I have now started to build the bank of cages which will forum part of the internal flights. These cages are quite easy built, basically it's just an oblong carcass with a center shelf for the body, and add the frames to the front. With the frames fitted I only have to pop the cage fronts it.
Next I need to fit the runners for the sliding partitions and give the whole bank a good coat of paint, I use vinyl matt as an under coat and a gloss as the finishing coat.

I have now painted the bank of cages and positioned them in the shed, still not quite finished yet! They still need sliding trays made for the base and perches put in. I will only be using these cages, as over flow cages, the main bank of breeding cages will be on the other wall. I can now start to build off these cages; I intend to build three internal flight cages here, one for the cocks one for the hens and one for the offspring. As you can see I have made the front panels for the flights, at the bottom of each panel I have made a sliding door so I can feed the java's from here rather than enter each flight. My wire mesh has just been ordered; hopefully it will be here next week. Next I need to build each separating partition with a door so I can enter all three flights. Each flight will be 31" wide and 5 foot long, plus the height of the shed. All of these flights will have access to three external flights in the not so distant future.

Attaching the mesh to the framework takes a long time, I was lucky this time, a friend of mine has an air stapler, which I borrowed for the weekend. I had all the mesh put on in one day with this tool, (I have added it to my Christmas list) As you can see on the photo on your left, all three compartments are finished, I only need to put some bolts on all the doors. What I have done what you can not see on the photo, is make 3" holes in the back of the top row of cages, this will allow me to work in the flights and catch the birds I need for breeding, I only now have to move the flap and I can post the birds into their cages from the flights. The photo on the right is showing what the flights look like from the back. The ledge you can see where my tools are, will be used to feed the Java's from, this is where the sliding door opens.

I am hoping to have my Java's in here next
weekend/midweek. This will be phase one completed!
Phase two will be to build the wall of breeding
cages apposite these flights. The third phase will
be the out door flights.

My Java's are now in their new flights, before I could transfer the Java's over I had a lot of bits and pieces to do, each flight door needed two catches on so I could lock doors behind myself when entering the flights, also the shed windows had to be covered with a mesh panel, so if a window was broken I would not loose my Java's. One of the most important things I needed to build was a wire door, so when the shed door is open no birds can escape or any cats can enter the shed. I also needed to fit an extraction fan, linked to a time switch, also fit an intruder alarm. Each flight needed perches; I used hazel branches (well twigs) as these grow nice and straight, ideal for perches. All the lights are fitted to time switches and the red night-light stays on all night. It's lovely to see all the Java's out of their cages and having a good fly round. I have now been inspired to quickly finish off the bird room with the bank of breeding cages; this will then make the bird room complete.

At last I have started on the breeding bank of cages, the photo on the left is showing the base of the cages, this will have storage underneath for all that bird junk we seem to accumulate, this will have drop down cupboard fronts on when I have finished. The photo on the right is showing all the cage floors in place, all I have to do now is screw the frames to them (see the frames at the top of this page) fingers crossed I will be breeding in here in November

Had a busy weekend, managed to get all the frames fitted to the shelving, also glued in the blocks of wood for the plastic channel to sit on. I have also extended the worktop from the sink to behind the bank of cages; under this worktop I will keep my tubs of seed, plus the waste bin. This time I have wall mounted my heater, this you can see also under the worktop. The shed is now looking more and more like a bird room every week.

Sorry I forgot to update last week, let's catch up.
I have now fitted the cupboard fronts to the base of the bank of cages; I have sealed these fronts with wax to keep the wood look about them, as I don't like everything looking white. To save some time later I have made all my perches ready to fit in the cages, I use 2" x 2" x ¾" blocks with a ½" hole in the middle, plus two small countersunk holes so I can screw the block to the back of the cage. The hazel twigs are held in place with a screw on the under side of the block, so when I need to change the perch I just undo the screw, and pop a new perch in. I like making my perches this way because when I take the cage fronts off, my perches don't fall down.

Photo on the left is showing how I put my perches in. I cut two bits of hardboard to the height and width away from the cage sides, then cut out a square equal to the perch blocks. This cuts all the hard work out when fitting the perches, as you can see place the template in the cage, standing on the floor and leaning on the side, this will put the perch the same height in all your cages, plus it holds it while you get the first screw in. the second photo is showing my breeding bank nearly complete, I just need to finish off the trays on the bottom of each cage. See also how each cage has the perches, all looking identical.

I have now finished all the sliding trays for each cage, I needed 24 handles for the trays, the cheapest I seen was £0.89, way to expensive (£21.36) instead I used a screw in eye for £0.04 and a key ring for £0.10, they work very well, one on each end of the trays, also big enough to get your finger in to pull the tray out, what I do like about them is, I don't have sticking out handles that get in the way when opening nest boxes. (Photo on your left)
Now I have 12 breeding cages, I needed to make an extra five more new breeding boxes up, as you can see from the photo, to copy these boxes and see all the dimensions see my build a nest box page (click here)