Size of gos breeding aviary?

[Jack Merlin]

What is the ideal size of a breeding aviary for parent reared goshawks? I need to build an aviary and it might as well be constructed with breeding in mind if I ever go down that road in the future. Any ideas?

Jack

[Shaun Byrne]

Are you looking at the MINIMUM size Jack?

[Jack Merlin]

Well, I suppose if I'm going to do it, might as well make a good job of it. But money is the usual limiting factor! Mind you, if I happened on a load of secondhand box profile I might just push out the boat.

Jack

[Varmint]

Hi Jack,

My mates project was very successful for a long number of years and although i personally dont breed Gos's i can tell you that he had Hexagonal Aviaries made of Plastic Coated steel profile sheets framed on 4x2 and they were approx 50ft across, lots of natural cover and even some small larch tree's.

He had 4 which interlinked with each other by way of a sliding door in the wall of each, but to be honest, he kept M and F together 24/7 for a number of years with no probs!

Any one living in the Peak district will know the two brothers i am reffering to!

Great Aviaries, and very happy birds.

Sounds like a recipe for success anyway eh?

[Jack Merlin]

I heard one successful breeder uses one of those open topped shipping containers! I visited a falcon breeder and his aviaries were very small. I was amazed. But maybe they were imprints? I certainly don't intend to build anything very big, so probably as small as I can get away with.

Yes, I understand about seggregating male and female and getting the timing right. But that doesn't really concern me at this point.

Jack

[Finnish]

Ideally you need two aviaries joint together. One bigger than the other,reason you only have one bird in the small aviaries. The female will start in the small one,but will end up in the big one with young hopefully. As for size i am just building two new aviaries now the small one is 8 x 8ft and the big aviaries is 8 x 12ft both about 6ft high.