Thinking of building an Aviary

dubsbhoy

Long story short.............My two kids found 4 robin red breast chicks in the back garden a few weeks ago, we kept them overnight and they got returned to their nest the next day............since then they have hounded me to keep birds which is a battle they have now won.

I kept pigeons throughout my teens but i figure this is a different ball game, i've a space out the back to build an aviary but i want to do all the research i can before i get into anything, i've been talking to google but I'm more mixed up now then before i hit the search button.

Anyway some of the things annoying me.

1. The Aviary itself...........am i better off getting something made from scratch or would a garden shed do with some adjustments made to provide out door section for the birds.

2. Mixing birds............Can you lump them all in together, what type of birds should i start off with ?

3. Do i need some kind of heaters in the aviary ?

4. How difficult is breeding ? will i need nesting boxes etc to breed birds or will they just sort themselves out ?

5. On a scale of 1-10 how difficult is it to keep birds ?

Sorry if them questions are crazy i really don't have a notion about keeping these type of birds and i do plan on doing as much research as i can and getting a few books and that just thought I'd chance my arm on here first.


Thanks

Cherry Blossom

dubsbhoy wrote: »

Sorry if them questions are crazy i really don't have a notion about keeping these type of birds and i do plan on doing as much research as i can and getting a few books and that just thought I'd chance my arm on here first.

Thanks

First thing you need to do is find a good general book and decide exactly what type of birds you want and go from there. I still won't be able to help you though I'm afraid because I've never been a fan of birds being 'kept'. My birds are whichever types decide to use the facilities I've provided amongst the little clump of trees in the field (a bird table, bath and a bunch of nesting boxes) all relocated there from the garden with the arrival of the terrier :rolleyes:.

dubsbhoy

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

First thing you need to do is find a good general book and decide exactly what type of birds you want and go from there. I still won't be able to help you though I'm afraid because I've never been a fan of birds being 'kept'. My birds are whichever types decide to use the facilities I've provided amongst the little clump of trees in the field (a bird table, bath and a bunch of nesting boxes) all relocated there from the garden with the arrival of the terrier :rolleyes:.

Cheers, throwing up a few bird boxes/tables is getting more appealing the more i read, trying to convince the kids of that is a different matter

Green Dog

The type of aviary, difficulty in keeping/breeding. heating requirements, all really depend on the species of birds you decide to keep.
Have you any ideas? Finches or parakeets? How important is color, song, and tameness? Would you like to have plants in the aviary?

A Garden shed would need to be insulated for most captive birds. A light source would be great for the long nights and to allow feeding in the evenings. With the last few winters the ability to provide heating even for hardy species would be great (even to just stop the water freezing over). A double door (a porch) would be important to stop birds flying out as you enter the aviary.

Mixing different species can be very difficult and you need to have good advice before you decide on what birds you get.
For example budgies are colorful, hardy, easy to breed (once you do your homework), and can become tame but you cant have any plants and may destroy woodwork. They can also be aggressive with other species and each other.
There are numerous species of finches but most need heating during the winter. Some will not destroy plants, some have amazing colors and songs. Most will not become tame, a lot of finches can be difficult to sex and breed. Zebra finches would be good for beginners.

Hope that helped.

Gold Leaf Tea

dubsbhoy wrote: »

1. The Aviary itself...........am i better off getting something made from scratch or would a garden shed do with some adjustments made to provide out door section for the birds.

2. Mixing birds............Can you lump them all in together, what type of birds should i start off with ?

3. Do i need some kind of heaters in the aviary ?

4. How difficult is breeding ? will i need nesting boxes etc to breed birds or will they just sort themselves out ?

5. On a scale of 1-10 how difficult is it to keep birds ?

Sorry if them questions are crazy i really don't have a notion about keeping these type of birds and i do plan on doing as much research as i can and getting a few books and that just thought I'd chance my arm on here first.


Thanks

My grandfather had a big aviary. I think it would have been purpose built back in the day. He had a second indoor sort of Aviary too, it was a big rambling old house so lots of space for it. Outdoors he had several birdtables and baths, he was bird crazy:D

He had a vast mix of birds(all sorts, canaries, budgies, cockateels, finches, love birds and more) and never had any trouble as I recall, other than a parakeet escaping. There was no special heating system but it was very well insulated, it must have been, as it was very warm in there. He did breed successfully, and he would have used nesting boxes.

I don't think it was difficult, but it seemed to be addictive and there was a fair amount of work involved, but then he had a LOT of birds. He seemed to get a great amount of satisfaction from it. When he became ill he had to give them all away and it broke his heart to have to do it. All of that would have been years ago, but if it was doable then, it's certainly doable now:).

dubsbhoy

Green Dog wrote: »

The type of aviary, difficulty in keeping/breeding. heating requirements, all really depend on the species of birds you decide to keep.
Have you any ideas? Finches or parakeets? How important is color, song, and tameness? Would you like to have plants in the aviary?

