BIRD ROOM
I have now built a new bird room and have all of my stock in residence, it is not quite finished one or two final touches need to be added. The new place has a 6m frontage and 3.5m front to back. The roof has 50mm of king span between the first and second felt layers, this is called a warm roof system. The final layer is red mineral felt. I decided to fit 3 roof lights rather than windows, this enables more choice when setting the interior out giving more continuous walls. The exterior walls are made from 20mm exterior plywood with white PVCu cladding. The interior walls are lined with 50mm king span. The whole of the interior is lined with 15mm white contiplas. I have replaced the two tubular heaters with an electric panel radiator set at 15 degrees. The lighting in the breeding area is two 1.5m fluorescent fittings with daylight tubes plus two red night lights dimmed down to around 12 watts each. In the flight area I have two 1.2m fluorescent fittings with daylight tubes plus one clear night light dimmed to around 12 watts. I have a sink unit with cold running water. The floor is covered with vinyl.
Bird room Block of 16 breeding cages with nest boxes
I have a block of 16 breeding cages made from white contiplas, each cage is 60cm x 40cm x 40cm with plywood partitions trays faced with plastic for easy cleaning. I use the box within a box type nest box fitted inside the cage this gives more room to walk around the room and less chance of bumping into them, plus you do not get dust and dirt on top of the nest box. When I examine a particular box I just pull out the inner and place it on my worktop. I do not use a concave in the boxes just 50mm of gold chip. I find that this helps to keep the chicks feet clean and there is hardly any chance of pulling a toenail from hardened droppings. There is storage underneath my breeding cages where I keep all of my show cages. I also have a block of 12 breeding/stock cages made in a similar manner but without trays.
Block of 12 breeding /stock cages 750mm long Sink unit plus flat panel radiator
Hens flight Cocks flight
Both flights are made from timber and covered with plastic for easy cleaning. the doors shown are temporary until my aluminium doors have been made.