could you "free loft" the bird in the weathering area? put up latace, then put aviary netting like a foot away from the latace.. would that work to free lof the bird inside the weathering?
OK, finally it stopped raining so I could put up my shade cloth on the wethering area. If you look at page 5 of this wethering discussion, you will see what the wethering area looked like without the shade cloth. I sent Wolf a couple of after photo's with the shade cloth installed. I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out and I know I will appreciate it even more once we start getting those 100 degree days. I searched around and finally went with a company called Green.Tek in Edgerton, Wi because they advertised that they were 1/4 the price of anyone else. I had the piceses coustom made and with the shipping it was $189. They were much cheaper than anyone else. I could have done the job by buying the material at Home Depot for about $125, but, this is so much nicer with the taped and sewn edges and grommetts that were professional installed. Every thing was above my expectations and well worth the extra money. When you look at the pictures, keep in mind that I wanted to block the view of the people riding thier horses. I don't want people knowing when the eagle is in or out of the wethering area. We have had cases where people have gone into back yards and released birds. That is why I had the shade cloth made to come all the way to the ground.
The center of the top is still an 8 x 16 foot opening. And the front that faces my house is also open. The sides that I covered were the sides {east & west} where the sun came directly in. I free loft the eagle in it and he can fly from perch to perch. There is also a big tree stump right next to the bath pan for him to sit on. There are a couple of low block perches for him. Now I just got to get the rest of the grass to grow in there.
I really really like that weathering... I've heard that if a wire is thick enough and black/dark color, a bird won't fly into it (at least that's the way it is with lures
I don't have a problem with the wire and him getting hung up. He has hit it a couple of times when a bird lands on it. I also put the shade cloth on the inside of the wire on the sides, so he will hit that before he gets to the wire. He is freelofted and flies from perch to perch. He has gotten pretty tricky lately and flies from the low log {near the bath pan} towards the far perch and about halfway he circles back to the other perch. 99% of the time he sits calmly checking out the neighborhood. My wife and I even sit inside with him freelofted and drink our coffee. He has never made any attempts at us. He is extremely calm towards people and as long as you respect his feet, he doesn't mind being handled or touched. He is really good about letting me put the transmitters on and off of his tail. I have to reach up and move the body feathers away from the mount and then slide the transmitters in one at a time.
I should add that the eagle is freelofted in the weathering area, but, every night I put him in his chamber where he is freelofted also. I do not leave him in the weathering area at night.
Very nice Raptrlvr. I was hoping to add a weathering are this spring. Don't know if I will be able to get to it though. Too many other side projects need doing and the money only goes so far. One of my projects is building some Quail pens for raising. The other is possibly adding a second chamber to my already existing mews. My son has been seriously considering taking up falconry and a second chamber will be needed if he does. Worse comes to worse, when I turn General next year I will have a second chamber for a 2nd bird if I wish. My mews (frame design) is constructed alot like yours. The only thing I wish I could have done different was to make the front of the mews the high end and the back the low end so the water would roll off the back and not in the front where the entrace is. My wife had a fit when I showed her how I was going to build it and she strongly denied my plans. She insisted that the front be the low end to look more like a cottage. She felt that if I built the high end facing our yard that it would look like an eyesore. I agree, that it does look better the way its built but its not very practicle. I will have to add a pea gravel bed in front to keep it from getting muddy. Back on topic. Somehow I'm wanting the weathering area to shoot off the left sid of the mews. (refer to tanaro2 mews pics) I will probably only get a 10 foot width but plan on making it 25 feet long. I read that It was better to have more length than width. Most likely it will be 10 ft high. Since the mews is a lean too, and I'm coming off the side, I will face the problem of connecting to the mews with a 10 foot height where the low end is 8 ft. I have some ideas but I don't want the cage to be higher than any part of the mews since it would look ridiculous. My goal is to make a double swing door where I can open the top part and allow the bird to go in and out at will. Of course this is assuming she takes to fencing well and doesn't try to fly into the wires. Hopefully she will be like your bird and respect the barriers once she realizes she can't get out. If not, I will tether her and she can enjoy the outdoors that way. That wire is pretty damn expensive though. If I could buy just one roll for 40 bucks that would be fine. But I would need at least 3-4 roles to cover it all. Oh, the trials and pains of a falconer.
My weathering area is 16 X 24 X 8 foot tall. It is made with 4 X 8 foot panels on the side that bolt together. If I want to extend the length or the width, it can be done by making more 4 X 8 panels and bolting them in. The roof/top are panels that are 4 X 16 feet and I would have to make extra panles to go in there also. The double door system is 4 X 8 panels and unbolts from the rest of the structure. This makes the weathering area completely removable and easy to trasnport to another location. Not exactly easy, but can be done.
actually, no. I couldn't put a gutter up. The reason being is that the overhang frame work is off. I used 2by 6's for the frame work of the roof and not all of them,,, uh, should I say aren't exactly even with one another. I never said I was a good carpenter. You actually can't tell but if I were to hang a gutter it wouldn't attach correctly.