A Garden shed would need to be insulated for most captive birds. A light source would be great for the long nights and to allow feeding in the evenings. With the last few winters the ability to provide heating even for hardy species would be great (even to just stop the water freezing over). A double door (a porch) would be important to stop birds flying out as you enter the aviary.

Mixing different species can be very difficult and you need to have good advice before you decide on what birds you get.
For example budgies are colorful, hardy, easy to breed (once you do your homework), and can become tame but you cant have any plants and may destroy woodwork. They can also be aggressive with other species and each other.
There are numerous species of finches but most need heating during the winter. Some will not destroy plants, some have amazing colors and songs. Most will not become tame, a lot of finches can be difficult to sex and breed. Zebra finches would be good for beginners.

Hope that helped.

Very Helpful thanks

This is really for my two kids (Although i know I'll be the one doing the dirty side of things) they done a great job looking after the robin red breast chicks a few weeks ago and have tormented me to get birds since, from what you said above the budgies seem to be a good breed to start off with, when i get more educated on the subject i could look at evolving the aviary a bit later on.

Thanks again

dubsbhoy

Gold Leaf Tea wrote: »

My grandfather had a big aviary. I think it would have been purpose built back in the day. He had a second indoor sort of Aviary too, it was a big rambling old house so lots of space for it. Outdoors he had several birdtables and baths, he was bird crazy:D

He had a vast mix of birds(all sorts, canaries, budgies, cockateels, finches, love birds and more) and never had any trouble as I recall, other than a parakeet escaping. There was no special heating system but it was very well insulated, it must have been, as it was very warm in there. He did breed successfully, and he would have used nesting boxes.

I don't think it was difficult, but it seemed to be addictive and there was a fair amount of work involved, but then he had a LOT of birds. He seemed to get a great amount of satisfaction from it. When he became ill he had to give them all away and it broke his heart to have to do it. All of that would have been years ago, but if it was doable then, it's certainly doable now:).

Nice story thanks for posting it

Ditch

dubsbhoy wrote: »

Cheers, throwing up a few bird boxes/tables is getting more appealing the more i read

There's a bit more to doing it properly than just 'throwing up' anything. But, it's still dead simple, once ye know the basics.

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Nest_Boxes/

Nest Box information there. Though, ye'd really do better ~ especially where youngsters are concerned, to wait till next February before putting boxes out now. They'll get used then. Now they're more likely to disappoint. Birds are already sorted.

" Bird Table " ? I wouldn't bother. I just hang a couple of good Peanut Feeders from a taught fencing wire strung between two points.

Get plenty of birds of a good variety. Doesn't attract rats though as there's virtually no spillage / waste.

Aviaries? I have an 8' x 4' x 6' one here. Black, powder coated weld mesh on a steel box frame. Bought it in flat pack sectional panels and bolted it together myself.

Cost me about £300. Shipped over from england. Couldn't have made one cheaper myself

Sigma Force

I think for now you might be better off going with looking after the wild birds because kids might pressure you into it but then kids get bored of them and you end up doing all the work while they loose interest.

If you do go ahead, do opt for heating but it can be hard to choose suitable heating the weather is so severe in winter now that all aviary birds really must have heating now..wild birds aren't surviving the winters now so pet birds are at risk too even if they have the shelter of a shed.

Heating wise that's a tricky one, there are panel heaters you can get that you would need to put a wire box over it so they can't perch directly on it, there's also heated perches you can get as well it's all a bit complicated someone else might be able to give more info. on heating. Me..I was too paranoid about fire hazards in a timber shed and also our aviary is about 50 or 60 feet from the house so getting elec. up there would of been a pain. (We haven't any birds now except one in the house).

It is a lot easier to have one in your house that way you can control the heating and keep a closer eye on the birds. If you do get some birds, obviously do lots of research first and then be careful where you buy avoid most pet shops and some breeders are pretty dodgy too. Once you decide on a bird then it's a matter of reasearching it's needs and diet etc. most are better for their own sake in pairs for company.

One option could be an indoor aviary, bird cages in general are too small. So either a very large cage on castors or an indoor aviary could work. zooplus.co.uk have some mini aviarys on castors I think.

I wouldn't go mixing breeds of birds (others may disagree but this is my opinion) I think you'd be better off with one pair of the same breed. There's no reason why you can't have two birds in one large aviary, some people think oh I've got a large aviary now I'll fill it with birds but it kind of defeats the purpose of having an aviary because people over crowd them and then they birds haven't got all that much free space to fly around without getting in the way of each other. Can't remember now (there should be photos of our aviary on the board somewhere) think the flight is 8 feet long 5 feet wide and the shed 4 feet long, it's raised on 3 foot base so it's not a full sized shed we had it specially made in shiplap. It's sited on patio slabs. The whole thing cost a fortune so it might be cheaper to by the flight. We built it out of timber and aviary wire. The most amount of birds were 6 at a time and that was more than enough for the size.

