The Best Aviary Top?

Okay well I love netting, but I am starting to wonder if it is the right choice. I know I haven't tried toprite or 3-T netting yet (both of which many seem to recommend), but I am starting to even question why netting is always the preferred choice for peafowl pens? I know that everyone says it is safer on the birds because they just bounce right off of the netting when they fly into it. Although, I have noticed several people who use welded wire tops. I also know of two cases where a green peafowl aviary had a chain-link fence top and sides. The reason why that is a big deal is green peafowl are good at flying and can get easily spooked so of all peafowl to have netting you would think they would need it the most??

So what happens when a peafowl hits a chain link or welded wire aviary top? Often when I have to catch up some of the peafowl, which I do in my smaller pen, they will fly into the fence. The fencing of that pen is thicker and sturdier than welded wire and they don't get injured when they do that.

Also, I noticed several people using horizontal wooden beams to help support their netting. I would have thought a peafowl could fly up and hurt or kill themselves on that? Or is that another option I should think about if I still go with netting?

Finally, I don't know how many of you have a tree growing in your pen, but when we first finished my pen there were a few trees inside. I also planted clumping bamboo. All the plants grew and got really pretty and grew through the netting and I liked the looks of that because it made the netting seem even more like it wasn't there until the netting really wasn't there!!! The trees are not doing serious damage but what is doing serious damage is the bamboo! The canes have plenty of room to grow through the holes in the netting but I guess since they sway so much they have torn the netting. I didn't realize it until recently. I looked up at the bamboo and I was like, "Wait, is the netting not there?!" I realized that when you get right up to the bamboo and look into the center of the clump, the center has created a huge hole in the netting. The peas of course can't reach the hole because of the bamboo blocking it all, and thankfully the bamboo is evergreen so it won't die in the winter, but still I know that is NOT good for my netting.

I want to have a balance of being able to grow plants through the top without worrying about it creating holes. I also don't want to have to worry about my peafowl hitting the top and killing themselves. Oh and I have a small area where the catch pen connects to the aviary and that portion uses a welded wire top instead of netting. There is a tree growing through it and while the tree is growing through one opening making the opening bend just a tad, the tree is forming around the wire instead of messing it all up.

Thanks this is just one of my greatest concerns is finding the right setup.

I have poultry fencing on top of 2 of my runs, they bounce off it and its a little more coon proof. The thing is, with a large run, netting is much easier to install and takes a lot less infrastructure than anything else I can think of. I have 1/2 of one of my poultry wire topped runs covered with tarps to give them outside space in the winter and rain protection. I haven't been able to keep it taunt enough so the rain doesn't collect on top and it gets real heavy real fast,no matter how I do it I end up getting wet draining it off and the snow piles up as well. It may be that if a bird did get caught in it, the netting would "stretch" easier, releasing the bird, but i've never yet had that happen. I have a mulberry tree in my new run but haven't got the netting up yet, I hope when the tree grows it doesn't rip the netting, I thought it would just grow through.

Minx,
I have poultry netting on mine and hate it LOL. Deerman had wire, the welded wire. He told me not to use it cause the birds can damage themselves on it. I think the wire is what I would do next only cause snow is a damaging thing up here and can level a pen overnight. I see my birds fly up and then they are hanging by it's neck and I wonder what would happen if I was not home? Then I wonder how many times it has happened when I was not home and the bird survived. I do agree that I would use netting for green peas. My netting is only a couple years old and it too is tearing. They do not last as long as the seller stated LOL My netting is about $300-400 to replace but I do have snow if that makes a difference?

I use chicken wire, have had it on one pen for 4 years , my free range birds get on the pen so i can't use netting like some folks but i love the chicken wire.

PS i purchased more chicken wire for my other pen and it cost 45 dollars for a 36 by 150 foot roll

Yoda I was thinking that too about Deerman having wire tops and beams going across. I would hate to lose a bird to the top although while the netting has never harmed my birds, it does catch poor little birdies. Just this year 3 birds have gotten tangled in the netting and died and all in the same area of the pen. I always help birdies if I see them stuck in the netting, but I found all of these birds dead and not alive.

