THEY will grow up to become some of the deadliest and most powerful birds of prey in the skies, but for now they are vulnerable chicks needing tender loving care around the clock at a breeding centre near Bedale.

A naked, scrawny goshawk which can be held in the palm of the hand, but will eventually have a wingspan of up to 3ft, is only a day out of the egg, managing barely audible squeaks as its tiny beak demands its next feed.

Next door, two young owls from Africa, about a fortnight old, look like animated soft toys while a couple of falcons representing a rare world breed fix the visitor with inexperienced but beady eyes.

Flying displays represent the public face of the Falcons of Thorp Perrow, but behind the scenes, the operation has become the leading hatchery in Britain for the export of hunting hawks and falcons.

Chicks sent to customers in Africa, India, America, Japan, Spain, Taiwan, South Korea and the Middle East are each worth thousands of pounds. Early hatchings so far this season have included the first goshawk and three Lugger falcons, representing one of the world's rarest breeds.

The centre based in a former walled garden at Thorp Perrow has a total of 123 birds of all types made up of more than 40 species of hawk, owl, kite, falcon, eagle, vulture, kestrel, buzzard and cara cara, a South American bird of prey which comes in two forms, the crested and the rare striated. Thorp Perrow has two birds of each type.

According to centre director Tom Graham, however, the goshawk is the most highly prized of all the hawks and Thorp Perrow specialises in the type to generate 60pc of the centre's income.

While other raptor chicks are in the care of their natural mothers, the goshawks are being reared by hand through artificial insemination, with the male birds voluntarily donating semen. This method has been adopted because the goshawk female is notoriously aggressive towards the male and may kill and even eat it.

About 40 goshawk eggs have just been taken to the hatchery room, where conditions have to be maintained hygienically perfect with the help of a dehumidifier. Some goshawk species are ordered two years in advance for delivery to falconers.

Mr Graham has found himself so busy that he has had to take on assistant Jo Wilcock, who is in her first year, but the workload still remains formidable.

Chicks are fed four times a day on a diet from a specialist supplier consisting of mice, quail, rats, chicken and rabbit, with added vitamins.

Mr Graham said: "It's all mixed into a kind of pate, keeping it as natural as possible to what the birds would have in the wild.

"We have had so many chicks hatching that to mix up the food we have had to buy an industrial mincer in place of the hand-operated one we used to use.

"The season begins in March and finishes at the end of July. The graft will really start in the next three months and we will be like zombies when we are finished. It's a 24 hour a day job and we work in shifts with about two hours' sleep, but there's nothing better than when you finally see the chicks running around and sitting in the office."

While waiting for more goshawk eggs to hatch, the centre is keeping an eye on its other breeding birds including Lugger falcons and Scops owls, a species originating from Africa.

Mr Graham said: "We are now in our fifth year and since we opened pairs of birds have reached maturity and are starting to breed here. Some of those we produce will go for breeding or to other centres, some will go to private collections and quite a lot of young owls will be kept here for displays. Some owls will also go to Woburn safari park in Bedfordshire, where we opened a centre three years ago."