But as said maybe set up some feeding stations around the garden instead, get the kids to help you build a wildlife pond..you don't need a liner or anything just dig out a patch in the garden and use the soil to make a bank, it'll fill up naturally and birds can use.

If you have a good few trees dotted around it's better to use them to hang food rather than a feeding station, I've found the feeding station is handy in the depths of winter but at this time of year it just gets so dirty and you have to move it around all the time.

Maybe buy some trees to encourage more birds in and you can get feeders you can stick to the window so kids can see close up.

I get the bags of millet seed and hang them out the window, close the window on it so it's trapped so it won't fall or the birds can't take it away, and the sparrows especially will come straight up to the window to eat, if I leave a window open they sometimes sneak in. If I haven't left any millet out they keep coming to the window sill and look at me..which is odd considering they are so flighty. Lot of bird poop to clean up though which is the down side.

Zapperzy

Ditch wrote: »

" Bird Table " ? I wouldn't bother. I just hang a couple of good Peanut Feeders from a taught fencing wire strung between two points.

Get plenty of birds of a good variety. Doesn't attract rats though as there's virtually no spillage / waste.

Unless you've got an extra intelligent rat like me that runs along the length of the fence and then sits there eating out of the peanut feeder. That was an enjoyable christmas dinner spent watching Rodney the rat have his christmas dinner of peanuts out of the bird feeder! Or maybe the less intelligent human hung it off a fence when I probably should have hung it off a wire.

dubsbhoy

Sigma Force wrote: »

I think for now you might be better off going with looking after the wild birds because kids might pressure you into it but then kids get bored of them and you end up doing all the work while they loose interest.

If you do go ahead, do opt for heating but it can be hard to choose suitable heating the weather is so severe in winter now that all aviary birds really must have heating now..wild birds aren't surviving the winters now so pet birds are at risk too even if they have the shelter of a shed.

Heating wise that's a tricky one, there are panel heaters you can get that you would need to put a wire box over it so they can't perch directly on it, there's also heated perches you can get as well it's all a bit complicated someone else might be able to give more info. on heating. Me..I was too paranoid about fire hazards in a timber shed and also our aviary is about 50 or 60 feet from the house so getting elec. up there would of been a pain. (We haven't any birds now except one in the house).

It is a lot easier to have one in your house that way you can control the heating and keep a closer eye on the birds. If you do get some birds, obviously do lots of research first and then be careful where you buy avoid most pet shops and some breeders are pretty dodgy too. Once you decide on a bird then it's a matter of reasearching it's needs and diet etc. most are better for their own sake in pairs for company.

One option could be an indoor aviary, bird cages in general are too small. So either a very large cage on castors or an indoor aviary could work. zooplus.co.uk have some mini aviarys on castors I think.

I wouldn't go mixing breeds of birds (others may disagree but this is my opinion) I think you'd be better off with one pair of the same breed. There's no reason why you can't have two birds in one large aviary, some people think oh I've got a large aviary now I'll fill it with birds but it kind of defeats the purpose of having an aviary because people over crowd them and then they birds haven't got all that much free space to fly around without getting in the way of each other. Can't remember now (there should be photos of our aviary on the board somewhere) think the flight is 8 feet long 5 feet wide and the shed 4 feet long, it's raised on 3 foot base so it's not a full sized shed we had it specially made in shiplap. It's sited on patio slabs. The whole thing cost a fortune so it might be cheaper to by the flight. We built it out of timber and aviary wire. The most amount of birds were 6 at a time and that was more than enough for the size.

But as said maybe set up some feeding stations around the garden instead, get the kids to help you build a wildlife pond..you don't need a liner or anything just dig out a patch in the garden and use the soil to make a bank, it'll fill up naturally and birds can use.

If you have a good few trees dotted around it's better to use them to hang food rather than a feeding station, I've found the feeding station is handy in the depths of winter but at this time of year it just gets so dirty and you have to move it around all the time.

Maybe buy some trees to encourage more birds in and you can get feeders you can stick to the window so kids can see close up.

I get the bags of millet seed and hang them out the window, close the window on it so it's trapped so it won't fall or the birds can't take it away, and the sparrows especially will come straight up to the window to eat, if I leave a window open they sometimes sneak in. If I haven't left any millet out they keep coming to the window sill and look at me..which is odd considering they are so flighty. Lot of bird poop to clean up though which is the down side.

Thats a great read, nice one.

Think i'll go with the wild birds and if the kids are still as keen down the road then i'll re-visit it.

Thanks again

Guru Maith Agut

Or you could go to the upper level of bird keeping and really go the whole hog





Full details about his build here: http://www.javafinch.com/build%20aviary/build%20aviary.html


Whatever you decide keeping smaller birds like finches and even budgies is great fun and the kids will get great joy out of watching the birds go about their day eating, singing and in the warmer months breeding and rearing young. All good fun as long as you keep some simple rules like leaving enough space for them to be able to fly, nest, roost and bathe.

Good luck!

are you serious

Thats one serious set up you have there ^^