Echo Valley Ranch would not be a real ranch without its ranch animals.  We have dogs, cats, horses, cows, chickens, and turkeys.  That is not all though; what many people do not know is that we also breed falcons.  Moreover, we are doing it with great success.

Fuzzy, tiny and white – that is how the falcon babies at EVR looked when they were born this spring.  Six babies hatched over a period of about eight days per pair.  At the beginning, the female falcons laid one egg every second day for eight days.  The young start to look like falcons at about five weeks of age. By now, the babies have become impressive young falcons.
At the moment, we have three falcon breeding couples at EVR.  An interesting fact: for the first time ever, a white falcon chick was born on the ranch this year.

Brian – the experienced falconer
It is no coincidence that we breed falcons at Echo Valley Ranch.  The breeding and training of falcons requires a lot of experience.  This experience comes in the form of Brian – our falconer.  He started to train falcons in the 1950s.  You can’t get much more experienced than that!  Brian brought the first falcons to EVR 15 years ago.  Three years later, he started to breed them for the ranch, with tremendous success.  However, that was to be expected considering his expertise.  As a result, many falcon chicks have been born over the last 15 years – and many guests have been fascinated and impressed by Brian’s work and dedication.

Facts and figures
As mentioned above, raising and taking care of young falcons takes expert knowledge.  Only very few people have the necessary skills to do it successfully.  The young falcons need fresh meat daily.  Most of the time, day-old chicks are fed to the falcons.  At the beginning, the falcon parents will chop up the chicks for their young.  It might not be the nicest thing to watch, but it is essential for survival nevertheless.
Falcons are different from other birds of prey because they do not build a nest.  In nature, the birds nest on bare cliff ledges.  In captivity, the young birds need sufficient space and a place of retreat.

Our falcons have grown up by now, so we can only hope that we will have new baby falcons at Echo Valley Ranch next spring.

One of our falcon couples at feeding time.

So cute: one of the chicks back in spring.

Our falconer Brian (on the right) has been taking care of our falcons for the last 15 years.