Building a Indoor Flight, flooring question.

[Ria]

My recommendation is a roll of vinyl. Easy to nail down, waterproof, very easy to clean. I have a piece in one of my flights, and love it. I'm hoping to build a nice big cage or two soon, and definitely plan to use this stuff for those floors. Daily cleaning (in my small cage, I know it wouldn't work in an aviary ) is a plastic piece of steel wool and dustpan. More thorough cleaning is easy with a damp sponge and ACV.

Make sure you show us pics!!

[Ursula]

Sally, you are right. Although it's not just a tarp, it's actually pond liner. It is much thicker than a tarp, very durable and absolutely water proof. When I clean out all of the floor bedding for thorough cleaning I wash it down like any other floor with a floor cleaning sponge. Works very well.
But I also don't quite understand why you want to lift such a large aviary off the floor. I would also be concerned about the weight, and if you have it right on the floor you can also safely walk in...

[cindy]

It will have sides that rest on the floor but the actual floor will be raised and supported underneath so not to mat the carpet down underneath.

[debbie276]

I have used rolls of vinyl flooring or if you want something more solid white board. The white board is in the paneling section of home depot or lowes.

[Derk]

cindy
Wondering how you finally constructed your aviary and if you would change anything. Pictures?

[TheExtremeCraftsman]

Couple of ideas. You could visit a wood supplier in your area that offers a smooth laminate bonded to 1/2 or 3/4 inch ply. It would be like a kitchen counter top. Second way and the way I do it but it's a little more complicated. Go to Home Depot or lowes where you can purchase roles of paper. I find that the painters paper works best as it is thin and water proof like. Build the cage to fit the roll, I.e. 3foot roll of paper, your cage will be 3 foot wide. I mount them on the out side of the cage using a dowel and two brackets. I feed the paper through the cage and on to another dowel on the opposite side of the cage. This is like a real to real tape player. mount a handle to the empty dowel. Now every day just roll the paper on the empty roller. when you reach the end of the roll of paper just replace. this design practly eliminates cleaning the bottom of my cage. I also cover the rollers with a decoritave cover so you see nothing. I am am a master craftsman and we use this system for the cages We sell. One more note, there is a way to curve the paper up on either side as it is sliding through the cage but to complicated to go into here. Good luck.

[Sally]

TheExtremeCraftsman A terrific idea for those who are handy. I see that system used on those very expensive imported cage banks found on the Abba website. Very clever.

[ranchnanny]

Cindy have you thought of solid vinyl flooring to sweep up poop ext. then use a swiffer steamer to disinfect floor,

[Derk]

ranchnanny
Sorry, but I revived an old thread - three years old. I am sure Cindy has the aviary floor finished. I am hoping to build some aviaries and I was wondering if she had pictures of the finished product so I could get ideas.

[Derk]

TheExtremeCraftsman
Any chance you would be willing to load pictures of your aviaries and cages? I am not a master craftsman but I am pretty handy and I know a master craftsman. (Hopefully he can be bribed with beer)

[TheExtremeCraftsman]

Sure. Give me a little while to figure out how to upload pics. I been doing this stuff for so long that I really don't take pics any more but I will show you what I have and will get more pics as soon as the next one is done. These would be the real high end type like Sally was mentioning only we make them right here in the USA? But much better.

I going to ask this here because we are here. my strawberry female looks like crap. she was on the bottom this AM. should I pull all the nesting materials and nest before she kills her self?

[Sally]

Strawberry hens seem to be somewhat susceptible to egg binding. I would watch her carefully, give her some heat via a heat lamp, and if you have any liquid calcium, administer one or two drops directly to the beak. Has she been laying eggs already?

[TheExtremeCraftsman]

yes. Three about a month apart. not sure weather or not they were fertile. one was built upon never to be seen again, one literally scared out of her buy my cats, and the last one was dragged out by male tearing apart the nest.

I believe you are correct in your thoughts. all this started at the same time we had lots of company. Just to much activity. So should I just remove all nesting stuff?

[Sally]

You could remove the nesting material, but she may still continue to lay eggs. Is she better now? Were you able to give her some liquid calcium?

[TheExtremeCraftsman]

Yes she looks better. right now there is nothing in the nest and I was thinking I should pull everything including the nests. what do ya think. Ref the calcium, no, I am not that far advanced yet and trying to catch her would probably not do her any good. I have set up heat for her.

Just a quick note off subject. Sally, this forum is really cool! You do good work and thank you for what you do.