Aviary: Floor

Terry · Post by **Terry** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 3:31 am

Hello,
I'm planning to build an outdoor aviary and was wondering what kind of flooring is best for cleaning and maintaining: a concrete floor or a natural dirt floor maybe with grass? I thought a natural floor may be lower maintenance because debris and waste may bio-degrade and it look better than a cold concrete floor?
I've never had an aviary before so any tips and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance.
Terry

EmilyHurd · Post by **EmilyHurd** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:08 am

I don't think I'd use concrete or grass... There are a few members on here with aviaries, and I know Ken has an outdoor one.

With an outdoor aviary though, you need to plan a way so that predators cannot eat your little finches!

Post by **Sally** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:07 pm

I don't have an outdoor aviary yet, but hope to build one this spring. I live in a semi-rural area, so have lots of snakes and rodents. I also am thinking of moving in the next year or two, so I don't want something too permanent. I'm thinking that if I build it in panels that can be bolted together, they can also be easily disassembled. So I don't want a concrete floor, but a lot of people do have concrete floors for aviaries, as they can be washed down with a garden hose, so easy to keep clean. I'm thinking of making a floor with base of pressure-treated lumber, with wire mesh for the flooring. Then I would add dirt and plants. The mesh will eventually rot or rust out this way and have to be replaced. The other way to do it, if you don't have a concrete floor, is to bury the mesh from the side panels down at least 1 foot underground, then curve it out away from the aviary, to keep predators from digging in or under the side walls. It is hard to find information on how to design and build an outdoor aviary. Here are two sites--the first one is a man who builds outdoor aviaries and has lots of info and tips; the second is a man who built several connecting aviaries in his back yard, and I really like the look of his setup.

www.backyardaviary.com

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze3ft62/finchmadness/

trevorama · Post by **trevorama** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:19 pm

I bought plastic coated wire from backyard aviary. it's very high quality. under the ground we stapled chicken wire from the foundation inward, about 4 feet the whole perimeter so the whole floor has the wire underneath. we then backfilled with about 8-10" of dirt. i wanted a garden & birds where i could escape the rain. it's about 70 degrees with my heater. [/img]i have planted palms, grass, trees, bushes, etc. i don't know how to add a photo. i could send some to you of how we built it.
heather

trevorama · Post by **trevorama** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:30 pm

i posted a pic in the gallery in aviaries it's called foundation preparation.

Terry · Post by **Terry** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 10:28 pm

Thank you everyone for your responses.
I'm going to check out backyardaviary.com site,thanks, Sally.

Heather, thank you for posting the photo. Do you have photo of the finished aviary also? I'd love to them to get some ideas.
Thanks again, everyone for your advice,

Terry

trevorama · Post by **trevorama** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 10:40 pm

Hi Terry- I posted a pic called finished aviary-it's actually 95% complete as we need to finish the stone work on the front, but you get the jist of it. The picture was taken in the summer when it was nice out!

Post by **Sally** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 2:15 am

Wow - beautiful aviary! And 16 x 16, that's a wonderful size, you will be able to have quite a few birds, and you will probably have some breeding in there, if you give them some materials to make nests.

Terry · Post by **Terry** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 4:51 am

Wow! That is a beautiful aviary! It makes the one I had planned seems like a wire box!
Thanks, Heather. I'm going to have to redesign my aviary. From the photo, it seems that your aviary has a solid roof. How much sunlight does it get during the day if any? I heard it's good for the birds to get sunlight.
Thierry

Post by **Sally** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 11:52 am

Terry, the link I gave to Finch Madness shows how he used plexiglass panels for his roof. This is also a design with 3 connected aviaries, which is a really good plan if you have or want many different species that can't necessarily all be together. Robert is in Maryland, so he only uses the aviaries from April to October. Be sure, whatever plan you use, that you have a safety entry to the aviary, or else you may lose birds when you open the door.

trevorama · Post by **trevorama** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:17 pm

