The new aviary measures 7 meter by 6 meter. There are 4 flights. Three flights measure 3.5 meter by 1.3 meters while a smaller flight for young birds and show preparation measures 0.8 meters by 2.6 meters. The breeding room has about 60 breeding cages.
A kitchen was also built in with running water, hot and cold, as well as sufficient packing space. A sink for washing up is available in this kitchen to wash any items.
Included in this area is a store room measuring 3 meters by 1,5 meters. The seed and odds and ends are stored here. The store room door is externally placed so when seed is mixed or taken out for washing it does not disturb the birds.
Some unique features have been used which will be covered in the pictures below.
Our Previous Aviary
We built our previous aviary in 1997. This aviary measured 5.5 meters by 3.2
meters. There were 3 flights measuring
1 meter in width as well as a breeding room. There were 28 breeding
compartments in this birdroom. See pictures below.
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The new aviary is built next to the house which can be seen on the right.
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The aviary main door. Aviary lock can be seen as well as button to release magnet so one can enter. Picture on the right shows the canopy used to stop rain entering the cage. The roll up blinds can be seen under the canopy. These are rolled down at night for protection.
15 November 2010 to ...
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The open areas are closed by means of roll up blinds. This is done to protect the birds and are closed at night.
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The roll up blinds can be opened and closed as required.
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The door into the aviary from outside and from inside. The small flight is on the right.
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The inside of the aviary during construction. On the right the kitchen can be seen with the flights to the right.
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The built in kitchen during construction. The water heater can be seen under the zink on the right.
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The first cages go in and on the right the first birds are transfered.
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The first breeding cages taken from the kitchen area (left) and from the main entrance on the right.
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The first birds arrive in the new aviary flights.
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The birds start to fill the flights.
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The nest boxes are all replaced with new ones.
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On the left it can be seen that the aviary is completely tiled. This enables easy cleaning. On the right one can see were the additional breeding cages will be built to the left of the entrance.
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As indicated earlier we used a couple of unique ideas in the aviary. One was to make use of magnets to keep the flight doors closed. On the left one can see the plate to which the magnet will be attracted fitted at the top of the door frame. On the right is the magnet which is fitted to the door. These work extremely well as you dont need to do anything when entering a flight; simply push the door open.
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Another unique idea in the aviary was the water in the flights. Here we used plastic gutters cut to 500 mm. To this the gutter ends were glued. The gutter brackets in this case clipped over the top of the gutter. To remove one clips out the back and pulls the gutter loose. This is ideal as the birds have access to open water and they can bath if required. It also adds moisture in the air. To fit one simply fixes the gutter bracket to a suitable area in the flight.
1996 to 15 November 2010
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Ian in front of the aviary and in the flight.
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External view into the flights and the seed and dishes for the birds to bath.
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The work area and power with timer and switches.
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The work area and the food with veg.