Ramblings of an amateur aviculturist

[Karasu]

I have not kept a journal in some time. Though, when I did, one thing I wished I had was the opportunity for collaboration and company that comes from having some friends around to tell you that your ideas are dumb sometimes. I have a couple projects and some upcoming travel that I feel would be fun to document in some form, and I will take the opportunity to do so on BYC and hopefully make some friends along the way.

As a bit of background, I am interested in raising aviary birds such as finches in addition to breeding bantams to the SOP. I have scaled down my poultry endeavors greatly as I am currently traveling for most of the year and have to enlist the help of others to care for them. I am an engineer by trade and currently work in a research lab, which though not related to chickens, gives me plenty of opportunities to do fun things in the machine shop.

Some of the projects I have planned for the near future are incubator builds. Now, I have done plenty of those in the past, but this time, I'll be pulling out the CAD software and the funkiest parts I have in my workshop. I hope to also refine my design process and create an incubator that's truly customized for my uses and weird flights of fancy such as "hey, what if I had a candler mounted in there?" or "what if I repurpose aquarium parts to increase the humidity during lockdown?" I like to learn by making mistakes, and I make a lot of those, so most of my documentation will probably serve you well if you're looking for a guide on how not to build an incubator.

Feel free to join in with your own projects, thoughts, or simply to say hello.

 

[Karasu]

Here are some photos from my recent trip to Japan. I came across the chicken statue at a Buddhist temple. The duck statue was on a bridge but I'm not sure which bridge because I can't read any of the Japanese writing systems very well.

I was intrigued by their manhole covers. They had unique designs for every municipality and some were even colored, like this one.

 

[Karasu]

Less recent, but here are some birds I photographed at various places across the UK, Belgium, and Poland. Jackdaws, as show in the first photo, are my favorite bird.

 

[TwoCrows]

Stunning photos, thanks for sharing!

Good luck with all your projects and journeys!

 

[Kiki]

Hello.

 

[Karasu]

Stunning photos, thanks for sharing!

Good luck with all your projects and journeys!

Thank you! I see we are interested in the same birds - "Karasu" means crow in Japanese.

 

[TwoCrows]

Thank you! I see we are interested in the same birds - "Karasu" means crow in Japanese.

Oh really! I will have to remember this. AND do some research on Crows in Japan!

 

[Karasu]

Hello.

I bet you're glad I finally made a thread instead of spamming your PMs with my weird ideas.

 

[Karasu]

Oh really! I will have to remember this. AND do some research on Crows in Japan!

I can't speak for the entirety of Japan, but at least in the cities where I was crows are quite unafraid of humans. Everyone keeps their garbage in covered yellow baskets tied to the front of the house. Without this, it would be spread all over in hours.

There is also, if I remember correctly, a large population of jungle crows. They are quite unique in facial structure.

 

[TwoCrows]

I can't speak for the entirety of Japan, but at least in the cities where I was crows are quite unafraid of humans. Everyone keeps their garbage in covered yellow baskets tied to the front of the house. Without this, it would be spread all over in hours.

There is also, if I remember correctly, a large population of jungle crows. They are quite unique in facial structure.

Crows are smart birds, obviously they have never been treated poorly by the residents if Japan if they are unafraid. I am going to look into these "jungle crows", generally crows are opportunistic birds and cities are easy food sources. So jungle crows must know something the city crows don't.