Hey all, I haven't been in for ages, sorry large post, am finally back in a house after having been living in the unit for 7 years.
My wife and I bought a 1 acre place out of town in a quiet, low crime suburb, we've bought a large 3.2mx1.8mx1.8m that has the small hole snake proof type mesh and came with a roll of it and all the bird accessories and have finally finished moving so started to work on it yesterday, should have the mods and repairs finished this arvo or tomorrow.
So yay, I can finally keep some jap quails and birds again.
We are picking up a rooster and chook tomorrow and hopefully 2 commercial layers as well if they are still available, the rooster looks like he is a Rhode Island red or Maran, I think the first one due to how much orange he has, not sure what type the chook is as haven't seen any pics of it. We might get 2 ducks off a friend once she has more bubs of the right age.
I'm also thinking of getting a female bantam to hatch jap quail eggs and look after the bubs.
Going to get some jumbo japs and a italian/manchurian golden, not sure what type of male to get or if to get one at all.
The aviary was meshed off in the middle down the length of it, we needed extra room for the poultry we will get so have modded it so as only 1 quarter is meshed off from the rest and has 1 of the 2 front doors entering into that part, that 1 quarter will be for my birds, the other 3 quarters for the poultry.
Have also had to go along the bottom of the frame and zippy tie the mesh to it in the parts where the wire that was securing it had broken, decided to use ties instead of wire for that part as we thought the wire wouldn't take long to rust once on dirt.
Got a few holes in the mesh to repair as well, have set up the feeder that Mel's parents bought up with them, have set up most of the bird accessories it came with in the bird section and have to set up some roof sheeting on the roof over the bird section as the roofing stuff ends at the beginning of it and it is just mesh above for that part. Might as some roof sheeting on one side for better protection from the weather.
We have put it down back in the far left corner with 1 side against the big dog pen fence, we will cut into that side and add in a run with a closeable door to let them out in the fenced dog pen in the morning and put them back away into the aviary for the night.
The fenced dog pen is about 8x10m with the fencing about 6ft high, we are looking to extend the height by another couple of feet and set up shade cloth over part of it for shade for the poultry.
Once we add in the dog mesh onto the 2 fences of the yard that need it we will be able to look at letting the poultry out in the yard rather than just the large fenced dog pen area.
Bird wise I'm going to get some zebra finches again and another Bourke parrot, if not a Bourke then another small quiet grass parrot type breed, I have found some young Turquiose parrots for $35 each so might consider them, they sound similar to Bourkes and can be house with other species of birds like finches etc.
I will post pics of the whole setup and poultry soon.
Here is one of the rooster, he is the type that my wife and I both like the best and a very pretty boy.
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