Our Aviary!

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Our Aviary!

Here is a picture of my aviary, or 'Bird Building' as my wife calls it. It is very convenient as I can house many young birds and feed them all at once. The dimensions are 8' long, 4' wide and 7' tall. With this much room the birds become very fast flyers. The bottom of the aviary is covered with pine bedding, an idea that I got from another breeder.

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This aviary was built in the spring of 2000 out of 1.5" x 1.5" pine and cedar furring strips and 1/4" plywood. It is a very lightweight but sturdy construction. I built it around the dimensions of a sheet of plywood which eliminated the need to cut most of it. Once I had the materials I was able to put it together in one day.

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Here is the inside of my aviary. I have a shelf on one end with a little trap door where I can easily access the food and water pan. I put a shallow brick in the water so the birds can stand on it to drink. Also it is shallow enough for the birds to take a bath. The water is usually changed twice a day or more. I also have a water bottle on the side of the cage through the wire (visible in the photo) where the birds always have fresh water.

Here you can see my birds all lined up on the highest perch in the aviary. I keep the breeder pairs in breeder cages. When the young are old enough to fly well and are not fed by the parents any longer they go into the aviary.

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Here is a picture of one of my birds that has 'ticks' or dark spots on him. About 25% of my yellow American Singer offspring have these dark spots. This one has a spot on his neck and wing. Most birds that have ticks just have one spot either on their wing or on their neck.

Here are two of my original breeder cages before I went to the shelving setup. The top cage houses the male and female until the hen lays some eggs. The eggs hatch and are raised by both the male and female. After about a week and a half after the eggs hatch I add a second nest. When the hen lays some more eggs I remove the male and babies to the bottom cage. At this point the babies have almost all left the nest. The male and the young are kept in the cage below until they are weaned. At that point the male is put back with the female to assist in feeding the new young, building a new nest, and mating. Using this method I can get a nest of eggs about once a month. I usually use a wicker nest with thin strips of computer paper cut up with a paper cutter or white burlap purchased from the fabric store, washed several times, cut into 1-2 inch squares and pulled apart which makes great nesting material. It really depends on the bird - some prefer the paper. Both birds usually build up the nest with this nesting material. I found that all other materials tend to get caught around the birds band and can be very dangerous. You can see I have plenty of toys in both cages and the birds just love them! Especially the young when they start getting bigger they will play with a certain toy for hours on end!

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Here is a decoration that I put on the aviary - it hangs on the front of it and matches the rustic natural wood tone 'theme' perfectly. It says, 'Home Tweet Home!' I hope you have enjoyed my pictures! Please feel free to copy any material on this web page and use it where ever you want! If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to e-mail me at cchardwick@yahoo.com.

Here's a few more photos. Enjoy!

Copyright 2003
Site Posted on November 30, 2001
Redesigned on December 1, 2002
Site Designed and Constructed by
Chris Hardwick

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