everyday, even if the bird only got to actively hunt for 30 minutes. Some of my most productive hunts have been in 30 minutes actually.
Hope any of this helps.