The Aviary

It has been a few weeks since my last blog. Unfortunately I do need to prioritize things in my life, with Uni, the animals, my lovely husband, the property, general administration and the things life throws at you, and general house keeping. If I have the time and I am not completely exhausted, I may have time to write in this blog.

 I am in week 4 at Uni and my mid semester exams are fast approaching, so obviously I spend a lot of time studying. I probably should be spending more time studying to be completely honest.

Over the past few weeks however, my Jimmy and I have been building a huge aviary in the yard for the guinea fowl and it is finally starting to take its form, and I must say, I am rather happy with what we have done.

We have attached an old van to the aviary and are in the process of stripping it and converting it into a coop for the birds. We have around 40 birds - chickens, ducks, geese and our beautiful little guinea fowl that I am very fond of.

 Here are a few progression photos of the aviary and our trials and errors along the way:

This is the beginning of the project and it was a bit of a flop. We soon found out that the piping was not strong enough to hold up the shade cloth and chicken wire. So we changed our plans a bit and used wood.

As you can see it is slowly getting there. I think it will be ready for us to put the guinea fowl in next weekend if I can manage to get enough study done throughout the week.

Looking at the structure, I have come to the realization that when it is not used for guinea fowl, it can also be used as a sort of greenhouse. The shade cloth will protect the plants from the elements and the fact that it will be fully enclosed would mean that the chickens and all our other naughty birds will not be able to get in and eat them all.

I have also realized that I can use it as a place to herd the alpacas into, if I need to catch them for any reason. Such as to shear them, or to just give them a general health check. I also want to halter train them, so this structure will make that task much more manageable.

So once we have finally built the aviary it will be a wonderful multipurpose enclosure for all of our furry/feathery friends and for our gardening needs.

It is very exciting for my Jimmy and me. This is the biggest thing we have built so far and I am so very excited for our guinea fowl to have a bigger enclosure. They will not be staying in the aviary forever. It is just for a 6 month period, so that they can make our home their home. That way they will stick around and I can start breeding them next spring. :D