Our first aviary.

[NeroFly]

We've just finished assembling our first aviary. It's a custom design, but it's made out of 20 standard 3'x6' aviary panels. Our quails will move in next week, but the next phase is to put some plants, perches and nest boxes in so we can have a few zebra finches in there too.

We're new to this, so any comments and critiques are welcome!

[lovezebs]

NeroFly

That looks great.

Is there a shaded area, or will trees/shrubs provide shade?

Not sure what type of quails you have, but be careful with them around finch babies.

We have a member in Australia, Mark Dramoth, who tried housing Quails and Zebras. The quails killed all the Zebra babies as soon as they fledged if I remember correctly.

Good luck with your new aviary.

[NeroFly]

Oh okay, thanks for the info. They're Japanese Quail, and they are fairly aggressive to each other, so I can see the risk. Maybe come fledging time I can look at putting a false floor in at half height, keeping the quail below...

And, yeah, we're going to put some dense shrubs in there for shade.

[Ricardo Ronsini]

It's beatiful

Japanese quails can be agressive peckers, so, i wouldn't trust them with the fledglings, as Elana mentioned, the adult birds will most likely be ok though.

How cold it gets there in winter time?

[Sally]

NeroFly Love the aviary! Are you located in an area where you have to worry about winter weather?

[Jen]

NeroFly
Very nice! Can't wait until you post phots of your bird occupants!
Where did you get the "standard 3'x6' Aviary panels? It looks beautiful. Congrats on a great job!

[Dramoth]

We lost a couple of adult birds and pretty much all our fledglings for the last breeding season to the Japanese quail. Was pretty shattered.

They see something fluttering on the ground and think that it's some sort of bug and attack it.

It's a nice aviary NeroFly

[NeroFly]

Thanks for all your comments.

It sounds like the quail might cause some problems. If I put a 6'x6' platform underneath the nesting boxes, with all the finch food & water above that, might that partially solve the problem?

The winters here are generally mild, but it does sometimes drop below freezing, especially at night. My plan was to build them an insulated roosting box with a few heat pads in there.

[NeroFly]

I also meant to say I have plastic panels to go all round the sides during the winter too, which should keep the wind out.

@Jen the aviary panels are readily available here in the UK, plenty of people making them on eBay, but I bought this kit from these guys, and that gave me most of what I needed:

https://www.4wire.co.uk/Aviary-panels/2 ... 2-x-1-hole

[NeroFly]

Hi all, thanks for all your suggestions above. We've put some energy into landscaping our aviary and we got our first zebra finches in this week.

They seem very happy and we've had no problems so far with the finches and the quail sharing the same aviary (perhaps because we only have female quail?). This has perhaps led to a slight problem in that the zebra finches seem to be spending a lot of time at the quail feeders eating the game feed, rather than eating their own finch food, I hope this is okay!

Anyway, I'll put some more pics in an album soon and post a link so you can see what's going on in there.

[lovezebs]

NeroFly

Congratulations on the new additions.

I just bet those Zebras are happy in such a nice enclosure

Regarding the food, as long as they are happy and healthy, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[lem2bert]

NeroFly

Congratulations on your new little zebras !!! It looks like they are loving that tree !! .

Looking forward to more pictures !!

[Ricardo Ronsini]

Beautiful zebs.

[Sheather]

It's a beautiful aviary but I also have to warn about quail. They are predatory and will kill any bird which doesn't avoid them on the ground, including babies and sick adults.

[NeroFly]

Thanks for your input. I'm still keeping a close eye on the quail, but so far, they really aren't bothered by the finches at all.