The aviary is finally done!
Back in November 2008, we lost our sweet girl Georgie to a raccoon attack at 1pm in the afternoon. Petunia was injured, but recovered. Since then, we’ve been planning all winter for a huge aviary to keep the ducks safe during the day while they forage, swim and snooze. They’ve always had predator-proof night pens, but now they can swim, preen and nap in safety in their new day aviary.
Monday will be the first full day that the ducks spend in the aviary. It is divided into two sections, since O’Malley is a bit of a bitey dinosaur and can really do some damage when he gets angry.
This is O’Malley and Petunia’s section of the aviary. I estimate it is about 350 square feet. They have a big fisher shrub to snooze under, and a pre-formed pond to swim in. There is lots of grass to gnaw on as well.
This is Flapper, Chewy, Sam & Lily’s side of the aviary. They have about 500 square feet including some new duck-proof plants, the larger pre-formed pond and a few nesting areas. Some of their area is muddy right now, because their night pens used to be here. We relocated them to another side of the yard before building the aviary. Now we’re seeding this part with high-traffic grass, so it should be green in a few weeks.
You can kind of see the dividing line in black, for the see-thru fencing that keeps O’Malley the biter in his own area with Petunia.
Flapper is already practicing his nesting next to the new pampas grass.
The aviary is constructed of vinyl-covered chain link fencing that is dug into a deep trench into the ground, so predators cannot dig under it. Then the top is covered with heavy-weight knitted aviary netting. All along the lower 3 feet of the pen is hardware cloth, so raccoons cannot reach through the chain link to grab the ducks. The aviary is also protected on 2 sides by a retaining wall and by the deck on a 3rd side. Under the two gates we have buried 8″ bricks so raccoons cannot dig under the gates. The gates also have hardware cloth on the lower 3-feet (though they didn’t have it yet in these photos). There are padlocks on the gates as well, when we’re not around.
We still need to create an area for the ducks to seek shelter from the rain, especially on Flapper’s side. We also need to take the post caps down and spray paint them black. But the aviary is secure and awesome and I couldn’t be happier, now that the ducks can spend all spring and summer enjoying life in the yard without worrying about predators.
I’m still sad about losing Georgie. It was one of the worst days of my life. I regret letting the ducks roam the yard during the day hours, even though we went over 4 years without incident. I’d take it all back to have Georgie here again. I still have nightmares about that day, and carry guilt over leaving Georgie to suffer such a terrible fate.
There are bright spots now though. The ducks have recovered completely after losing Georgie. They no longer startle easily, and they nap in peace and feel completely safe now. O’Malley loves Petunia and she loves him, too. Flapper and Chewy have grown closer, and we’ve added Sam & Lily to the mix. Sam has a little drake-crush on Flapper, and has decided he is his new good buddy. Lily follows Chewy around and he doesn’t mind a bit.
There is life and love and fun in the yard again, and the aviary will ensure it stays that way. I hereby christen the new aviary the “Georgie Memorial Aviary” for wayward ducks.
The trench enables us to bury the chain link and hardware cloth, so if critters (like raccoons) try to dig under the fence to get to the ducks, they just hit more fence.
