aviary

[white dove]

Hi Im fourteen from redding ca and i had a qustion about a avairy.I have a loft 8' by 6' and want to add a 16' by 6' aviary next to my loft. How should i do it?what type of floors?what type of wire? what do i put in the aviary?and any other information i should Know.thanks, Kevin

[TAWhatley]

Hi Kevin,

I couldn't build anything if my life depended on it, but I can at least suggest that you use 1/2 inch hardware cloth for the wire. The openings in the wire need to be small enough that nothing can get through it and harm your pigeons. The aviary also needs to be sturdy enough that a predator cannot just rip an opening and enter the aviary. You also want to be sure that nothing can dig under and then up into the aviary. I would also strongly suggest a solid roof on the aviary.

Others who are more talented with constructing lofts and aviaries will be along to help you out.

Terry

[hillfamilyloft]

Some places that you might find ideas are:

http://www.gulfcoasthomingclub.com/gall.shtml
http://www.pipa.be/
www.pigeon.org -showcase lofts

Happy building

[MaryOfExeter]

Hello Kevin,

I'm 14 as well, so I get my dad to build everything.
That might be why I can't build anything worth its trouble.

Really the only thing I give you advice on is that space is good, on most occasions. Having a good amount of space so that your birds aren't cramped up will help prevent stress. I used to always say there's never a such thing as too much space for your birds. But if you think about it....what if you plan on showing your birds? Then you'd need them in a cage where you can easily get to them and tame them. The big thing with any loft or aviary is whatever you do, don't make it much higher than your head. It's a pain trying to catch a bird that can easily fly over your head or up into a small spot where you can't reach. Having a long cage is fine though, as long as you have some type of net to catch the pigeons with if you need to. Chasing a bird all over the place to move it or whatever can stress them out. Stress is bad...obviously...and it makes them more susceptible to disease.

Like Terry said, it's good to have a nice sturdy aviary with small holed wire so nothing can get in. Every once in a while you'll have a rat or a blacksnake wanting to get in to grab a squab or egg. 1/2 inch will definitely stop that. You might also have a big dog try to get in and if your aviary walls don't hold up, the dog will rip though and kill whatever bird it can get a hold of. This happened to my dad once, and the dog killed every bird (but didn't even eat them! he just killed them for fun). Always expect the unexpected!

We have a ground flight cage so the birds in it can fly freely from one side to the other, and peck around on the actual ground if they want. It works out pretty good since we can just hook it to the tractor and move it to a new grassy spot if we want
Anyways, we have a lot of hawks that like to stop by and scare the stuffing out of the pigeons in that cage. The top is made out of wire with part of it covered for shelter. A hawk will land on the wire, sitting there for the longest time and stressing all the pigeons out. Because of this problem, try to cover as much of the roof as possible. I'm sure it would make the birds feel much safer if they can get out of sight of the hawk. All our pigeons have to do is look out from under the roof and see the hawk sitting right there. We'll probably fix that by putting another panel up. Do you get what I mean though? I must be getting tired...it's getting hard for me to explain things...

Ummm....let's see what else....
- Make sure you have enough perching area for the number of birds you have
- Make sure they have a place to get out of the cold winter wind (all we do is put a tarp on the sides and back where the solid roof is. that way, the wind can only get in from one direction...which I seriously doubt with the way mine is facing).
- Make sure the food stays dry and try to keep it up off the ground. Coccidia can live in their droppings, and if the food gets contaminated with it...it gets in their system again. Every time Coccidia gets in a pigeon's system, it damages their insides. It comes out, goes in, and on and on...so it eventually adds up to a pigeon with badly damaged bowels. Other things can easily be transferred to them from food laying on the ground, like worms. Plus! Feed left on the ground could go bad and cause your bird not to feel too great. If you have an open ground aviary like me (which most do I think), then you could try using shavings on the floor. It'll help with the dust and if there is any diseases you are worried about in the aviary, you can just scoop it up and put fresh new shavings in. It's much easier to clean and sanitize than a hard floor loft or a plain ground floor aviary.

That's all I can come up with at 12 in the morning. Hope that helped? I tried

[stach_n_flash]

In 17 built my first loft when I was 15 with the help of my younger sister.

I dont have much advice for you though. But just make sure no rodents can get in to protect your birds.