The Poly Pipe Fastening Method:

To use the brush in this way you need the following tools and equipment:

Pieces of 38 mm pipe cut at 450 each end and cordless drill and 20 mm screws to attach to the wall. Wire puller and bag ties to secure the bundles of brush and grass.

Here I use a small amount of grass usually green panic and three branches of prickly leaf paperbark (melaleuca stypheliodes) making sure the end result when gathered together fits into a 38 mm piece of pipe.

This should be the end result. You can arrange the pieces of pipe to attach these bundles in any order you like to achieve the desired result, which could be four or five pieces high, or singly across the wall as shown in the above photo.

Prickly Leaf Paperbark
(Melaleuca Stypheliodes)

The above is a photo of the Paperbark I have growing in my back yard. It is approximately eight metre high, and gets a vigorous chop every nesting season. It is also frequently inhabited by Red Headed Finches, White Breasted Pigeons and Crested Pigeons.

It is a definite favourite of the native finches, with up to fifteen nests at a time.

I’ve been into breeding finches before but have always had timber built aviaries with the old asbestos roofing. I don’t want to use these materials again therefore I am looking at a specially built colourbond aviary 4.5m x 2.25m x 2.1m. I am concerned about the heat factor as I live on the Gold Coast. Is colourbond OK or do you have any other suggestions?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

To answer the enquiry about construction of aviaries;

I can’t weld and I don’t know how to use steel, but this does not worry me because I prefer the timber frame with a hardiflex lining on the walls & ceiling with an iron (colourbond) roof.

The advantage is that you can build a very mouseproof interior, with the fibro lined walls preventing pests and predators such as mice and snakes from entering the nesting areas. The advantage of the hardiflex ceiling is, as well as providing insulation from the heat and the cold, it also stops any of the sweating and dripping that is inevitable with an unlined iron roof.

The hardiflex lined timber construction results in (if you are neat with your cutting of the hardiflex and good with a tube of “No More Gaps” and wet cloth) a very draftproof shelter, which is extremely important in the winter. I have yet to see the same effect from steel built aviaries.

I hope this can help you, because I am unable to really compare the two types of constructions through bird keeping and aviary building experience. But from my experience visiting other bird breeders housing Australian finches in steel aviaries, I do prefer the timber/hardiflex finish.

In conclusion, a friend of mine has just built a large set of steel construction aviaries, and has now gone to the trouble of lining the ceiling with hardiflex, mainly because of the dripping factor.

After all this, it all comes down to a personal choice. After all, there are thousands and thousands of finches bred in steel aviaries, so you are not doomed to fail or succeed as a finch breeder purely on the choice of your strutural materials.