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bugsy · Member Joined: May 06, 2006 Posts: 6

i am actually in the middle of building an avery for my 2 recently bought kaks brother and sis,approx 8 weeks old.
the avery will be built insde my brick out house, with a hole leading into a
flight not yet built.

my Q is should i have a concrete base or leave it how it is at the moment a nice flat lawn i would prefer just to build a couple rows of house bricks around the base of flight and just build a wood flight on top of bricks.

flight size approx 13 foot long by 4 foot wide 6 foot high

yours truly bugsy

Steptoe · Site Admin Joined: Oct 06, 2004 Posts: 4550

For ease of maintaince we use a mortor mix about 3/4 to 1" thick
Where the water trough is located , underneath is a hole with a 20 l bucket (with more holes in). This is dranage...Also as our water troughs are on auto timer, and fill each day approx the volume of water in the trough, the over flow needs to go someware.
The floors have a fall to this piont
A wire mesh covers the hole to prevent mice.

We did have 'dirt' floors orginally...to try out
It was messy, the dampness created worm problems etc
When we concreted the floors after, it was just a matter of approx 2 20 L pails of mortor carried in and spread out, floated off...quick and simple.
We added a quick dry additive to the 1st flight, as we did leave the birds in the avaraies during all this time. NPs occurred
Since then we dont add the quickdry, and concret with birds in even with new flights

This has been done with King crimsions, kakariki, burkes and finches.
And with Kakariki sitting on chicks
Quail we remove...they run around and put little patterns in the concret..if it is not smooth it is harder to clean.

We did get a few large rocks and set them into the concret as well.

We have our concret floors with a layer of approx 5mm pumice sand (after concret has set)
This is raked with a hand leaf rack once a week to remove seed husks, droppings bones etc.
About ever 2 weeks the pumice sand needs a top up of 3 to 5 l.
At about 3 months, we let the sand level to 'get down' Then remove (sweep up) all the sand and replace with new.
Each flight uses about 30 l of sand

We did try ordinary sand, this is far heavier, doesnt rake out debris as well, if gets wet, doesnt dry out very well or quickly (damp= worms)

All the pumice sand is spread out on the deck, and dried in the sun before use. It is also sprayed untill just damp, raked, sprayed again...with a soln of 50/50 vinigar and water before being stored in buckets.

The flights/birds/floors are also mist sprayed once a month with a soln of 50/50 water vinigar

We dont have any mite/worm problems, and cleaning of 10 flights takes about 30 to 40 mins once a week.

I have covered this in more detail and asked, thinking that this may also answer further questions that u havnt thought of yet, and give and understanding of background
Cheers
Steps

bugsy · Member Joined: May 06, 2006 Posts: 6

a concrete base it is then, i will dig out some lawn and get started this week weather permitting, another q the female kak bathes most days,
i have yet to see the cock bathe yet, is this normal both are approx 9 weeks old,
they have not been wormed do they need worming as a rule,
they seem to be very active and droppings seem ok.

yours truly
bugsy

ksue · Foundation Member Joined: Apr 15, 2005 Posts: 270

I worm my guys about ev 6 months but they are indoors I would be worming ev 3m for outdoor birds............Kakarikis LOVE baths.......I would say your boy either just hasnt figured it out yet.....or you havent seen him Wink

Lin · Snr Member Joined: May 30, 2006 Posts: 40

Steptoe, is there any chance of getting some pics of your floor and drainage system? It sounds great, but I just can't quite picture it (not exactly the handiest girl around, I'm not Laughing

)

Steptoe · Site Admin Joined: Oct 06, 2004 Posts: 4550

http://www.kakariki.net/ftopic-11-0.html

Also gallery

Lin · Snr Member Joined: May 30, 2006 Posts: 40

Wow! Look at all your kaks! That is a fantastic setup, you've given me some great ideas, thanks

Kaka-riki · Site Admin Joined: May 30, 2005 Posts: 363

I am interested in why some breeders worm their birds. We have a very qualified avian vet who is AGAINST worming ANY bird with what is basically a pig worming substance. He is of the opinion that it will eventually do more harm than good and that GOOD HOUSEKEEPING will prevent worms in the first place. We have kept and bred Kakariki for over 6 years and NEVER wormed a bird. We have never found any type of worm in any of the birds that been to the vet for various reasons including autopsies.