Thank you-It was a year in the design process (had to save up $$$)
It is a solid roof (metal) as it is near some large trees, whose limbs tend to fall (just missing my husband when we were building. I live in Everett, WA which is north of Seattle, so the whole "sunlight" issue is kind of a joke. We do get some sun, but it's usually cloudy (can you tell I can't stand it here!) Anyway, I installed some shop lights with full spectrum bulbs (about $8 or so at Home Depot) so the birds have more light plus the plants have light too. In the winter here it's very dreary, so even if there were light coming through the roof, I'd probably still have other lights ( I contemplated sky lights but decided against after the "limb" incident). Also, the full roof keeps out the rain. I haven't been able to figure out a way to have a portion of it exposed, plus be able to close it up for the winter. Over the "windows" I currently have "twinwall" polycarbonate which insulates but also lets light in.
In my aviary in San Diego, I had the wire all around including the roof. Rain and falling limbs was not a problem, but I did have a sun shield over a portion. Seems it's all or nothing! When the sun is out, I do get some sun through the front and side during the morning and early afternoon. It's really nice. Also, the back 4 feet is used as a catch and I also have some cabinets for storage. I can sit in there and watch them, even if it's snowing out, and the heater we installed works great. The current temp is 70. LOVE IT!
I had some nests and we have 4 shafttails which are a bit less than 3 months old, and a cutthroat which I have had to hand raise. The sociteties have a nest on the ground with 2 babies, about to fledge. I've taken all the nests out and will decide in a few months if I want to put them back. They do bicker a lot and the calmness of it all goes away when they are arguing over whose nest is whose. I did make the mistake of getting a few doves (was told they were calm!) but I am going to give away- they want to breed and it's rather chaotic. One thing I did notice was that once it was ready for the birds, and just as soon as I put all them out there (it's a very natural setting) they all wanted to breed. It was like a switch went on.
Sorry to ramble

trevorama · Post by **trevorama** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:22 pm

Just thought of something else- For me it was a matter of planning and building for what I wanted. It was a whole differrent thing in California, up here, I needed a different set up because of the weather- It's more of an out building, I call it the bird house. Decide what you want out of your aviary, and have fun with it.

Terry · Post by **Terry** » Thu Jun 14, 2018 11:40 am

Hi everyone,
Sorry for being a few days late sending my update on the outdoors aviary

, but I had this awful job that sent me to all corners of the earth... and now, 3 job changes and one move later, I was able to complete the aviary. I'll post some photos soon. It's 12' X 5' X 7'. It has an enclosed cabin with a 5"X5" square entry whereby the finches can go in and out to escape the weather. I put galvanized .5" wire mesh under the flooring to keep vermin out.
I took Sally's advice and built it in panels for easy handling. The flooring is astro-turf and playground sand to keep the grass blades standing up. The finches love to hope around on the grass and they try to pull on it. They seem to spend a lot of time on the floor as a matter of fact.
I have two potted plants in there and am planning to get plastic grass and branches to give them cover and privacy.
It took me several months to complete it from start to finish.
I'll post photos as soon as I figure out how to do that.
Thanks, again for all your advice!

trevorama wrote: Thank you-It was a year in the design process (had to save up $$$)

It is a solid roof (metal) as it is near some large trees, whose limbs tend to fall (just missing my husband when we were building. I live in Everett, WA which is north of Seattle, so the whole "sunlight" issue is kind of a joke. We do get some sun, but it's usually cloudy (can you tell I can't stand it here!) Anyway, I installed some shop lights with full spectrum bulbs (about $8 or so at Home Depot) so the birds have more light plus the plants have light too. In the winter here it's very dreary, so even if there were light coming through the roof, I'd probably still have other lights ( I contemplated sky lights but decided against after the "limb" incident). Also, the full roof keeps out the rain. I haven't been able to figure out a way to have a portion of it exposed, plus be able to close it up for the winter. Over the "windows" I currently have "twinwall" polycarbonate which insulates but also lets light in.

In my aviary in San Diego, I had the wire all around including the roof. Rain and falling limbs was not a problem, but I did have a sun shield over a portion. Seems it's all or nothing! When the sun is out, I do get some sun through the front and side during the morning and early afternoon. It's really nice. Also, the back 4 feet is used as a catch and I also have some cabinets for storage. I can sit in there and watch them, even if it's snowing out, and the heater we installed works great. The current temp is 70. LOVE IT!

I had some nests and we have 4 shafttails which are a bit less than 3 months old, and a cutthroat which I have had to hand raise. The sociteties have a nest on the ground with 2 babies, about to fledge. I've taken all the nests out and will decide in a few months if I want to put them back. They do bicker a lot and the calmness of it all goes away when they are arguing over whose nest is whose. I did make the mistake of getting a few doves (was told they were calm!) but I am going to give away- they want to breed and it's rather chaotic. One thing I did notice was that once it was ready for the birds, and just as soon as I put all them out there (it's a very natural setting) they all wanted to breed. It was like a switch went on.

Sorry to ramble

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Aviary: Floor

Aviary: Floor

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