building paradise for the birds

[jvls1942]

Canadian,,, you should have been one of my daughters,, I "let" them help with everything I did..
and my son , too.. One of my daughters is real hands on.. the younger one , not so much,,
but the opportunity was presented,, like it or not,,
all of my kids went deer hunting , at least once.. then if they didn't like it, they didn't have to go..but I didn't want them to be one of those people who condemn hunting without knowing what they are talking about.. None of my kids took up hunting seriously,, but they all know how to shoot all kinds of guns,,

I got more done on the plucker than I had planned for today,, I am about a half a day ahead of myself,, I can't find my good wood rasp.. hate to buy one just to shape only four 2 inch slots..but...if I have to I will.. that is why I have four of each tool and 84 screw drivers..

I had peacocks for a few years.. they are nice to look at,, I do not mind any of the bird noises.
I don't even notice the guineas when they are noisy,, it would be a sorry farm without any sounds.

 

[birdman55]

My breeding pens are open like what you describe but we move them inside a building for winter. I'm still thinking of placing a tarp on the sides for spring and fall.
Now for the quantity you mention ~ 20 to 30 pens. That is a lot of feeders and waterers. How do you plan to keep the feeding and watering time down to a reasonable amount of time? I recommend having a system in place that you will like and which does not take a lot of time. Then you can spend more time with your birds. Think of an assembly line process.

here is a link to the netting i got. It is black and 2 inches as well.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bird-Nettin...me-Pens-New-/360668927005?hash=item53f98b141d

Heavy Knotted Netting

Black UV Resistant Polyethylene Netting. Double strands weaved at the edges for attaching net. Tightly twisted construction of the strands, therefore less surface area for water and ice to adhere. Approximate Breaking Strength is 85 lbs.

Heavy Weight Netting

2" X 25' Approximate breaking strength per mesh is 75# and the burst strength is 225# This netting is ideal for pens in many ways. It is extremely light weight to work with, easy to cut and will not rust. It is easily fastened with hog rings, staples or nails. Ideal for large flight pens and especially handy for tops of smaller pens due to the ease of cutting to fit. Perhaps the most important advantage is the greater flexibility when birds fly into it. This netting is what you can use with your pheasants that are at least 6-8 weeks old, poultry, ducks, peacocks, or turkeys.

you got the 85pound which is actually stronger then the one I got...(heavy knotted netting)...I believe I got a 25 by 150 foot roll of it..

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Given enough snow and arctic blasts like we had last winter, the net will fall down. But over all I have liked my net. We have used it in so many ways. And yes the birds can fly up into it without breaking their necks. My ducks do it quite often. My turkeys did it a few times and seemed to have learned their lesson.
I really like your pens and their doors. The uniformity will make your job a lot easier. I only have 6 breeding pens along with my other poultry areas. My layer pen is huge and my duck pen is average to large. But that netting comes in handy in almost every thing, from brooding to keeping the flyers safe and contained.

 

[birdman55]

this is true....about the netting..contained and safe....working on cutting the incubator view piece right now

 

[birdman55]

so the whole is cut and first layer of glue is one...waiting for it to dry...I used a dremel saw for the job worked perfect nice square cut




you want to do two applications so you can make sure there is not a glass lip on the top...as you might be able to see there are some spot that didn't ooze out past the edges...these spots I have to fill in when dry.....

 

[birdman55]

My breeding pens are open like what you describe but we move them inside a building for winter. I'm still thinking of placing a tarp on the sides for spring and fall.
Now for the quantity you mention ~ 20 to 30 pens. That is a lot of feeders and waterers. How do you plan to keep the feeding and watering time down to a reasonable amount of time? I recommend having a system in place that you will like and which does not take a lot of time. Then you can spend more time with your birds. Think of an assembly line process.

here is a link to the netting i got. It is black and 2 inches as well.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bird-Nettin...me-Pens-New-/360668927005?hash=item53f98b141d

as to the future watering...I plan on having pvc with chicken waterers (nipples) all run on pressure float valve or gravity...so I don't have to be there for watering...I will draw something up and post about it later.. for the months that are non freezing...the rest of the months I will have thermal bowls...which look like this..they are heated bowls that wont freeze and so far none of the ones im using now have froze...its great

 

[MsPoultry]

Awesome home made incubator and thanks for showing me all the pics in stuff I find incubating extremely amazing and always love to see new incubators and designs so maybe one day I can use the same

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Has anyone used Deer Netting for a chicken run? i was looking at it because it is 7ftX100ft for $18.50. We have dogs that keep predators away and they would not be in the run at night. So i'm thinking it would work and then i could just put 2-3ft high hardware cloth on the outside. i thought the netting would work good for a top too since ive seen a few hawks around.

I used it and its ok but not very strong against winter, or the suns rays. Ours only lasted a season.

Quote: I get the nautical netting 2x2 inch and its outlasted any thing else I have tried. It wont keep critters out tho, but will even keep turkeys in. I use it on the tops of the pens.

 

[birdmansmom]

Looks great! Keep it up!

 

[misfitmorgan]

well im no builder that's for sure..i actually worked in demolition...so quite different but if you rip it down and get to know structures then you can build it...I took a part of Detroit tiger stadium down...that was cool myself and four others got to play ball on the field and the only person other then us that was there was the security...great time...peacocks are small yet and havnt made a sound...so to speak but in a couple of years they are going to be loud that's for sure...doesn't matter cause the neighbors got noisy birds so I figured I would top him..sick and tired of hearing his ones.....so I figured I would get my own...lol....don't get me wrong about pits they can be very mean or very polite...depends on how you train them just like any dog for that matter...you can tell by how society has put them thru every media that we currently have...news internet and so on..for example you can google pit bull attacks and then google german shepard attacks and see how the media has played these creatures...any animal can be mean even a friendly one can have a bad day and turn into something you have never seen....when you look up the stuff on google it is graphic the images you see with the pit then you go to the other and you see law enforcement just training the dog..shows you how society has made each breed turn out to look..see when I first had my dogs they killed the chickens but with time they stopped and now leave all the birds alone...they know those are dads things just like them..
anyways thanks for watching and here is a pic of the last door hung...tonight I will get into the incubator a little bit and explain in detail how I am building it...until then peep ya later.

Very true!! We have Mauler the Dobie....people see him and freak out. He was a trained attack dog, made it thru the phase one of attack/police dog training no problem. The reason he is not a attack/police dog is because my OH was told that if he did not pass phase two he would be destroyed. OH had spent many months training him thru phase one and had fallen in love with the dog so told them no way forget it. So now i live with an "attack" dog who has had his training broken. He does still do some really awesome things and his obedience and patience are the most amazing ive seen in a dog. You can tell people over and over, he is not going to attack you just relax. They don't.

We also used to be part of "underground" pit bull rescues down by flint/detroit....basiclly there are groups that steal bait dogs from people training dogs to fight. Not sure if they steal fighting pits we never took those in personally. People would randomly call the cops to our house all the time because they were afraid of the pits.