Zaz is the chicken wire plastic coated? Here within a year chicken wire will rust.
At Bird Man's his birds are almost always ontop of the pens instead of on the ground so I can see what you mean. He uses chicken wire but has to replace if often. He did say that the coated chicken wire lasts forever and he would use more of that but it is really expensive.

MinxFox said:

Yoda I was thinking that too about Deerman having wire tops and beams going across. I would hate to lose a bird to the top although while the netting has never harmed my birds, it does catch poor little birdies. Just this year 3 birds have gotten tangled in the netting and died and all in the same area of the pen. I always help birdies if I see them stuck in the netting, but I found all of these birds dead and not alive.

Zaz is the chicken wire plastic coated? Here within a year chicken wire will rust.
At Bird Man's his birds are almost always ontop of the pens instead of on the ground so I can see what you mean. He uses chicken wire but has to replace if often. He did say that the coated chicken wire lasts forever and he would use more of that but it is really expensive.

Click to expand...

Nope and it is not rusty any place, matter a fact some of it is reused from another project so pehaps there are different kinds with better coatings cause we have morning due just about every morning here as we are close to the coast.

Hmm I was wondering about that...when my dad's friend built the tin shed for my pen he must have used some other kind of welded wire because all of the welded wire on the rest of the pen is rust free while the wire used in the shed is rusting.

I think there may be different kinds/ grades cause i remember when i first got my peas the breeders pen had chicken wire and it was rusting, i always get my wire from the same place and i have to go back next friday if DH is off and gets some more cattle panels, i will ask them if there is a difference in brands cause i got this chicken wire sitting in a reuse pile and none of it is rusty just wrinkled up from being pulled off of something else.
If there isn't a difference the only thing i can think of as to why mine is not rusted would be that it is never used in an area where leaf litter can sit on it

Thanks hopefully there is a difference.

The chicken wire I have that has rusted is on the sides of my peachick pen. It was new when we put it on there but after maybe 2 years it has started getting all rusted.

I asked the same stuff on the GBWF forum and one person replied saying that even with a metal top the wind action on a plant will make it destroy a metal top. I don't get severe wind here although if another hurricane comes there might be some serious wind.

They also told me if possible instead of placing posts directly into the ground I need to first put in concrete that the posts will go onto or into so that they will last much longer. I don't think my peafowl will be at my Grandma's forever so maybe when I finally have my own home and start to plan a more serious bird setup I can use much more concrete. One of the new perches is concreted into the ground and I do like the concrete.

Anyways, back to the aviary top...I do agree with something FBC said once about my netting...He said he thinks I have it pulled too tight. I am looking at photos and it does look like I should keep my netting looser. It has gotten tighter and tighter from the netting breaking in areas and having to fix it thus tightening it.

Netting seems to be popular in zoo aviaries. I think for some they use a very thin wire mesh netting. Here are some photos I took at the Jacksonville Zoo of the fencing they use in one of the aviaries. They use it for the top and the sides. It looks like mini chain link fencing. It would be cool to use something like it but I just don't know where you get that or if it is really expensive.










Maybe if I go to the Jacksonville Zoo again any time soon I could ask about who made their aviaries. Maybe I can find out on zoochat...

EDIT: Wow...I actually found the builders or mesh creators for several of the Jackonville Zoo's exhibits such as the aviaries...Here the are:http://www.athruzcages.com/portfolio.php It says it is a vanishing coil mesh. Interesting sounds expensive!

There has to be a difference then cause i have a partial roll i get out forget about it for a month drag it back in the barn, later on decide it might work, it don't, again i forget it out on a pallet in all kinds of weather and this has been going on with this one partial roll for at least 2 years and it ain't got a speck of rust, years ago i purchased some cheap livestock panels ,some of them rusted to pieces over and 8 year period and others are still here because they were made of a different metal even though they were from the same company and looked exactly the same.