flight cage floor?

[gingerpoo]

heya =)

i am in the process of renovating a dog kennel into a 'loft' and 'flight cage'
i was planning on pouring a cement pad under the loft portion of it.. where my row of sleeping quarters and whatnot will be.

as far as the ground/floor portion of the flight cage is concerned what are my options for it? i see that a lot of flight cages are up off the ground but this is not an option for me, and money is a bit tight.

I have some broken up concrete slabs i was thinking of laying,, and having Baby's Tears grow between them. would this be a bad idea?

the flight cage portion of my cage will be 9x12 and at the moment the ground is red dirt.

[spirit wings]

do you have a picture you could post of it?....I think the pidjies would peck at the baby's tears it may not live. is the flight portion coverd? if so you could use sand or small gravel or shavings, concrete peices may be hard to clean. you could leave just dirt and rake it to clean. they do need to be in a critter proof place at night where mice, rates, snakes and such can not get in. if it was me I would put gravel down and rake up poop and spay with bleach water or oxine every so often. try to post a pic and that can get better opinions on what you can do.

[gingerpoo]

the flight portion of it will be screen and the loft portion will have a roof.
the plan is to have this house 4 birds in total in the 12X12 ft enclosure.
roof will be 8ft. the covered portion is 3x12 of the enclosure.
concerned about leaving the flight portion just dirt as in the winter im sure it would turn into a muddy mess.

http://picasaweb.google.com/katiebug...90630991267330

http://picasaweb.google.com/katiebug...90629472912610

never made a coop from scratch before let along morph a dog kennel into one.
hoping to put some smaller fencing around the parameter at least towards the ground.

[Lovebirds]

Originally Posted by gingerpoo

the flight portion of it will be screen and the loft portion will have a roof.
the plan is to have this house 4 birds in total in the 12X12 ft enclosure.
roof will be 8ft. the covered portion is 3x12 of the enclosure.
concerned about leaving the flight portion just dirt as in the winter im sure it would turn into a muddy mess.



never made a coop from scratch before let along morph a dog kennel into one.
hoping to put some smaller fencing around the parameter at least towards the ground.

Your pictures didn't show up. Here's a link to them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kt_bug/2733640894

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kt_bug/2733640516

[gingerpoo]

yea sorry took a sec to get that worked out =) sorry about that. either link works

[Lovebirds]

So, you're going to cover the back and sides and put a door of some sort?

[gingerpoo]

well the whole cage itself has a door. in the front.
the coop part of it i'd planned to make a row of cubby-hole roost boxes, and the 'pairing cages' like
http://img470.imageshack.us/img470/5...teracerlp8.jpg
to secure them at night? since atm i only have 2 birds and might upgrade to 4.. i have a decent amount of room i could make them each a 2ft deep x2 ft tall x 3 feet long 'pairing cage' to sleep in at night?

[spirit wings]

Originally Posted by gingerpoo

the flight portion of it will be screen and the loft portion will have a roof.
the plan is to have this house 4 birds in total in the 12X12 ft enclosure.
roof will be 8ft. the covered portion is 3x12 of the enclosure.
concerned about leaving the flight portion just dirt as in the winter im sure it would turn into a muddy mess.



never made a coop from scratch before let along morph a dog kennel into one.
hoping to put some smaller fencing around the parameter at least towards the ground.

the pics are not showing for me...darn....you may not want to use screen as they will get their toenails stuck and they will tear it up trying to get loose. 1/4 inch hardware cloth is what lots of folks use and are happy with it. now. if the pen is not buried deep something may dig in under fox and racoons for starters. will they be enclosed at night? they need protection from drafts and wind. so the flight is not coverd... i would just use course sand then with a draining barrier sheet under it and just lightly rake it when it is dry to get poops up, add more sand when needed. damp and wet is not a good thing so I would think of covering it if possible . or you may want to put a screen floor in, a few feet above the ground, that way the droppings will be away from them and they will be away from the damp/wet.

[Lovebirds]

Please bare in mind that I'm NOT anything close to a carpenter........but this is what I would do if I was you. Since you've already got the roof rafters up and it extends 3 feet, I guess you have to keep the whole area 3 feet deep which isn't a problem
I did some stuff to your pictures so you would understand what I'm saying.
I would make and entire closure on that end of the pen. Back wall, side walls and front wall, with a door and a couple of windows. On one end, you could hang some perches and on the other end, build a couple of nest boxes, OR, put a nest box at each end with a few perches on each end. This way, they can get in out of the sun, rain, wind, snow (if it snows where you are) if they want to, plus they will sleep inside at night. The windows would give some ventilation and the door could be left open during the day and closed at night. Just a thought. As far as the floor on the outside..........I would use some gravel of some sort or grow some grass in there if you can.
You do still need to work on the type of wire, because what's there now isn't good. And you need to keep animals from digging underneath like the others have said.
Maybe someone else will come up with other ideas. It doesn't have to be fancy, but it does need to be secure and weather proof.

[spirit wings]

great, I can see it now....ditto on Renee's ideas, and I think the grass would be a good idea as it looks like it gets sun in there,and the pigeons would like it. annual rye is great in cool weather and grows fast...keep us posted on what you think.