Community Aviary Question

[RAREROO]

Hi

I am planning to build an 8x16 aviary ( 7ft high) with a small pool in it and keep it well planted ( even with some artificial plants if needed) and I was thinking that I would like to house a pair of Mandarin Ducks, a pair or trio of Yellow Golden Pheasants, and maybe a couple a pairs each of doves, fantail/fancy pigeons, parakeets, albino chuckar, and maybe some kind of quail. And of those small birds, I was wondering if they will all coexist well in the same avairy ? Remember this will be fairly large with lots of cover and places for them to stay out of each others way and wont be crowded at all, but in general will the small birds species that I listed get along ?

 

[elmo]

That seems like a lot of birds to be in that space to me.

If by parakeets, you mean budgies, they tendy to be fiesty and don't get along very well with other birds. We can't let our budgies out when any of our other birds are out. Our ringneck dove hen is fine with other birds (unless she's nesting), but the male is agressive.

I don't keep any of the other species so have no information about them. From what I recall reading about this subject, species that inhabit different levels of an aviary tend to do better together than those that compete for the same space. You've got quite a few ground dwelling birds in that list.

You might try posting your question on this forum:

http://www.gbwf.org/phpBB3/index.php

A lot of the people there keep community aviaries and could give better advice.

 

[First To Hatch]

Sounds like a bad idea... 7 x 16 is probably just a perfect size for the trio of ringnecks not all those other birds even if you do have cover. The fantails can't fly to well and would get attacked and killed by the pheasants. The parakeets will kill the baby doves. The chukars will fight with the pheasants and ducks. And the quail will hate there lives trying to hide and probably die as well.


After saying all that, I do know of one guy that houses some bobwhites mallards, chukars and pheasants together, but he he raised many, many batches of those birds to find extremely docile pair or two to accomplish housing them like that, those birds would come up to him at the same time to be fed. Like I said though it took him a lot of time and money to find the birds he was looking for.

 

[RAREROO]

Ok Thank you all for the advise. The pheasants, ( who were Yellow Goldens by the way, not Ringnecks), chuckar and quail could easily be eliminated from that list if need be.

The main things I am wanting in there are the Mandarin ducks and doves and maybe a pair of fantail pigeons and no more than 4 bugies, but the doves would out number all of them since I can get more of them and cheaper.

And between the doves, pigeons, and budgies, which ones reproduce the fastest and how many times a year and how large are their broods and such ? I'm not particualarly wanting a whole lot of breeding and new birds hatching all the time.

And before I try anything new in there I will make sure I have somewhere else to put it if it doesnt work out, I know to research and have a back up plan if something doesnt work out ya know. I wont try to keep anything in there if its not happy.

Thanks again.

 

[First To Hatch]

I think you should eliminate the parakeets from the list because they'll kill the baby doves.

 

[RAREROO]

Quote:
OK Will the doves and pigeons get along ? Is it possible for them to cross breed ?

 

[95yj]

NO CHUKARS! They will kill everything. Other than that it sounds really beautiful, but i'd decrease the number of birds. Remember the mandarins, pheasant, and quail will be mostly ground birds where as the doves, pigeons and budgies will mostly perch higher, though doves are ground feeders and will often spend alot of time on the ground. You may want to consider keeping either pigeons or doves, i'v mixed doves and pigeons with *mixed* success. Usually the fancy pigeons are alot easier going and will do alright but the more utility breeds may cause issues. I kept a bunch of show russian tumblers with a few ring neck doves for awhile with no issues, on the other hand i had a white homer that broke out of two fairly secure cages (cleary not secure enough) and killed one of my doves. He literally just tore at the neck until he broke the skin and they bled to death, this happened on two occasions. sorry i was so graphic but i just wanted to show everyone what can happen. But after that i did keep the russian tumblers with the same doves because the tumblers kept knocking their waterer out of the way and getting into the doves any way. The doves/pigeons and the parakeets will need different style perches, the doves should have flat perches, they may use rounded ones too but they need flat ones anyway, and parakeets use rounded perches i believe. try using natural sticks for parakeet perches. I also might suggest that instead of parakeets you get cockatiels, their just a little bit tougher, but they also might beat up on the other birds, or try diamond doves, because they can outfly the other birds. I would start the aviary off by putting in either the goldens or the mandarins and then you can slowly branch off from their, don't throw all the birds in at ounce. For planting I would use bamboo, its amazing stuff, the pheasants won't be able to kill it, it makes great cover, and it looks wikid natural, i have a bunch in a few of my aviaries and it makes them look so much better. The pond might be alot of work but if you can manage it it would probly be worth it. Your also going to have to feed a couple different types of food, gamebird feed for the quail, pheasants, and ducks, and some kind of seed mixture for the parakeets, doves and pigeons, i'd put the seed mix up high (3-4 ft. where you can easily reach it) so the gamebirds down low can't get to it. Hope i didn't just tell you a bunch of stuff you didn't already know, and i'd love to see pics as you get closer. good luck.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Yellow Golden males can also have a bad attitude!
I raise Racing Homers & Jombo Brown Coturnix together without any problems.

 

[RAREROO]

Quote:
Thanks for your input.

The doves would be the first things I put in, and then the Mandarins if I have some by then. I know the pond is going to be challanging but it will be raised above ground and the ground will be built up to it, and I will have a plug to drain it and I plan to have a big " behind the scenes" biofilter to filter out the duck waste. I am also hoping to keep a few large koi in the pond, with the Mandarins being small ducks and if I have large koi the ducks shouldnt be able to hurt them. I will also try to have the entire grownd covered with gravel or large wood chips, no way id try to maintain a desent looking pond if the ducks had access to dirt. BTDT I may have a small sand pit for the birds who need grit and like to dust.

And yes I would have it looking as nautral as possible with reall tree branches and limbs and flat perches for the ones that need that, and differnt feeding levels. I already have a really awesome avairy planned out, and I may end up trying everything I listed at one point, but like I said, I wont keep anything that isnt working well with the rest of the group.

And another thing, what about finches? Should they be small enought to stay away from everything else and too small to bother anything else ?

 

[95yj]

If you got finches then you'd be forced to use hardware cloth, because they can fit through hex wire, other than that they'd probably get along, maybe give them some specific hide spots. Also, be careful with the pheasants and quail around the pond, they aren't very smart around water (or in general) and may fall in and drown. I have a friend who lost a ringneck pheasant this way, and i ounce set up a display cage at a fair with a pond and my pair of goldens and the male kept falling in.