Show me your quail pens!!!

[18angovem]

M

 My Dad is helping me build a new aviary! We have up to 20' by 15' of space and I plan on using every inch! The flooring will be 1' grey concrete tiles, so it drains and is excape proof. I hope on double doors and a small heated area to keep smaller birds happy and dry. But I have one big problem.... The siding. its too expensive to put 1/2" hardware cloth over the whole thing. What can I do??? 

metal siding, like the metal barn siding. You can find that used pretty cheap. But your gonna need that wire somewhere to keep light in. Also, my coop has 3 foot tall metal siding around the edge and then the rest of it is just 2inchx4inch, and that keeps in my jumbo cotournix.

 

[paneubert]

Quote:
Don't you worry about rats/mice/snakes? 2inchx4inch probably will stop a raccoon, but not the smaller guys.

 

[Em Ty]

My Dad is helping me build a new aviary! We have up to 20' by 15' of space and I plan on using every inch! The flooring will be 1' grey concrete tiles, so it drains and is excape proof. I hope on double doors and a small heated area to keep smaller birds happy and dry. But I have one big problem.... The siding. its too expensive to put 1/2" hardware cloth over the whole thing. What can I do???

Go smaller? You could also use solid siding like pallet wood lower down and hardware cloth higher up to provide light and ventilation.

 

[clawstar]

I can make a side or 2 metal like you said 18angovem, our pavilion just got a limb in it so we have lots of that stuff. I would like to put finch in it, so I cant have any small gaps. We also live in the "country" so lots of rats, cyotes, opossems, even bears. Only rats and opossems come close to the house tho. I would hate to go smaller Em Ty, cause I hope on getting lots more birds, and less Cots. Hoping for Vally, Finch, and Doves.

 

[18angovem]

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I can make a side or 2 metal like you said 18angovem, our pavilion just got a limb in it so we have lots of that stuff. I would like to put finch in it, so I cant have any small gaps. We also live in the "country" so lots of rats, cyotes, opossems, even bears. Only rats and opossems come close to the house tho. I would hate to go smaller Em Ty, cause I hope on getting lots more birds, and less Cots. Hoping for Vally, Finch, and Doves.
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Trust me, I live WAYYY in the country. But coons couldn't get through. And the metal is tall enough that rays can't crawl over it. We also have it buried about a foot and a half in the groun. Too small of gaps for opposum. Yes mice get it, but unless your making it out of solid 3 inch steel your gonna have mice. I have ring neck doves in mine and they don't escape. But finches would for sure. If you wanted finches and don't have a huge budget it might be worth it to go smaller...

 

[18angovem]

Quote:
Don't you worry about rats/mice/snakes? 2inchx4inch probably will stop a raccoon, but not the smaller guys.

Rats can't get in because of the tall sides and that the metal is buried. Yes snakes can get it, but I'm willing to risk that. All we really have around here is black rat snakes, and they just sorta mind there own. Have had the aviary for two years and had no privlems

 

[paneubert]

Well my fingers feel like jelly. Hahaha. Who knew it would be so much work to hang wood and staple on some hardware cloth! But I guess this is what happens when you do it all on your own. Lots of lifting and stretching and swearing. Went thru 1,000 staples....and still am not done. Only stopped because I ran out of staples and it started to rain. Have one panel left to enclose. So close! Then it will be trimming some spots that have extra wire and then making it look pretty.



Need to do a little more predator proofing around the lower corners. I have a bunch of 8 by 16 inch pavers and standard sized grey bricks (you can see them in the aviary scattered on the ground) that I am going to place against the outside bottom wood rail of the aviary on all three sides to keep critters from digging under. You can sort of see in one of the photos that I have some hardware cloth coming out from under the lower board on the wide/grass side of the aviary. I will probably bury that at some sort of an angle into the ground before I place my pavers and bricks on top. The other (shorter) sides don't have any extra hardware cloth running out/under, so those sides will really need some good brick work. I will figure something out. I have a ton of extra hardware cloth, so maybe I will dig a trench inside the walls and bury some wire straight down.



Anyway....thanks for looking. I will post more when I have more of this completed.

Ohh....and for those who were following along with my prior posts about this project, I did end up stapling directly into my house siding. I know it is far from ideal....but there was not really a way for me to close off the gaps made by my siding. I did sink a 4 by 4 post as the house side of my door frame, but even sinking that right flush with the house leaves a gap where the horizontal siding overlaps itself. So even where I sunk that 4 by 4, I still ended up tacking hardware cloth to the post as well as the house siding. Similar for the opposite side of the aviary. Even though I tried to sink a post close to the house, there were still unavoidable gaps I had to close with wire. I am not THAT concerned about it because whoever owned this house before me must have gone thru about 7 cable/internet/phone companies. There are so many wires tacked to, or going in/out of my siding. Add to that the exterminator who had to drill a hole between EVERY SINGLE stud on the exterior of my house (thanks carpenter ants!), that means I already had a hole every 16 inches all the way around. So adding some staples in to the mix is the least of my concerns

 

[larbian]

I have not finished this pen entirely. Looking currently for ideas to create a nice habitat. I have bobwhites in the incubator.
The fencing on the bottom is to electrify because I have coon, possum and cats in my backyard at night. I haven't decided what to do with the top because predators can jump on the roof from the tree or fence.

 

[paneubert]

Quote:
I would put some hardware cloth up in the gap between the roof and the frame. Then you don't need to worry about predators crawling in from the roof. Are you going to be accessing this hutch from the back side? It looks like that is where the doors are?

 

[larbian]

Thanks for the comment.
Oh absolutely I am going to close up that gap.

Yes, the doors are in the rear but I haven't come up with a good, inexpensive latching system for those doors. I am trying to stay away from purchasing expensive hardware and raccoons are very smart and can open latches.

I don't have much money in this pen ( $55 for hardware cloth and a few 2x4's and coated timbers ) and kept it as low budget as possible utilizing leftover materials from past projects so I don't want to spend $50 on latches but if I think hard enough and research I should come up with some ideas or suggestions.