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More aviaries

of Kathy Miller

All of the aviaries on this page are
from the collection of Kathy Miller

These aviaries are all on one side of my
house. The area includes a swing, pond
and stone walkway. This setting is very
overgrown, giving at true tropical jungle
atmosphere. However, pictures are hard
to get.

All of these aviaries have mesh
bottoms. They are easiest to
clean. I however, prefer the ones
with gravel bottom that I can walk
into. I have one with a concrete
bottom and I find that the hardest
to keep clean.

All of the aviaries here are used for
fostering pairs. I have 3 pairs of
zebras in one aviary. The others
have only one pair of societies
plus any recent babies. I find
societies do better if they are
separated into pairs. Otherwise,
they all share the same nest.

I keep the babies with the
fostering parents for 3 weeks after
they are out of the nest.

I only use the fostering pairs for
finches who will not raise their
own babies. These include most
of the rare finches other than
Gouldians. (Most owls, cordon
bleus, some stars,and lavender. I
only have one or two pairs of
Gouldians who will not raise their
babies.

I have become known as the
person who collects old wood.
The swing in this picture was
made from a piece of wood found
in someone's trash. We are still
puzzled as to what its original use
was. A friend came to the door
one day with this amazing find.

The wood from hexagon aviary in
this picture came from an old hot
tub. The pieces were stained
redwood. With a little primer and
white paint, who would know. The
roofing pieces were the sides of
the hot tub. They are interlocking
pieces, thus making it waterproof.

These aviaries are made of 3 by 4
beams. The 1/2 inch hardware
cloth (19 gauge) is made into
screens with a 2 by 2 frame. I
pre-plan the size and have all the
larger pieces cut at Home Depot.
That makes the project easy
enough for us ladies to handle.

Aviaries of

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I do not have a preference
between Zebras and Societies.
They both make very good foster
parents. Zebras are cleaner and
more pairs can be in the same
aviary. Zebras are a little noisier.
My Societies are somewhat more
agreeable to excepting live babies,
rather than just eggs. Societies
seem to continue feeding babies
longer than some zebras, who
want to go right back into nesting
before the babies are weaned.
(even plucking babies for nesting
material.)