This book lays out a good set of plans for starting small and working your way up to as large a breeding operation as you like. I am adept at building small animal pens, and I've been doing so for several decades, on a hobby basis. I was still impressed with the simple brilliance of this book.
Potential purchasers of this booklet should be aware that the author is very serious about his birds. What he considers a "quite small" aviary, "for the aviculturist who has only restricted land area for his hobby", measures 11 by 16 feet. A "fairly large" one is 38 by 24 feet, complete with concrete foundation, plumbing, heating, electric lights, and 12 foot ceilings.
If, like me, you are looking for ideas for a small backyard aviary for a few canaries, you should look elsewhere. This publication contains plans for only 6 aviaries. Four are far too large for the average suburban lot, unless you are willing to knock down your house first, and the other two are so rudimentary that plans are hardly necessary.
Exceptional plans, better than what I expected.
I needed a means by which to build aviaries for my birds. I have built one out of the book, and it is great. I'm most impressed with the bird "hospital" cage.. It works exactly as described. My first impression when I received the book was not that great. The drawings were clear, directions clear, but I guess on some level I expected something more than what looked like a college study packet from Kinko's. The designs in this book and the subsequent modifications I've made to them to fit my needs have been outstanding. One needs only a modicum of building expertise, a knucklehead can put the designes together. Highly recommended... again, this is coming from someone who has actually built items off the plans in the book. It's not a glitzy book, but doggon functional.
