   | CAGES I've started up with a new shed, 18' x 12'. It has a 10' x 6' flight for all the birds both cocks and hens with a small baby flight. I started up with eight old breeding cages (4 doubles on the back wall as seen in the first photo on the left) and I've built six more in two rows one above the other, using a shelving type method. The bottom left photo shows both sets of cages. The old cages will be replaced along the back wall with 12 more cages also built on the shelving system this summer. The new cages are quite large (about 18" wide, 22" high and 18" deep) and using the shelving system means that each row of cages can be converted into long flights for babies, sales or show teams. BIRD WATCHING I like to watch the birds so I keep a chair in the aviary next to the main flight. Watching the birds everyday means that I get a better idea of what they are like day in and day out, their exhibition qualities and their condition which is very useful when pairing up. EQUIPMENT I keep seed in a large plastic tool case bought from Wickes, it holds about 2 and a half bags. They are easy to clean and they seem to keep the seed well. I have a combined air filter, UV antivirus light and ioniser. I does filter some dust out of the air, but how much effect the UV and ioniser have I would have to guess. For continuous air flow there are six 9" x 3" air vents, three low down and three high up. I've recently added an AirVac from Cage and Avian Solutions which works very well and looks like it will last a long time. An oil-filled electric heater with a timer and thermostat is used (mostly) for my comfort. The vacuum cleaner has a three stage filter with a HEPA filter as the final stage, this means that NO dust is expelled from the cleaner once it has been sucked in. I find that I have to clean the first two parts of the filter every time I use it to remove the feather dust, but this only takes a few minutes and it is quite satisfying to see how much dust has been removed by a few minutes hoovering.  |
