My new partitioned aviary - at last some pics! NEW PIC

williep · Post by **williep** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 4:03 pm

As some of you know, I constructed an aviary when I "disappeared" for 2 months or so and thought I'll share some pics with you.

The idea was to construct an outside breeding aviary for some of the rarer finches that might normally be disturbed by other birds in my large mixed aviary.

I started by clearing an area in the one corner of my property. Then poured a 2' wide 1' deep concrete foundation around the entire area where the aviary was to stand. I built a wall around the foundation for the aviary to stand on and to level the area. The aviary consist of 3 partitions each 3'4" (1m) wide and 9' (3m) deep and is entirely dismountable as it is constructed from 5 individual parts. 75% is covered with the roof and the other 25% is for sun bathing.

franny · Post by **franny** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 4:34 pm

Wow! Wish I had room for this.

What finches will go in it, and how many per section?

WillieP,

Living in Canada as I do, I'm used to people assuming that we all have polar bears wandering our streets, and snow most of the year...

So I should probably think twice before I ask you this... but here goes. I somehow picture Africa as having lions roaming around everywhere, and other exotic wild animals.

I know, I know, probably not true. But seriously, what kind of wildlife do you have appearing in your backyard, and is it a danger to the birds? I'm really curious.

The worst we might have to contend with here, at least in my part of southwestern Canada, would be domestic cats, raccoons, and possibly coyotes. It's very rare to ever see a mountain lion. Though they do sometimes are spotted hunting for pet cats and small dogs, on the outskirts of Vancouver in the mountain areas. Very smart to keep pets indoors if you live near a green belt area around here. How about where you are? Are you in a big city? If so, you're lucky to have a huge yard.

FeatherHarp · Post by **FeatherHarp** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:39 pm

That is just a wonderful looking Aviary....you must be so proud of your work!

$\:D/$

The view for your birds is so pretty...all that nice green foliage and plants.

B CAMP · Post by **B CAMP** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 7:10 pm

williep
Good job,would like one in my garden just like it

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 7:30 pm

Great setup!!!!!

Finch Fry · Post by **Finch Fry** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 8:24 pm

Sweet, nice aviary.

Can i move into the one unit please? Whats the rent?

BillD · Post by **BillD** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 9:01 pm

franny wrote:Living in Canada as I do, I'm used to people assuming that we all have polar bears wandering our streets, and snow most of the year...

Hehe Franny..
You don't have polar bears? I had them when I lived in White Bear Lake Minnesota. Just having some fun with you.

Your outdoor aviary looks great Williep. Great design on putting in sections. Some comments made by Gomer in another post has me thinking about indoor bred versus outdoor bred finches. I'm going to continue with building my indoor aviary for now, but I've already picked out the spot for my outdoor one.

williep · Post by **williep** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 1:21 am

Franny, most people think of Africa like that but in essence Pretoria where I live and Johannesburg which use to be about 40 miles away all those years back is essentially one city now. Not too sure how many people live here but it's definitely at least quite a few million.

The most wild life you will find here is rats (if that qualifies), unfortunately cities and wildlife don't seem to go well together. When I lived on the outskirts of town a couple of years back we used to have some minor wildlife roam around and in our yard, rabbits, snakes, hedgehogs ect.

There are some wonderful "unspoiled" game farms not too far away though were you will spot all those wild animals.

My idea is to breed some of the African finches in them, my purple grenadiers and St Helena’s are already in the one cage and I’ve added a young pair of yellow stars with them. The middle one has all my young birds but I want to move my Peter’s twinspots and Blue caps to it. The one on the left now holds 4 pairs of fawn and normal Shaftails which I’m trying to colony breed for now. The ultimate idea is to keep between 3 and 5 pairs per partitioned area.

BillD · Post by **BillD** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:12 am

williep wrote: The most wild life you will find here is rats (if that qualifies), unfortunately cities and wildlife don't seem to go well together. When I lived on the outskirts of town a couple of years back we used to have some minor wildlife roam around and in our yard, rabbits, snakes, hedgehogs ect.

williep..

Thanks for giving us some insight. My Grandparents visited Johannesburg several decades ago and they enjoyed it. I'm sure it is a lot different now.

I still have wild rabbits making nests in my back yard. It's fun to see the little ones eating my grass. Just wish they didn't go out to the street.

Rats seem to be a sign of a big city. Not sure why. The town next to mine is warning everyone about a rat infestation. May be time to sell and move farther out.

jamezyboo21 · Post by **jamezyboo21** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 3:16 am

The aviaries are awesome and nice selection of finches.

gomer · Post by **gomer** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 5:53 am

good design.I like the raised section in the covered area good for wind protection.have you got a area for perching up there? or is it just to raise the roof ? Do you have mice in your area? We have native rats and mice around here. The mice can walk through 12.5mm wire very easily.To overcome that I have tin all around the bottoms of my aviarys to overcome this.

L in Ontario · Post by **L in Ontario** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 12:39 pm

That's look like a terrific set up williep!

The wildlife that BUGS me the most is the mice! They somehow get into my basement and our 'stoopid' cat thinks they are toys! I don't think she has ever killed one. Thank God they've never gotton upstairs (other than behind the kitchen cupboards where I ended up placing bait and sealing it closed)!

But the wildlife outside (other people's outdoor cats, skunks, rabbits, raccoons, turtles

, and once a deer walked further up our suburban street - they don't bother me whatsoever! I love seeing wildlife - outdoors!

franny · Post by **franny** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 10:57 pm

Thanks WillieP, I wondered... my boss and his wife went on one of those African Photo taking safaris and got the most wonderful photographs. I paint mostly horses, but they gave me a disk of about 4000 pics that they took, since I said I might like to try painting some of the wildlife. (Probably zebras first.

)

I've also never seen hedgehogs, other than the pigmy hedgehogs we sometimes see in the pet stores here. Are they like those? I know what you mean about the urban sprawl that's happened there. Same thing here. Vancouver is the largest city on the west coast, and I live about 40 miles away in Langley, which used to be a small little town... with lots of country in-between. That was in '66 when we first came here from the prairies. Now it's all one big city from Vancouver to here. No more little hobby farms left even.

And yes, the rats have also migrated out to here as well.... Soon they may outnumber the rabbits...

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 9:23 pm

great set up Willie. good luck with the colony breeding

ShaneW · Post by **ShaneW** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 6:58 am

very nice aviaries Willie, how would you charge to come down here for a holiday and build mine

starting mine this weekend