aviary for a single male harris

[Raseni]

I have planned to build my aviary soon, starting in a week or two.
The measurement I have in min are 16x10x10 feet. LxHxW.

I was thinking of making the back and one side closed, and half the top closed.
The front will be facing the fields and the forest I have right next to me, so he can keep an eye on everything and not get to bored.

Maybe even make 1/3 og the front closed, so he can find shelter from the rain, snow etc.
I also plan to make an indoor aviary for him(for the cold winter months), but I only have room to make 10x7x7 feet, but I hope that will do.

How does this sound?

regards
Rasmus

[Hawkmaster]

Sounds fine to me. Do you have a double door system? you can maybe use shutters on hinges to close the bars up in real bad weather?

Paul

[Hodgesargh]

Looks like a good plan & Hawkmaster's comments are excellent.

The only problem that immediately comes to mind is a 10 ft high aviary. If you need to catch him up at fat-weight and he's hanging from the roof you could have a bit of a problem. (I speak from personal experience :oops: )

[Hawkmaster]

A net with a long handle will do the job, but the benefits of the height will be very good.

[Sean]

I remember reading (think it was one of johnny bravos posts0saying that an avairy to big can cause teh bird to go territorial. I was making my avairy 8x8 but could if i wanted make it 10x10 or maybe even 12x10

[Hawker29]

i have an aviary about that big for my two harrises its ideal but as Hodgesargh says its murder getting them back after the moult :axe: funnily enough my M Harris is actually a bit territorial and i never put it down to the size of the aviary cheers Sean, :D

[Raseni]

the size I want to build my aviary in, is what is required as a minimum for keeping medium sized raptors here in Denmark, so if I want is approved, I need to build it that size.
Moult time, I will still only feed off the fist as my mentor does.
His hawk is not so keen, but still comes when he sees the food.

regards
Rasmus

[Rob Redtail]

My aviary is 25ft long x 10ft wide x 8ft high the length helps to keep them reasonably active during the moult they come out fitter for the start of the season, in the flying season i partition this across the middle to keep them apart , unfortunately i only have another one that is 10ft x 12ft x 7ft high for my redtail when it comes. when the chickens have gone ( when they stop laying that is ) i'll have enough room for another one at 24ft long x 10ft wide x 8ft high hope thats going to be enough...lol. R'gards Rob.

[MickeyDredd]

With a bird such as a male harris it is sometimes better not to make the aviary too long. Usually the aviary will be wire-fronted with access from the closed end.

During the moult the bird will usually get a bit wilder, although continuing to feed off the fist may help counter this.

What can happen is you enter the aviary from the door end and the fairly fit mhh (due to aviary size) will head straight for the wire end building up a bit of speed (due to aviary size) and crash head-first into the wire, usually with resulting cere damage.

Just something to bear in mind when thinking about a large aviary for a quick bird like a mhh.

With regard to aviary height, I'm 6ft 2in and my aviaries are 6ft 6in high therefore its one less direction for the bird to evade me as I catch it up during/after moult. :)

[Rob Redtail]

I don't mesh the ends only part of one side and the roof and they love to bounce off the ends and back onto the perches :lol:

[MickeyDredd]

Trampolining for harris's :lol:

[Raseni]

I thought about making my entrance to the aviary front the open front, and not from the back, so the hawk can see me when I come.
BUT, I am still making a foodhole from the sealed backside of the aviary.
I am also planning to make a entrance one of the cealed ends, so I have both.

The porbs. is I do not have any options for the measurement of my aviary, as the law requires the obove states measurements.

But my mentor has never encountered any problems, but I guess you also make you handling, so that it is suited to a large aviary, ex. feeding off the fist during moult.

regards
Rasmus

thanks for all the comments, nice to see so many helpfull people.. :-)