Weathering area?

[Minca]

raptrlvr said:

He has a contractor friend that is doing the work for beer so, it should be put together right when its done. Or maybe not, depending on how many beers he drinks.

LOL
I guess I missed that the guy who owed you was your neighbor..... So he's doing the whole thing? It's looking real good so far.

[raptrlvr]

Minca, we are going to try and finish it next Sunday. I thought I had all the material bought, but, the guy is really doing it right. He has laser levelers and is double beaming the door jams and stuff I never even heard of. So I'll go back to Home Depot the next couple of days and purchase the rest of the material. Should be nice when done.

[TheMeanPitBull]

hey rptrlvr that mew and weathering is really awesome man i wish i had enuf money to make one like that really good work he is doing i bet the bird is gunna love it what kinda wire is in weathering area?

[Minca]

It sounds pretty exciting. I'll bet when they're done there's gonna be some zoo's that'll wish they had enclosures like yours! Ya oughta get that bumper sticker that says Home Depot: My Toy Store.

[raptrlvr]

I think the wire is called "hog wire" It has 2 inch by 4 inch openings. We bought the wire in a roll of 100 feet and it took 3 rolls to do the job. We clamped the 4 foot x 8 foot panels to a table and then we used a come-a- long to strecth the wire tight before spot welding the wire to the panel. I'm not paying for this project and like you, I could not afford it if I had to pay for it.

[raptrlvr]

spent the whole day working on the mews. We got the chambers built and the rafters all installed. We also put in the window for my work area in the mews. I haven't cut the windows in the chambers yet and the doors still need to be installed. Oh and the roof needs to be bought and put on. We will be using the sheet metal roofing panels. The guy who is building this is such a perfectionist. I would never have put it together this well. I f anyone wants to see picture's of the progress today, email me amd I'll send them to you.

[raptrlvr]

Just about finished with the mews. We put the roof on and hung the doors. I finished the bar windows and today we started on the trim around the outside doors and windows. I still have to put door handles in and line the bottom of the chambers with wire mesh before putting in the pea gravel. I will find out tomorrow what the sod for the weathering area is going to cost. Then I have to build perches and ledges inside the chambers. After being inside the chambers on a very hot day, I decided to cut a couple more bar windows in the chambers for better ventilation. Later on, I will probably build one more chamber with all the extra space that I have left inside. Once I get this done, I will take pictures and post them on this site. We have figured that it cost $2100 {approx} for the material for the mews and about $1000 for the material for the weathering area. Of course that doesn't include the labor.

[raptrlvr]

The eagle spent a couple of hours freelofted in the weathering area today. I put 2 perches in there and he flew from perch to perch and didn't hang on the side wire at all. I put him in there again tonight after I fed him on the creance. I am still working on the weathering/mews area , but, it is getting close enough to being done that I will probably put the birds in there tomorrow and then finish the little things as I go along. Today I water sealed the whole structure, finished the trim around the bar windows and built one perch inside the mews for the eagle. Tomorrow I will build the perch for the falcons chamber.

[raptrlvr]

I finished the chamber for the falcon on Tuesday and the falcon spent its first night in the new mews. I am still going to go back and cut another bar window in that chamber to get better ventalation. I have to be careful where I put that window, because it is on the side that people can see into it. I will probably cut a long small window near the top so they won't see the falcon. The falcon seems to love its shelf perch near the top of the chamber and then there is another perch directly in front of the bar window. I finished the chamber for the eagle today and tonight will be the eagles first night in it. I still have to trim the bar window and put up some shade cloth and a few other things. But both birds are in it tonight. I will post pictures and figure out the final cost and let you know.

[raptrlvr]

Well, the mews/weathering area has become another unfinished project. I have both birds in it and I have stopped doing things that should be done to finish it off. It has been in the 100's here and I took a part time afternoon job with FedEx. I still need to put sod in the weathering area and shade cloth on the east and west side. I am going to build another chamber inside the 12x 24 that is already built. I also haven't found the water and power lines that I know are buried out there. We built the mews/weathering area where I used to have my horse stalls and I had water and power for the horses. I just can't remember where I capped the pipes off so I am digging holes trying to find them. The final cost of the mews {wooden portion} was $2242. I would guess the metal portion {weathering area} would be between $1500 and $2000 at least. One of these days when I finally get it finished, I will post some pictures.

[raptrlvr]

Worked on the mews a little today. My wife planted a few centanilla {sp?} plants under the windows. These plants are supposed to be natural insect repelant plants. I dug up the yard looking for the water line and finally found it. The PVC pipe was about 3 and 1/2 feet deep and has been in the ground for over 20 years. In the process of digging around the pipe, it broke. So I had to shut off the water to the back and tomorrow I will get a trencher and trench around the weathering/mews area for the water line and lay the new pipe. I also found the electricity that was buried in the back. I should have water bibs and electrical to the new housing by the weekend.

[raptrlvr]

Decided not to rent the trencher because it was $100 to rent it. I dug trenches a little each day in the blazing heat. I live on horse property and the ground is decomposed granite {DG}. I had to soak the ground for a day and then use a huge breaker bar to break through the top layer of DG. That took about 4 days. I then laid out all the PVC pipe. I ended up putting 6 water bibs in the mews/weathering area. One in each chamber, 2 in the "office" for future use. I capped those off for now. I put one in the weathering area for watering the plants and maybe a mister for the birds and then one on the back of the mews for the area between the fence and the mews. It was well worth it today when I didn't have to hand carry the water into the chambers to give the birds fresh water. I plan on making one more large chamber in the "office" for the eagle so that is why I put an extra water bib in there. Next is the electricty.

[morganf]

I live in a suburban area, I worry about my future raptor to... My pets live in the garage (like my small ones, chinchillas, and rats) And when we clean there cages in the front yard, you know using soap and scrub brushes and such, we take a break and go inside and then go back outside... sudden the neighborhood kids are in our garage!! It gets me so p/oed, they think they own the place! I'm gonna put up this sign i think www.themodernapprentice.com/mews_sign.jpg maybe i'll get one of those fake video cameras and put them on the roof corners

[raptrlvr]

After months of putting things off, I purchased {$189}the shade material for the weathering area. It wasn't exactly as I ordered it, but, it will do. I started putting it up today and things went good on the east side, but, when it was time to put the west side up, the wind picked up making it impossible to do right. So I decided the wind could help me put up one section of the top. I put the west side up because the wind blew from west to east and it was easy once I got the west side hooked up and then the wind blew the material towards the east and that made it real easy to hook it up. I am going to have both sides {east and west} completely covered and the top will be covered on the sides with the middle section of the top {8 X 16} open. I am also leaving the front section open because that faces the house and the sun doesn't shine that way. My electrican friend came over this last weekend and we are going to run the power out to the mews in the next couple of weeks. Its 160 feet from my pool to the mews. I don't want to spend a lot of money because I have bought a house in New Mexico and I am planning on moving there in a year and a half. I will be able to take the weathering area with me, but, the wooden mews will have to stay. Got any falconers who want to buy my house out there? I sent some pictures of the shade cloth to Wolf to post. You will also notice that I put plywood over the front bar window in the mews. I have the new eagle in that chamber and he is still to nervous to be around the other eagle. As soon as he calms down, I'll take the plywood off and the two can see each other when one is in the chamber and the other is in the weatering area.

[alex2]