Building My Aviaries

"Hawfinch Close"

This was the area that I decided would be most suitable to house my new breeding unit, first job was to clear the area
Once the area was clear it was time to draw up the plan of how to best build the unit with a few things in mind. How the unit would look, to add a feature to the garden Total cost of unit List of materials that would be required and most of all how best to incorporate the units that would prove most productive as a breeding unit.

 
Once I got started I found a little helper he was great at shifting all the insects and small worms from around the area, at time he would get under my feet I had to watch I did not tread on him. Its great to see such trust in a wild bird nothing seems to bother this Robin even electric saws grinders he found the project very interesting
I decided that that wood was a cheaper option but if i could use concrete fence posts and concrete barge boards , this would never rot and save money in the long term living in England the climate is not very well suited to timber the damp winters rot wood very quickly each barge board measures 6 foot x 1 foot so I decided to use these 2 high this would help to stop vermin from gaining access to the unit, I used  9 foot posts, the post holes were dug 2 feet deep in the middle and 2 foot 6 ins at the back to create a fall on the roof of 6 ins on the open aviary section the posts were all set at 7 foot as this roof was mesh so did not require the 6 ins fall
Some of the barge boards had to be cut to create doorways, where doors were to be fitted no barge boards were used other than the door to the large aviary I decided to fit one board there, 13 posts and 19 barge boards were fitted and the concreted in using a dry mix this allows you to move each post all day until you are happy with everything being square if you then leave the unit overnight the damp in the soil will set of the concrete.A single brick wall was the built on a semi circle around the front of the unit.
Then 7 high quality fence panels were slid in to the solid areas these were 5 foot panels by 6 foot long to create the walls of the aviaries as you will probably know concrete posts have slots down either side and corner posts have slots to allow panels to fit around the corners the wooden  fence panels should be the strongest available and pre dipped in a tanalising solution to stop any rotting of the panels.

2" x 2" frames were made 5 foot x 6 foot long and mesh stapled on to the frames these were dropped into the concrete slots where required also door frames were made from 2" x 2" and they were dropped into slots where required,  then 7" x 2" joists were the notched to drop over the concrete posts to hold the unit square and create the roof supports for the mesh panels of the roof and plastic roof sections

I used duplex plastic sheeting to cover the solid roof section this gives plenty of light duplex is  a twinwall clear plastic sheet that has an air gap running through the middle, it is generally used on conservatories this product is quite expensive but it is very strong and does not drip with condensation in the winter, also it will stand a brick being thrown on it unlike the cheap and very brittle corrugated plastic that is normally used

A facier board was the bent by soaking in water overnight the slowly bending by fixing from one end of the main aviary and slowly bent over a few days keeping the wooden facier wet and fixing it to the roof joints as you go a rope was used at the other end to hold the tension

this board was only fitted to improve the finished look of the aviary and to match the curve of the front wall the facier was made from 8" x 1" planed timber

Inside the Larger aviary this aviary measures 14 foot x 12 foot with the front rounded

Start of 6 inside flight pens measuring 7ft tall x 6 foot deep x 30 ins wide and 3 foot  walkway

Feeding Station from walkway with drop down back so you can feed without going inside aviary

FINISHED AVIARY & BREEDING PENS
AVIARY & BREEDING PENS EXTENSION

Now the winter is here this is the best time to do your work on your aviaries, so with this in mind I decided to increase my aviaries it was decided to add 4 more breeding pens and finish of the unit with a 6ft x 6ft Aviary, work started early December before the freezing weather
We had lots of rain but managed to keep working using a tarpaulin

 

This extension measures 15ft x 8ft you can now see how the new block will look
A lot of ground had to be dug out to keep this unit level, as you can see on this photo, if my garden had been level it would have made this job easy also the December weather did not help.
To get to this point took 5 days hard work , but I think it will be worth it. the unit now measures 31ft across.
From this picture you can now see the extra 4 breeding pens, and far right is the 6ft square Aviary, the outside has been weatherproofed just the inside to paint, this will have to wait now until after Christmas, to get the unit to this point took 2 of us 7 full days.
Below right looking down the safety walkway you can now see the 10 aviaries on the right the measure 30ins wide and 7ft 6ins tall

Below left at the back of this picture you can see the door to the 6ft Aviary

    

Extension After  Painting
6 ft x 6ft aviary Looking down the duplex roof giving plenty of light

   
Fitting a pitched roof to the large aviary To create a small feature
Felt tile roof to match Birdroom roof Fitting a weathervane to the top of the roof
12volt Fence to stop animals from getting near aviary
Stops Cats Squirrels and Foxes from getting on the Aviary roof and disturbing breeding pairs

single 12volt wire around base  Does not hurts pets but they wont touch it twice