Checkout My Castle And "moat".

[Geb 0]

New to the forum I thought I would post some of my aviary activity. Next to the rear of the house there exists a 16 sq foot/1.48 m² concrete slab, (part of the sidewalk, probably intended for a planter). It made an ideal, (for me anyway) floor for the aviary. Here are some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

The rectangles you see are access doors made of Plexiglas where I provide seed and greens from the porch but out of the weather and still minimize any opportunities for escape. Construction was rather straight forward by splitting what we call 2x4s, not sure of the equivalent in Australia,(5cm x 10cm?). Then I made up frames for the four sides and one for the top. They in turn were covered with ½ inch welded wire painted black, and bolted together. Before I bolted it to the slab I placed some lag bolts on the underside of the unit to provide spacers for leveling and drain during a wash down. I added a pitched roof with sides of the roof coming down about 18 inches/45 cm to protect the budgies from prevailing winds and rain. Slab to roof eve is 10 feet/3 meters so we have a 9 foot/2,74 meter tall aviary tower. Every castle has a moat and mine has almost a moat. Raccoons cleaned out the pond and I knew they would scare the birds. So I placed some more welded wire around the base but insulated from the aviary wire( after pictures were taken). This wire is in turn tied to an electric fence controller and operates off a photo electric switch. As soon as it becomes dark, the moat/wire becomes energized and any raccoon that touches it becomes educated in the hazards of nosing around our aviary. The bidet is another story.

 

Geb

[Finnie 0]

Hi Geb, welcome to the forum! It looks nice. Ought to be nice to see/hear your birds when you are on your deck. You should give us some photos once the birds are in it.

 

Oh, and I want to hear this bidet story!

[robyn 0]

Looks like a well built aviary. Geb, hope your birds love it. One question though, we don't have racoons here in Oz, only know what we see on t.v etc Wouldn't they still climb up onto your railing say, to still scare birds? Do they also hunt for eggs?

[Geb 0]

Finnie.

The Bidet story is not a bigge. After church we parked in small mall outside a restaurant for lunch and there in the middle of the parking lot was a bidet, compete with factory wrapping still on it. Next door was a hardware store that probably found it in one of their shipments by error. I’m sure the only bidets in Sacramento are installed for medical reasons. A better bidet story is the one the one I told while we were having lunch in the Louvre Museum. Two ladies from New York joined us and we were talking, (it was so good to have a conversation in English) about traveling in Europe and once bidet was mentioned I couldn’t resist. I said I use the bidet almost every night. Big long pause with a straight face. Then I complained it was not big enough for both of my feet at the same time.

 

Robyn,

There is also an electric barrier in between the railing and aviary so I suspect raccoons will get discouraged enough to not figure how they could climb the railing and head back to the aviary. There are no eggs. After the raccoons got all the fish in the pond I educated myself. They will eat anything and are ferocious when threatened. Neighbor tells me his dog, three times the size of the raccoon, chased the raccoon into the creek and then the raccoon turned and jumped on the dog’s head and drowned it. Nasty critters.

 

It is so easy to get off topic.

[robyn 0]

Interesting though. Glad we don't have them here, if they got into an aviary I don't suppose they would just stop at the eggs if they are that vicious.

[Finnie 0]

Funny bidet story!

 

As for raccoons, Robyn, I have a feeling they wouldn't attack the budgies. They are usually more of scavengers, raiding people's trash, bird feeders, and cat/dog food dishes. Of course, raiding a budgie nest or seed dish would still cause havoc and upset the birds. But if they were able to get in, there would be a bigger risk of the budgies escaping.

 

I think the story of the dog getting drowned may have been because the raccoons needed to defend themselves. Around here, the raccoons are more of a nuisance because of their daring persistance. You can chase them off, and they just go around the corner and wait for you to leave, and then they come right back.

 

My cats co-exist with them. I have caught raccoons eating from the cat's dish while the cats just laid in their cat bed and watched. You learn to bring the cat food in at dusk. But right now I have one that got smart. He's been coming by in the middle of the day to eat.

 

Geb, let us know how your electric barrier deters them.

[Geb 0]

As I understand the raccoon issue it is not their getting into the cage/aviary. The hazard is scaring the birds at night so they kill themselves flying into the sides of the cage/aviary. Friends of ours lost an expensive parrot that way. We are a block from Bidwell Park so we get all kinds of visitors: skunks, raccoons, deer, peacocks, turkeys, coyote, and even some birds!

 

Finnie,

Here is a pix of the barrier.

 

 

It is just 8” of aviary welded wire aka metal fabric. I drilled an access hole half way through each end of an 8” sprinkler riser. This let me attach the riser to the aviary frame. With an insulator in place the barrier wire is held on with plastic wire ties using the same access hole. So I have about 2” of separation between aviary wire on the inside of the 1-1/2” x 2” frame and barrier wire on the outside of the ½” riser. Insulated jumpers tied them all to the Electric fence charger.

The aviary is close to our bedroom door that we leave open at night. The raccoons have been in the backyard but we have not heard any panic so all we can do is assume it is working. I use the same fence type to keep the deer out of the roses and the neighborhood cats out of the veggie garden.

[dillster 0]

That soo cool like your aviary