aviary/pen thread :D

[broody rooster]

Hey everyone! i want to see your pens, aviaries etc and see the different features so i can have some ideas on how to do one in a little while my biggest concern is how you put shade and do you have a bottom with dirt and grass or other plants growing or concrete, solid bottom and how you did it! the more pics the better thank you!

 

[Roy31]

For the floor I put down newspaper so weeds can't grow then river gravel about 2 inches deep then sand 2-3 inches deep. This keeps the floor very clean and you are still able to plant some plants. For the shade my aviary is more in the back with trees so the only time it doesn't get shade is early mornings. You can probably put small plants for them to lay by or depending on how tall you make your pen/aviary, you can put a dwarf tree and keep trimming it.

this was during fall, I changed a few things in it.

 

[broody rooster]

wow that looks great! do you clean it often? or is there a filtration system? how many of what do you keep? do you ever have squables of nesting places and if they breed do you leave babies in care of the parents ?

 

[copperduck]

Funny I seen all those ducks and that was the first thing I was gonna ask is what do u do to keep the water clean? Your pen looks awesome!!!! I just bought a UV clarifier hope it works and I found out the ph level was to high and that was another reason for all the green water

 

[broody rooster]

uv like ultraviolet? that kills bacteria i think right? sorry im a real noob at this kinda thing

 

[Roy31]

For the filtration I have a skimmer with a filter pad and a UV clearifier, it works amazing! And it kills algae so the water is more clear. I have cleaned the filter pad every other day which is fine but I have recently started cleaning it every day which is just a quick spray down on it and it makes a huge difference in water quality. As of right now I have mandarins, wood ducks, and cinnamon teals. Just a pair each. They don't really fight to much over nesting areas but they do like to fly over and look in then leave. I take the ducklings when they hatch because they can get through a 1 inch hole fence.

 

[broody rooster]

do you put older offspring in the aviary as well?

 

[copperduck]

What size pump are you running? I'm running a 3200 and my tube is 1" my uv is a 20watt for a 3000 gallon pond but my pond is only 700 gal so I just hope the water isn't pushing to fast through the uv tube?

 

[Roy31]

To answer @broody rooster question, I am currently working on an add-on to the aviary to house the offsprings till the are sold and will be able to open or close it of from the aviary so when the offspring are sold I can open it up to the ducks I keep. As of right now I will be putting them in a dog kennel until the add on is finished. I can put them in with the other ducks but I feel like it would be to much stress and over crowded with all of them in there.

My pump is about the same size yours is @copperduck. I first ran that pump to the UV clarifier but to much water was going through to fast so it didn't work. I had to get a smaller pump to go to the UV clarifier and the bigger pump now goes straight to the waterfall. Since I made this change its been a dramatic difference to the water clarity. Look at your UV clarifiers max gph and stay below that, mine was 1000 gph so I got a 800 gph pump.

 

[copperduck]

Good to know thank you