Fowl-like aviary for pigeons, will it work?

featherdust · Oct 26, 2022

Hi everybody, I want to ask about something bordering on pigeons and chickens/pheasants/ducks etc. I'm a pigeon rescuer, I take in racing pigeons unwanted by their owners or lost fancy pigeons starving on the streets. I have a few disabled ones, too. I don't breed them - I focus on rescuing and don't want to take up space by letting them having babies constantly. I took in my first pigeon about 2 years ago and in 2 years their number jumped to nearly 30 birds. I built an aviary for them but it quickly became a little bit overcrowded. If this keeps up, in the future I'll end with 100 or 200 ones. Yes, I can build a simple pigeon loft with exits and let them fly free, but I don't want to do this. Many of my rescued birds have an ugly past and all I want to do is to protect them from dangers they experienced in their previous lives. I love each single bird and I couldn't stand their unnecessary deaths. I don't spend my time and money saving them to let them be eaten by random predators.

That's about pigeons so what about fowl? My answer is they're my inspiration for a new aviary. Netting mesh is often used to make fowl aviaries. It's cheap and would let me cover a huge space at a low cost, as shown on the picture(taken from google). Maybe someone here has built this type of aviary? How it works? I plan to use dense net(denser than on pic) as a roof and place a classic dense metal mesh on each side. I secure bottom by placing concrete slabs underground and then I cover them with soil, as I did with my current aviary. I'll add some low and high perches and a few boxes inside to let them hide from rain or snow. I'll also plant some bushes to make them feel comfortable. My main question is: netting aviaries are mainly designed to keep ground dwelling birds so are they safe for more aerial pigeons? I've seen these aviaries in zoos and wildlife centers for keeping very different species, some ground, some not. So maybe it's not as bad? What's your opinion?

sourland · Oct 26, 2022

The only problem I see is the possibility of snow tearing them down - happened to a state run pheasant farm here in NJ.

RoostersAreAwesome · Oct 26, 2022

I’ve seen pigeons kept in aviaries like this, but I have no personal experience with that netting. Thank you for rescuing pigeons! I rescue them too, but I have a smaller aviary and so I’ve been thinking about adopting some of mine out to pet homes once my aviary fills up.

Liz Birdlover · Oct 26, 2022

I've seen those used for pheasants. I thought it might be cool to allow my pigeons more flight room without fear of hawks. I have other predators too, though, & they could chew or dig their way in. So I didn't buy the pheasant pens. I got rolls of the half inch hardware cloth, it's a welded wire, so I don't know why it's called cloth. My birds have been safe using this since 2000. I got 2 foot rolls so I made easy to work with panels, to accommodate 2x8 foot panels, built with treated lumber. I dug 2 foot deep trenches too, entire perimeters of pens, put wire & treated beams in. I don't have bears or wildcats here, thank goodness, only raccoons, hawks, falcons, eagles, fox, coyote, owls & otters, plus the typical chewing mice, so keeping them out is important, too, as they'll make our birds sick. So the wire has kept my chickens & pigeons safe. 2 feet of heavy snow doesn't hurt anything either. Inside the loft I have wood grated flooring, easy to clean, they're 4x4 panels.
I have sections according to age, so the old timers can relax & eat in peace. Some of my pigeons are in their mid 20s, so my setup must agree with them.

I don't race but in Spring & Summer I do open doors & let whoever wants to fly free to do so. Haven't lost a single bird. In the Fall the migratory hawks show up here, so no free flying Fall & Winter til hawks are gone, usually April 15th or so, shortly after Ospreys show up. Ospreys always go fishing so I dont have to worry about them.

I bought my wire & had it shipped. It's been a few years, but these are the numbers I had for them.
Wire Hardware Cloth
[24" X 100' 1/2" By 1/2"]
(800) 947-3626
(973) 328-8718

Hope this helps.