Super cheap dove outdoor aviary?

[LamarshFish]

Chicken wire is surprisingly fragile. Hardware cloth is much stronger. I use chicken wire on my extended "paddocks" (500 square feet or more) double layered, but it is kept very taut. I use hardware cloth on all my coops and runs though.

Interesting, I didn't know how fragile it was, as I use hardware cloth on everything, because I just can't justify that marginal savings from using chicken wire, and I always had known tiny wild birds fit through it.

Food for thought though, if animals can indeed chew through chicken wire, I'd think the more taut it is fastened the easier it would be for them to chew through it because the wire doesn't give at all. An extreme example of the concept would be that it is more difficult to puncture a half deflated beach ball than an over inflated beach ball. Or, I supposed more relevantly, if I wanted to saw through chicken wire, I would pull it tightly over saw horses or something, as the looser it would be the harder it would be for me to make my cuts.

 

[RiverOtter]

Interesting, I didn't know how fragile it was, as I use hardware cloth on everything, because I just can't justify that marginal savings from using chicken wire, and I always had known tiny wild birds fit through it.

Food for thought though, if animals can indeed chew through chicken wire, I'd think the more taut it is fastened the easier it would be for them to chew through it because the wire doesn't give at all. An extreme example of the concept would be that it is more difficult to puncture a half deflated beach ball than an over inflated beach ball. Or, I supposed more relevantly, if I wanted to saw through chicken wire, I would pull it tightly over saw horses or something, as the looser it would be the harder it would be for me to make my cuts.

They don't cut or slice through it, they either dig at it with their paws or they grab it with their teeth and pull and shake. So tighter is better - they can't get a grip.

My beagle could tear through chicken wire and my golden could easily shred 2 x 4 welded wire with his paws. For my 90# shepherd, anything less than really tight field fence or chain link might as well not be there

Hardware cloth is good not because it's strong, but because it's hard to get a tooth or nail in to. If it's loose and a coyote can get a grip on it, it's gone.

 

[LamarshFish]

They don't cut or slice through it, they either dig at it with their paws or they grab it with their teeth and pull and shake. So tighter is better - they can't get a grip.

My beagle could tear through chicken wire and my golden could easily shred 2 x 4 welded wire with his paws. For my 90# shepherd, anything less than really tight field fence or chain link might as well not be there

Hardware cloth is good not because it's strong, but because it's hard to get a tooth or nail in to. If it's loose and a coyote can get a grip on it, it's gone.

Interestingly and coincidentally enough, I spoke to a guy the other day who had some meth head who had like 5 pit bulls (presumably for fighting), and one of them got out and chewed through his chain link fence. I had to stop and make him clarify "CHAIN LINK" because I found it so unbelievalbe, and he indeed clarified that it was chain link. That was a new idea to me, I was shocked that any canine is able to chew through that thick of galvanized metal.

 

[RiverOtter]

Oh, heck yeah! The only reason my girl has never so much as tried to go through it is because she knows she can go over it. We used to live where feral dogs were a huge problem - like, roaming, breeding packs of feral dogs. My GSD knows it's her job to keep my animals safe. I once watched her pick up a 40# dog (who had ripped through some older field fence, and was attacking my goat), throw it over my 4 foot fence and then go sailing after it like she had wings. (It hit the ground running and I called her off)
It was an impressive demonstration that we forget just how STRONG animals are, because most of our interactions are with domestic ones, and most domestic ones really are just good.

But yeah, most boundaries that we put up are there to make it just hard enough for predators to remember that messing with human things is a bad idea and not worth it

 

[purslanegarden]

Have you picked on a design, OP?

You say aviary but for the short-term, they could live in a coop-style setting, on some wooden legs. That is basically a box with chicken wire / hardware cloth.

It would give you time to come up with something more permanent.

 

[Hokum Coco]

cheap way yo build an aviary for less than $100?

It is my experience cheap methods usually end up as cheap eyesores If price was no object I am sure you landlord would not mind this.

 

[laughingdog]

Lamarfish, working for years at a vet clinic, and more yesye in rescue, I've seen many dogs pull chew or chomp through thick heavy chain link and metsl bars/door and frames of cages routinely.. usually mastiff breeds like German Shepherds and rotties. On cheap caging, coroplasty.