I have obtained a second hand winnerer. Home Made.

 

 

 

 

Every Saturday morning I clean out the flights and feed trays. I scrape the floors and vacuum them out. I also do the breeding cages. The spilt seed and husks in the feed trays go through the winnerer to feed the out going culled birds.

The husks are thrown away.

 

Feed Tray after cleaning this morning. Usually after a week it's pretty full

 

This morning the wife had an idea .. one of many... but this one seemed to hold merit. Could the husks be mixed with the sawdust for the nest boxes. There is very little droppings in the husks.

 

1st I though that it may mean an easy way to transmit desease but from where. I have enclosed flights.

 

I am interesed in others thoughts before going ahead next week.

Well Daz, first off,,,,you lucky boy getting that winnerer,,,, it's hard enough to find,,,,try explaining what you want from a pet shop,,,they wouldn't have a clue

 

I would think it would be an idea to consider mixing the husk with saw dust, can't hurt.

I thought saw dust was a no-no in nesting materials because it's fine and could be inhaled or swallowed? I would think the same would apply for husks...

The winnower takes most of the dust out of the seed. The white piece on the top of the winnower is where the vacuum "plug' in. So most of the "dust" goes straight in the vacuum. I should clarify that I use wood shavings not saw dust. Sorry there is a difference. I am just used to saying sawdust.

There is also many differing grades of sawdust. The one used for parrots ( a brown sawdust ) I have used for nestboxes in the past and when I run out of pine shavings, with no problems. A great many show breeders use flaky bran as their nesting material and that is fairly fine too. It just comes down to how fine and what grade it is.