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I have a steel aviary. Eight foot long. Four by six. I'm bolting it to a slab and a mains wire will keep the badgers away. Rat wouldn't have a hope in hell. In there goes my bantams.

I figure to put concrete blocks in there. 17" x 8.5 x 8.5. Four either side, toward the back. That offers me a base, 17" tall and a yard back to front. That's to be the base of my night box. Off the ground for various, obvious reasons.

What's next? What ye reckon? Positioning of nest box? Roosts? I have a couple of 11.5 x 8" air vent grills here. Will they be enough? I can get more. I also have an 8" x just short of 4' sheet of perspex, for a window I can look through, at the back. Looking at making said box out of ship lap.

Any of you lads with them care to chime in? Any tips? The door comes to mind. I'll make the whole front openable. (Two  doors?) I'm thinking about their pop hole though. What's the best design there, please?

I'm probably missing something obvious to you experienced guys? :)

 

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6 minutes ago, Ken's Deputy said:

I have a steel aviary. Eight foot long. Four by six. I'm bolting it to a slab and a mains wire will keep the badgers away. Rat wouldn't have a hope in hell. In there goes my bantams.

I figure to put concrete blocks in there. 17" x 8.5 x 8.5. Four either side, toward the back. That offers me a base, 17" tall and a yard back to front. That's to be the base of my night box. Off the ground for various, obvious reasons.

What's next? What ye reckon? Positioning of nest box? Roosts? I have a couple of 11.5 x 8" air vent grills here. Will they be enough? I can get more. I also have an 8" x just short of 4' sheet of perspex, for a window I can look through, at the back. Looking at making said box out of ship lap.

Any of you lads with them care to chime in? Any tips? The door comes to mind. I'll make the whole front openable. (Two  doors?) I'm thinking about their pop hole though. What's the best design there, please?

I'm probably missing something obvious to you experienced guys? :)

 

Find my bantam like to roost hight up in coop , mash no bigger then 25mm then don't have to lock up if bird flu lock down comes again , thay like dust bath to , easy birds to keep but alot do go broody so if you get a cock bird to can hatch some out to when hens want to sit ?

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:icon_eek: Fukk me! See? This is exactly the sort of thing even you chube has so far failed to provide me. When ye said " High Up ", I was thinking;

'Okay. Four foot. Minus the height of the bird. How much head room do they need to safely get up there? '

I was envisaging the guts of three foot!

Thanks!

 

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Mine liked to roost up quite high4/5 ft off the ground I set my perches..I used to clip one wing so they could get up off the ground if needed,they would wander about other plots in the day, always back in the shed of an evening ?

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Get you self a bag of Damascus earth or how ever you spell it , I got 15kg of amazon was cheapest put some in a old wasing up bowl for them to dust in and sprinkle over the perches ones a week to keep mights away I also do mine with ivermectin twice a year 

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:good:I know just the stuff ye mean, VFR. 'DE'. Diatomaceous Earth.

Fukking brilliant idea, giving them that for a dust bath! :wallbash:Simple, obvious shit like that, see? Enough times now, I've thought, 'Oh, yeah! Dust bath ..... Hmm. Well, maybe it'll dry out a bit, round here. Some time.' Or, 'Err ... I'll cross that bridge when I come to it ...'

Excellent! All birds with one stone. I even know of just the right, very heavy weight and stable, drinker bowl that'll live under their box. Nice and dry :)

I'll be off to Amazon shortly :D One more thing under my belt ~ or stored and waiting in my back room!

Thanks!

 

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1 hour ago, Ken's Deputy said:

:good:I know just the stuff ye mean, VFR. 'DE'. Diatomaceous Earth.

Fukking brilliant idea, giving them that for a dust bath! :wallbash:Simple, obvious shit like that, see? Enough times now, I've thought, 'Oh, yeah! Dust bath ..... Hmm. Well, maybe it'll dry out a bit, round here. Some time.' Or, 'Err ... I'll cross that bridge when I come to it ...'

Excellent! All birds with one stone. I even know of just the right, very heavy weight and stable, drinker bowl that'll live under their box. Nice and dry :)

I'll be off to Amazon shortly :D One more thing under my belt ~ or stored and waiting in my back room!

Thanks!

 

I keep that stuff in an old protein tub on top of the cupboard...few weeks ago I blended a load up  by mistake with full fat milk?

Not had an itchy ring since??

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Cheers, Tank :good: Ye know, for some unfathomable reason, perches over covered nest boxes have fukking escaped me all this time! Must be something I saw on yt and stuck.

Utilises air space. Keeps roosting birds out of sight of anyone in a box. Box top holds the shit for an easy wipe off. I can't see a problem.

Priced up ship lap, yesterday. That's okay then. Cost me a nice, round ton for the three sides. Front'll be planks, because there'll be a lot of fukking around going on there.

Top'll have a waterproof lid. Bottom? Planks again, I'd guess. Wouldn't want it 100% sealed.

Watched some lunatic, on yt, last night. Looked like he'd thrown a load of scrap pieces of rotten ply at a wall and called it nest boxes!

Mumbling away like fukk too. I couldn't understand a word of it. His set up was otherwise lovely and clean though. And he had these dear little bantams to die for! :D

Here it is! Those dear little birds! :boogy:

 

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On 28/04/2022 at 20:15, Daniel cain said:

I keep that stuff in an old protein tub on top of the cupboard...few weeks ago I blended a load up  by mistake with full fat milk?

Not had an itchy ring since??

You'll be 20 stone for Christmas now mate ?

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